THE DATA CENTRE INTERVIEW
Partnerships from Siada to Chillblast Pauls emphasises that“ no organisation builds an ecosystem alone”. The Siada facility is the clearest expression of that approach, and Paul is specific about the commercial structure behind it.
“ Rather than asking AI companies to source their own compute,” he explains,“ we built sovereign frontier AI infrastructure directly into the ecosystem. Live, operational, running on UAE soil under UAE jurisdiction from day one. Not a referral. Not a preferred vendor agreement. Infrastructure that solves a real problem is integrated into the same environment where founders build and scale.”
Tenant decisions supply a second measure of the model.
“ Chillblast, the UK’ s most awarded PC manufacturer, chose Innovation City as their gateway for GCC expansion,” notes Paul.“ That is a hardware company with deep technical credibility, built over decades in one of the world’ s most competitive markets, deciding that this ecosystem is where they plant their flag in the region.”
Controlling the infrastructure of intelligence Looking to the next 12-18 months, Paul returns to ownership of the underlying capacity and reaches for earlier infrastructure cycles to make the point.
“ Every transformative technology in history has been shaped not by who invented it, but by who built the infrastructure that allowed it to scale,”
“The countries that succeed won’ t regulate less. They will regulate with greater clarity and longer-term vision”
Paul Dawalibi CEO Innovation City
he says.“ Railways did not just move goods – they determined which cities became economic centres and which ones did not. Electricity did not just power machines – it restructured entire industries around whoever controlled the grid. The same logic applies to AI.”
He closes on what he sees as the consequence:“ Sovereign AI infrastructure is not a regional story. It is a global reckoning. The countries, ecosystems and institutions that build trusted, sovereign compute foundations now will not just attract the next generation of AI companies. They will shape the rules under which the AI economy operates for decades.
“ That is the race that is actually under way. Most people have not realised it yet.”
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