UAE Pledges €40 Billion For Germany, Part Of It For Data Centres Of Up To One Gigawatt

The United Arab Emirates has pledged to invest €40 billion, about $46.5 billion, in Germany, announced during the first state visit to the country by an Emirati head of state.

President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan was received in Berlin on Thursday with military honours by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who had issued the invitation, before meeting Chancellor Friedrich Merz. The visit runs from Sept. 9 to 11. Streets were cordoned off and flag-lined, with large numbers of police deployed.

Part of the money would pay for data centres with a capacity of up to one gigawatt, according to Berlin, and an "Investment Council" is to be established to strengthen business links between the two countries.

What the two sides said

"The UAE invests for the long term and builds partnerships that endure," said Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, the UAE's industry minister and Adnoc group chief executive. Germany, he said, had been an important strategic and economic partner for decades, and the additional investment reflected an ambition to invest in that relationship.

Lana Nusseibeh, minister of state at the UAE foreign ministry and a former ambassador to the United Nations, had said before the visit that it would produce announcements and multibillion-euro agreements across investment, business, technology, AI and energy. "At a time when the international order is under strain, partnerships like that between the UAE and Germany are essential," she said.

Gulf states have become a significant source of capital for the global AI build-out as they seek to convert energy revenues into technology assets. A gigawatt of data centre capacity in Germany would be a substantial addition to European compute.

The trade relationship underneath

The commercial base is real but lopsided.

Germany's non-oil bilateral trade with the UAE reached $15.51 billion last year, a rise of 14.15 percent from $13.59 billion at the end of 2024, according to the UAE's foreign ministry. Emirati exports to Germany rose by more than 50 percent and re-exports by more than 17 percent over the same period.

German figures describe the same relationship from the other side: merchandise trade of roughly €13.26 billion in 2025, comprising €11.39 billion of German exports and €1.87 billion of imports. That is a ratio of about six to one in Germany's favour — which is the context for large percentage increases in Emirati exports from a small base.

Some 7,684 German companies were operating in the UAE in 2025, 35 percent more than a year earlier, and 102 scheduled flights a week linked the two countries as of August.

Germany, the largest EU economy, supports talks towards a European Union free trade agreement with the Emirates.

The same day

The pledge was announced on Sept. 10. On the same day, Algeria severed diplomatic relations with the UAE, accusing it of "provocative and hostile acts" and closing its airspace to Emirati-registered aircraft.

Those two events are unconnected, and no one has suggested otherwise. But they describe the position the UAE currently occupies: courted with military honours in one European capital while being expelled from another country's diplomatic register on the same afternoon.

What was not on the schedule

Human Rights Watch called on German leaders during the visit to publicly raise the UAE's human rights record and its role in regional conflicts.

No joint press conference was scheduled between Merz and Sheikh Mohamed.

⚠️ Those two facts sit next to each other and the copy draws no line between them. Joint press conferences are routinely omitted from state visits for reasons of protocol and scheduling, and neither government has explained the absence of one here.

In the Sudan war, the UAE is widely accused of arming the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. It has repeatedly denied the allegation.

The energy thread

This is the second high-level meeting between the two governments this year.

Merz visited the Gulf in February, days before the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran, opening a war that remains unresolved more than six months later. During that trip, RWE and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company signed a memorandum of understanding covering LNG imports over the next decade, one of three agreements overseen by Al Jaber.

Gulf states have long bought defence equipment from Germany, and have shown interest in start-ups producing drones for NATO deterrence against Russia.

What to watch

Whether the €40 billion is committed capital or an intention. Berlin described it as intended investment. The Investment Council is the mechanism that would convert it, and its remit, membership and timetable are the details that matter.

Where the gigawatt goes. A data centre programme of that scale needs power, grid connection and planning consent in a country where all three are contested. Site selection will be the first real test.

Whether the EU free trade talks move. Germany's support is stated. Whether a state visit and €40 billion accelerate negotiations that have run for years is a measurable outcome, unlike most of what was announced.