Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have been engaged in a particular war: that of burning money. While in other parts of the world that means bringing AI into the conversationin this battle we are talking about two countries that compete to see who builds the tallest skyscraper… wave most ostentatiously unnecessary megaconstruction. Now they have engaged in another fight: that of hyperconnecting.
And, curiously, they share the goal of being the hub between East and West in the age of artificial intelligence.
SilkLink. It’s funny how things work. If one of the countries announced a skyscraper, the other unveiled a larger one. Both countries have the money for punishment and are focusing efforts on improving their digital infrastructure. Saudi Arabia made its move first by revealing the project SilkLink next to Syria.
This is a 4,500-kilometer-long fiber optic network worth about $1 billion that will aim to position Syria as the ideal route for data to cross between Asia and Europe. The name is a nod to the Silk Road, that historic ‘silk road’ that China is reviving with another objective: dominate the world market.
WorldLink. But of course, if Saudi Arabia opted for the homage name with SilkLink, the Arab Emirates directly pursues its ambition with its project. Something more humble in costs, “only” 700 million dollars, but ambitious in name: WorldLink. Like its neighbors’ project, it is a fiber cable that will have two phases: a submarine one from the United Arab Emirates to the Iraqi peninsula of Al-Faw, and then another land section to Iraq.
The money comes from private entities and it is estimated that it will take about four or five years to complete. Once done, it will be one of the arguments for the UAE to become one of the most important centers of AI and digital infrastructure in the Middle East. The same thing that Saudi Arabia is looking for, wow.
An unexpected actor. These cables also share something: they will alleviate the load that already built cables support because, in this excessive rise of AI and data centerscomputing power is as important as the speed at which everything is transmitted. And something curious is that Iraq, with these facilities, is positioning itself as a stable corridor after decades of conflict.
If until then the most famous road was the ‘highway of death‘, they are now building one to connect Al-Faw with Türkiye. In a development plan of more than 17 billion dollars are also other efforts to improve connections, such as the Al Faw port which will allow the country to increase its loading and unloading capacity in the Persian Gulf.
Middle East 🤝🏼 AI. The project website itself emphasizes the benefits that WorldLink they will have as much for Iraq as for the region and for the world. The improvement in regional integration stands out, but above all being a tool to attract investment. What investment? The one you are imagining: OTT platforms, hyperscalers and… data centers.
If a region has space and energy to unleash plans to build gigantic data centers (apart from China, of course) is the Middle East region. It is a goal that is not new and it has already been spoken of billion-dollar investments by companies like NVIDIA or AMD, and this commitment to new transmission cables is one more step to build that future.
Middle East 🤝🏼 all. But it is no longer just artificial intelligence: it is anything. WorldLink’s ambition is to be the catalyst for other segments such as cloud servicesthe digital economy and entertainment. In fact, like almost everything in the technology sector, there is no stitches here and an improvement in communications in this regard is in line with what Emirates is following.
What are we referring to? For example, the billion-dollar purchases they are making recently to position itself as a major player in video games. First it was Electronic Arts for 50,000 million, now they negotiate by the creators of one of the most successful MOBAs for mobile phones for another 7,000 million.
We will see if they achieve their goal, but as we said a few lines ago, in the competition to burn money, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have no competition. And on the cables, the two shake hands pointing that all the investment made in this sense will be beneficial for both.
Images | Maritime, Francesco Bini
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