On Tuesday, he held a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida to announce a promised $20 billion investment in U.S. data centers from fellow real estate mogul Hussain Sajwani.
But $20 billion is an awfully big number for a billionaire worth just over $5 billion, by Forbes estimates.
Sajwani says he plans to invest $20 billion over four to five years to build data centers in eight U.S. states—Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas.
He’s planning to spend more outside the U.S. too, pledging to invest $3 billion for new data centers in Southeast Asia plus more than $400 million in Spain.
Microsoft announced last week that it was on track to spend $80 billion on data centers for AI in 2025 alone.
The U. A. . D. Will the real estate tycoon and Donald Trump friend, who has a track record of extravagant marketing and bold projects, be able to provide the $20 billion promised? Hussain Sajwani makes his case from Mar-a-Lago.
By Forbes Staff Member Giacomo Tognini [1].
Even before he returns to the White House, President-elect Donald Trump is making headlines and closing deals. In order to announce a promised $20 billion investment in the United States, he hosted a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Tuesday. S. . data centers belonging to Hussain Sajwani, another real estate tycoon. The latest foreign billionaire to announce a high-profile deal with Trump since his election victory in November is Sajwani, a property developer based in Dubai and a longtime Trump business partner. Last month, Masayoshi Son of Japan, the founder of the investment firm Softbank, pledged to invest $100 billion in the United States. A. the following four years.
Why is Sajwani interested in it? It’s undoubtedly a means of gaining favor with Trump, with whom he has previously done business. plus the explosion of AI. “After researching the market, we believe that this is the ideal moment. On a video call from a wood-paneled room at Mar-a-Lago, where he has been spending the last nine days, Sajwani, 71, told Forbes on Tuesday afternoon that there is a great demand for artificial intelligence. We look forward to the next four years and believe the new administration will be more pro-business. “..”.
Sajwani had been considering investing in U.S., he told Forbes. S. . data centers the previous year, but he made the decision to move forward with his plans following Trump’s election victory in November. He claims, “We hoped to see a more amiable administration.”. “I talked to [Trump] when I got [to Mar-a-Lago] for the new year, and he was in favor of the plan. “,”.
Elon Musk, another billionaire Sajwani met at Mar-a-Lago, has been with Trump since the November election and was also appointed by Trump to co-lead a new advisory group called the Department of Government Efficiency. Sajwani claims to have invested up to $2 billion in American startups and private equity firms since 2022. This includes investments in Musk’s SpaceX in 2023 and his artificial intelligence company xAI last year.
Sajwani calls Musk a “legend and a genius.”. With the updated valuations, we have made three to four times our money in less than two years on some of his companies that we have invested in, such as SpaceX. “.
Yet, according to Forbes, $20 billion is a ridiculously large sum for a billionaire who is only worth slightly more than $5 billion. His 100% ownership of Damac Properties, the upscale real estate company he established in 2002, accounts for the majority of Sajwani’s wealth. In its resort communities in the United States, Damac constructs golf courses and sells upscale villas and apartments. a. A. Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and London.
As we complete those projects, “Damac has sold fairly well in Dubai over the last four years, and a lot of cash will be coming out of escrow in the coming four years,” Sajwani says. Funding for the data centers will come from some of that money.
Internal financial statements provided to Forbes show that as of June 2024, Damac had approximately $51 billion in cash and bank balances, mostly from the sale of upscale real estate in Dubai. Revenues for Damac increased to $1.04 billion in the fiscal year ending in June, up from $689 million in the same period the previous year, and are expected to surpass the $2.04 billion recorded in 2023. And with $142 billion in total sales in 2024—27 percent more than in 2023, which had previously set the record—Dubai’s real estate market had yet another stellar year.
The investment will be made through Edgnex, his data center business, which he founded in 2021 and which is a division of Damac. Sajwani says he intends to construct data centers in eight U.S. states for $20 billion over four to five years. S. states: Texas, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Arizona, and Oklahoma. He says his company will contribute $7 billion to $8 billion of its own funds to help finance that expenditure, with bank loans covering the remaining two-thirds, though he does not specify which banks will provide the funding.
For over ten years, Trump and Sajwani have been acquainted. When we reached a deal for the golf course in Dubai in 2011, our relationship [with Trump] officially began. Sajwani, who initially collaborated with Trump to introduce a Trump-branded complex of opulent villas in 2014, says, “The chemistry clicked and we became friends more than partners.”. Trump claimed in a press conference shortly before his first inauguration in January 2017 that Sajwani had offered him $2 billion for multiple business deals in Dubai, but he had declined. Trump’s sons Donald Jr. and Eric followed a few weeks later. attended the golf course’s opening ceremony at a Damac development in Dubai that bears the Trump name.
Every villa bearing the Trump name has been sold, Sajwani claims. In 2017, Damac introduced four-bedroom villas at The Trump Estates Park Residences, which sold for just over $800,000. However, prices in Dubai have increased since then. BelAir at the Trump Estates, another project Damac launched under Trump’s name and looks to have just been finished, is now selling rooftop terrace villas with a starting price of $4.06 million.
The two entrepreneurs have a shared taste for gaudy advertising. Sajwani has teamed up with companies like Versace, Fendi, and Bugatti to sell opulent villas and provide benefits like free Lamborghinis to buyers of apartments during the yearly Dubai Shopping Festival in January, while Trump has emblazoned his name on everything from bibles to wine bottles. The two have not completed all of their projects together. For example, a Trump golf club with an 18-hole Tiger Woods-designed course that was supposed to open in one of Damac’s developments in 2018 has been in limbo for years.
Along with Musk’s xAI, Sajwani claims to have backed French company Mistral and invested $50 million in AI startup Anthropic last year. Sajwani’s emphasis on data centers and his investment in AI companies go hand in hand because of the quickly increasing need for additional storage space for data generated by the sophisticated chips that drive AI models. He claims that Edgnex, his company, has already spent almost $1 billion purchasing land for data centers in ten European, Asian, and Middle Eastern nations. The company currently has three operational data centers in Saudi Arabia and Thailand, and another 15 are in the process of being built. According to Sajwani, Damac’s balance sheet has accounted for all of the investment to date, even though his company has also collaborated with regional businesses in Greece, Thailand, and Turkey. He intends to travel outside of the US more. A. adding that it would invest over $400 million in Spain and $3 billion in new data centers in Southeast Asia.
As the company grows, Sajwani says he also plans to install Nvidia chips, one of the leading beneficiaries of the AI revolution, in his data centers. He continues, “We’re in communication with Nvidia.”. We’re looking to host Nvidia chips in some of our data centers worldwide, and we met with some of the senior management. “.”.
It’s not just Sajwani that intends to invest billions of dollars in data centers. Last week, Microsoft declared that it was on course to invest $80 billion in AI-related data centers in 2025 alone. Sajwani is certain that Trump’s policies will lower costs, despite the fact that these buildings are infamously energy-intensive and water-intensive. “The only thing you need is for the administration to support investments in producing more electricity because the U.S. S. possesses a lot of land,” he claims. Land is not a problem; electricity is. “..”.
Trump seemed to support that pledge during the press conference announcing Sajwani’s $20 billion pledge, stating that his administration would provide “expedited reviews” to help Damac “move quickly through the environmental process.”. Additionally, he stated that any business investing $1 billion in the United States would have access to a streamlined procedure. A.
Edgnex remains a part of Sajwani’s fully-owned Damac for the time being, but Sajwani is open to looking for outside investors or going public with the company in the future. Damac’s market capitalization peaked at $6.66 billion in 2017 after it was listed on the London and Dubai stock exchanges for nine years, partly to increase the company’s visibility and aid in bond sales. In 2022, Sajwani paid $2.02 billion to take the company private once more, citing the lack of interest in the stock at the time as the reason. We could choose to go public or bring in outside investors. He laughs and asks, “Why can’t we someday list Edgneq on NASDAQ for $100 billion?”.
Additionally, he is amenable to further real estate transactions with the Trump Organization. He cites his close relationship with Eric Trump, who has headed the Trump Organization since his father first took office in 2017, when he asks, “If an opportunity arises and both organizations see an added value, why not?”. “Eric has been one of the best partners I’ve had in forty years, and we’ve been working with him.”. Very accessible and easy to work with. “,”.
Sajwani’s prolonged stay at Mar-a-Lago, where he mingled with billionaires, may benefit his real estate business in addition to meeting Musk and announcing the news with Trump. He claims that “Dubai is drawing a lot of talent and a lot of wealthy people.”. “In the past week, I’ve already met six people who want to move to Dubai and have net worths of between $5 and $6 billion each. “.”
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