Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) on Sunday criticized the Trump administration’s deal with the United Arab Emirates to build a massive artificial intelligence (AI) data center in Dubai, suggesting the president should have sought to build the hub on American soil.
In an interview on ABC News’s “This Week,” the Silicon Valley congressman questioned whether the UAE deal aligns with the president’s “America First” philosophy.
“I don’t like the fact that the biggest AI center, research center, is going to be in Dubai,” Khanna said, when asked about the president’s first trip to the region.
“I mean, what happened to ‘America First?’” he continued. “Why don’t we put that center in Pennsylvania or in Ohio? Especially western Pennsylvania, that’s a place that’s looking to get massive data centers, and that would create a lot of jobs.”
“Now, I’m all for collaboration, selling more into our allies in the Middle East, but we should be focused on putting the new technology jobs in the United States,” Khanna added.
The AI campus, unveiled during Trump’s visit to the UAE, will have 5 gigawatts of capacity and will eventually stretch across 10 square miles, the Commerce Department announced Thursday.
The data center at Qasr Al Watan will serve as a regional platform for U.S. hyperscalers, which are technology companies that provide cloud computing and data management services. These companies will be able to offer low-latency services to nearly half of the global population residing within 2,000 miles of the UAE, the Commerce Department said.
“In the UAE, American companies will operate the data centers and offer American-managed cloud services throughout the region,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in a statement Thursday. “By extending the world’s leading American tech stack to an important strategic partner in the region, this agreement is a major milestone in achieving President Trump’s vision for U.S. AI dominance.”
