Trump announces $20B US investment by Emirati businessman

WASHINGTON (AP) - President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a $20 billion investment for data centers in the United States by an Emirati company led by billionaire Hussain Sajwani, a close business partner of the Trump family.

The investment by DAMAC Properties in the United Arab Emirates is intended to highlight Trump’s personal ability to attract new money for big projects. The announcement follows a pledge made last month by the Japanese billionaire investor Masayoshi Son, while at Trump’s side, to invest $100 billion in the United States.

Trump said at a news conference that he believed Sajwani made the commitment because "he was very inspired by the election and wouldn’t do it without the election." The president-elect emphasized his plans to get investments of $1 billion or more through the environmental regulatory review process quickly.

Following Trump, Sajwani briefly joined the news conference and said: "It's been amazing news for me and my family when he was elected in November."

Sajwani’s promised investment feeds into an existing boom for constructing data centers used in the development of artificial intelligence and expansion of cryptocurrency, as well as in other elements of an increasingly digital economy that relies on having greater sources of computer processing power.

While Trump has sought to portray these announcements as a source of newfound energy in the U.S. economy, the $20 billion commitment is also a sign that wealthy investors close to Trump can profit off that relationship, given the already significant investment in new data centers.

In October, the financial company Blackstone estimated that the U.S. would see $1 trillion invested in data centers over five years, with another $1 trillion being committed internationally. The commitment made by Sajwani could represent just 2% of the total expected domestic investment in the sector.

Sajwani would gain data centers in the United States, which thus far have not been part of his company’s EDGNEX data center portfolio. According to the company’s website, it already has or plans to build data centers in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Spain, Thailand and Indonesia.

DAMAC Properties is one of the top private developers in the skyscraper-studded city-state in the United Arab Emirates.

The property developer has been a Trump partner. Under Sajwani, DAMAC built the Trump International Golf Club at a massive development in the city's desert outskirts just before Trump first entered the White House.

DAMAC also paid a licensing fee worth millions back to the Trump Organization, following a pattern the president-elect’s company has used in developments both in the U.S. and abroad.

There had been plans for another DAMAC development further in the desert that would have a Trump-named golf course. However, DAMAC later dropped plans for the golf course at the development. Also, discussions for a promised $2 billion in deals between DAMAC and the Trump Organization after his first electoral win in 2016 never materialized.

Sajwani has said that Trump’s initial election to the presidency helped increase the profile of his company.

Since Trump's re-election in November, Sajwani has been seen at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. He posted a picture standing between a seated Trump and billionaire Elon Musk at a New Year's Eve celebration.

However, the Trump Organization since has been involved with Dar Global, a Saudi-funded real estate firm that's building a Trump-branded golf course in Oman and Trump projects in Saudi Arabia.

There are plans for a Trump Tower in Dubai as well, though previous plans for a Trump Tower on Dubai's man-made Palm Jumeirah archipelago fell apart during the city's financial crisis that began in 2008. ___

Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.