Gulf–India AI Power Corridor Inks 15 GW Hybrid Nuclear-Solar PPAs For Data Centers

Power utilities and sovereign investors from the Gulf Cooperation Council and India have agreed on a landmark set of power purchase agreements that will dedicate 15 gigawatts of hybrid nuclear-solar capacity to artificial intelligence data centers in both regions.

The agreements, signed in Abu Dhabi, bring together the UAE’s Emirates Water and Electricity Company, Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power, and India’s NTPC Green Energy, alongside Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala and India’s National Investment and Infrastructure Fund. The group plans to build additional nuclear capacity in the UAE and western India, linked with large scale solar farms and storage, and to reserve that output for 24/7 supply to clusters of AI data centers.

According to a joint statement, the partners have structured the deals as 25-year PPAs that combine new reactor units at the Barakah site in the UAE with a planned nuclear plant in Gujarat, plus more than 8 GW of utility-scale solar and several gigawatts of storage. The generated power will be ring-fenced through dedicated transmission lines and, in time, a proposed high voltage direct current link across the Arabian Sea.

Microsoft, Amazon, and Google have each signed separate contracts with the joint venture that commit them to prepaying several years of capacity charges and a portion of capital costs in exchange for priority access to what is being marketed as “assured carbon-free power” for AI campuses around Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Abu Dhabi. People familiar with the deals said the combined prepayments could exceed 15 billion dollars over the next decade.

“AI clusters want three things, everywhere they go,” said an executive involved in the negotiations. “Stable regulation, predictable energy prices, and provably low-carbon electrons. This corridor is designed to provide all three on a cross-border basis.”

The move positions the Gulf as an exporter not only of hydrocarbons but of firm, low-carbon electricity, while supporting India’s ambitions to attract data center investment and climb the AI value chain. It also provides a long-term offtake base for nuclear and renewables vendors at a time when many conventional utilities are cautious about large new builds.

To implement the plan, the corridor will require extensive new grid infrastructure, including subsea HVDC lines, converter stations, and upgraded distribution in key industrial zones. Engineering groups such as Siemens Energy, Hitachi Energy, and local EPC firms are expected to compete for contracts.

Critics have raised concerns about concentrating so much nuclear-linked capacity on a single demand segment and about the regulatory complexity of cross-border power trading. Supporters argue that long-lived AI data centers are a better match for nuclear economics than volatile industrial demand, and that the project can serve as a template for other regions.

For investors, the corridor introduces a new asset category: infrastructure that is explicitly underwritten by the energy needs of AI, backed by hyperscaler balance sheets and sovereign capital.