UAE and Greece sign €12.75bn of deals as G42 explores AI factory in Greece

The United Arab Emirates and Greece announced 18 agreements worth €12.75 billion ($14.3 billion) at a business forum in Athens on Thursday, 22 October, with Abu Dhabi also pledging a further €15 billion of investment and AI group G42 studying an AI data-centre project in the country, according to Reuters, WAM and The National.

A forum timed with a royal visit

The memorandums of understanding, agreements and commercial partnerships were unveiled at the UAE-Greece Strategic Forum, held during an official visit to Athens by Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis attended the event alongside UAE Minister of Foreign Trade Thani Al Zeyoudi.

Beyond the signed deals, Abu Dhabi said it intends to invest an additional €15 billion in Greece through a joint investment initiative between the two countries, Reuters reported, citing the Abu Dhabi Media Office. WAM, the UAE’s state news agency, listed digital infrastructure, artificial intelligence, renewable energy, logistics, ports, industry, healthcare, life sciences and food security among the priority sectors.

Al Zeyoudi said the forum reflected a shared commitment to advancing bilateral relations and that the priority was “to convert this momentum into productive projects”, according to WAM.

G42 brings its AI ambitions to south-east Europe

The most technology-heavy part of the package involves Abu Dhabi’s G42. Its data-centre arm Khazna and its cloud and AI infrastructure unit Core42 signed an initial agreement with Greece’s Copelouzos Group to explore building an “AI factory” in the country, The National reported. Under the plan, Khazna would lead the physical infrastructure while Core42 would supply cloud and AI computing power to sectors such as banking, telecoms, shipping and government.

Other G42 companies signed separate pacts. Presight will work with Greece’s Ministry of Digital Governance on agentic AI tools for municipal waste management, water network monitoring and urban mobility. Inception will develop AI tools for government work and education, including AI tutors, while healthcare arm M42 partnered with Athens LifeTech Park on genomics and clinical research.

Mansoor Al Mansoori, chief executive of G42 International, said the agreements “mark an important milestone in expanding G42’s intelligence grid across Europe.” No separate value was disclosed for the AI factory project.

Part of a wider Gulf push into AI infrastructure

The Greek deals add a European leg to an expansion strategy that Core42 has been pursuing on several continents. Earlier this year the company expanded its AI compute capacity in the United States, notably at a site in Buffalo, New York, as part of a broader UAE effort to build sovereign AI and cloud capacity abroad, while G42 signed a framework agreement in Vietnam in February.

For Greece, the investments deepen an economic relationship in which Emirati capital already plays a visible role, notably through Masdar’s acquisition of Greek renewable energy company Terna Energy. The memorandums signed in Athens are largely preliminary, however, and their final value will depend on how many of them turn into binding contracts and built projects.