What Makes a GPU Project Financeable in the Middle East?

Summary

• Lenders underwrite the whole project: the offtake contract, the colocation lease, the power and the GPUs themselves.
• Recovery depends on jurisdiction and presence. Many cross-border deals use one dominant property-rights jurisdiction, such as Singapore, but enforcement still needs a team in the market.
• International lenders often enter the Middle East alongside sovereign wealth funds or government-backed projects that can lead transactions.

Developers are looking at new data center projects across the Middle East. Before institutional lenders can finance the GPUs that go into them, they need to know who will pay for the compute, whether that revenue can service the debt, and how they would recover the equipment if the borrower defaults.

On November 9, 2026, USD.AI co-founder and COO Conor Moore joined FINTECH.TV anchor Johny Fernandez on Capital Markets: Wall Street to MENA. They discussed how institutional lenders evaluate GPU-backed financings and why local partners matter when international capital enters a new market.

Interest in the region is growing as conditions change in the US. Moore noted that recent US regulations have made it harder for developers to deliver very large-scale data center projects there. As that happens, capital starts to look at other markets with more local support for deployment.

The Gulf has become one of the largest centers of AI infrastructure investment outside the US. In Abu Dhabi, The National reports that the UAE-US AI Campus is planned as a roughly 26-square-kilometer site that could host up to 5GW of data centers, with Stargate UAE as its first phase: a 1GW cluster G42 is building with OpenAI, Oracle, NVIDIA, Cisco and SoftBank. In Saudi Arabia, HUMAIN plans to build up to 3GW of AI data center capacity by 2030, according to The Technology Express. Power is a large part of the region's appeal, and the UAE is building new generation for this demand. The National notes that Masdar and Ewec closed this year on a $6.1 billion project that combines 5.2GW of solar with 19GWh of batteries to deliver 1GW of continuous power, and that Taqa and Ewec are building a 1GW gas plant at Al Dhafra, financed at $980 million, specifically to serve data centers.

Financing is starting to follow, and the first deals are led by the state. As Asharq Al-Awsat reported on November 10, Saudi Arabia's Infra signed $667 million in facilities with HUMAIN: up to $293.3 million for GPUs covering roughly 25MW of IT load, and, per Arabian Business, up to $373.3 million for grid connections and transmission. The Global AI Infrastructure Watch newsletter notes the announcement left out the equipment list, shipment schedule and export-license conditions, details international lenders will need to underwrite.

The Offtake Contract Is Part of the Credit

A GPU-backed financing starts with the equipment and extends to the business that puts it to work. The lender looks at the colocation lease, the power available to run the cluster, and the offtake contract that generates revenue.

"People think of this as just financing a thing: the chips, the GPUs," Moore said. "But really you're financing more of an entire project."

Contracted offtake, a customer’s commitment to buy compute, gives lenders a basis for underwriting that revenue. They assess whether the customer can meet its commitments and whether the resulting cash flow can service the debt. They also consider what the GPUs could sell for if they need to recover their collateral.

Recovery Is a Local Question

For an allocator entering a new market, the location of the GPUs matters. The lender needs to understand what rights it has where the equipment sits and what it would take to recover it after a default.

Moore pointed to cross-border deals in Asia as a model. A project might be built in the Philippines while all of its documentation is governed by Singapore law. He expects the same structure to become the status quo in the Middle East.

A lender can get the documentation right and still struggle to enforce. Without a presence in the market, Moore noted, a recovery effort in a local court is unlikely to succeed.

Local Partners Can Bring International Lenders into a Deal

A US or European allocator may see a viable project in the region before it has a team on the ground. A local operator or capital partner can lead the transaction and give international lenders a partner that knows the market. Moore highlighted the role that sovereign wealth funds and government-backed projects can play across the Middle East in bringing international capital alongside local institutions.

"How good would I feel if I'm going into a market where the government is my partner on the transaction?" Moore said. "I would feel great about my opportunity to be able to protect my interest as a lender."

Financeability Comes Back to the Project

For international lenders, the questions come back to the project itself: who will pay for the compute, and how would the lender recover the GPUs if the borrower defaults? A local partner can help lenders assess those questions in an unfamiliar market.

USD.AI focuses on the Compute Middle Market, the neoclouds and other GPU cloud operators between startups and hyperscalers, and connects them with institutional capital. The Compute Middle Market tracker follows GPU-backed financings across that segment.

Operators planning a deployment can review GPU financing through USD.AI. Lenders and capital partners looking at the region can talk to USD.AI.

FAQ

What do lenders look for in a GPU-backed financing?

Contracted offtake: a customer committed to buying the compute. Lenders underwrite that customer's cash flows and its capacity to pay down the debt, and whether the GPUs could be sold if needed. In markets abroad, they also look at the local jurisdiction and property rights.

Why is a GPU financing evaluated as more than the hardware?

The GPUs are one component of a project that also includes the colocation lease, the offtake contract and the power connection. Lenders look at the unit economics of the entire data center.

How can lenders protect their rights in cross-border GPU deals?

Many cross-border deals document the financing under one dominant property-rights jurisdiction. In Asia, that is often Singapore. Moore expects the same structure to become the status quo in the Middle East.

Why do international lenders look for local partners in the Middle East?

Many US and European capital allocators have no presence in the region. Coming in alongside a local leader, often a sovereign wealth fund or government-backed project, gives them on-the-ground support to lead transactions and enforce their rights if needed.

What does USD.AI do?

USD.AI is a debt capital marketplace for compute. It focuses on the Compute Middle Market, the GPU cloud operators between startups and hyperscalers.