Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) arm of the Alibaba Group, has officially launched its second data centre in Dubai. This comes nine years after the company established its first facility in the city, and represents a major step forward in expanding cloud infrastructure in the Middle East. Reuters
What’s New
The second data centre was unveiling during GITEX Global 2025, underlining Alibaba Cloud’s sharpened focus on accelerating AI and cloud adoption in the region.
It expands the firm’s offerings in Dubai beyond generic cloud services to include enhanced cloud-native and AI solutions, big data platforms, elastic computing, storage, advanced networking, and higher database performance.
Why It Matters
This new facility supports local businesses, public sectors, and global partners in the UAE by reducing latency, improving availability and disaster recovery, and supporting higher computational loads from AI applications.
It forms part of Alibaba’s broader investment strategy — RMB 380 billion (approx. US$53 billion) over three years — directed toward enhancing digital infrastructure underpinned by AI and cloud computing.
The move aligns closely with the UAE’s national digital strategy and its aim to become a hub for innovation, AI, and high-performance computing. It fosters stronger ties between the private sector and government initiatives.
Partnerships & Ecosystem Boost
Alongside the data centre launch, Alibaba Cloud has entered into several strategic partnerships:
Wio Bank has signed an MoU to work with Alibaba Cloud to deploy generative AI and banking agents, using Alibaba’s Qwen large-language model and other AI platforms. These tools will be hosted in the new Dubai data centre to ensure reduced latency and improved compliance.
ACCUMED, a leading provider of revenue-cycle management in healthcare, is migrating critical workloads to Alibaba Cloud infrastructure, leveraging AI tools for tasks such as claims processing, medical coding, and customer support.
BYOND Asia, specializing in digital and conversational human avatars (“digital humans”), will use Alibaba Cloud’s “Model Studio” and Qwen for localized, Arabic-first digital avatar solutions.
Strategic and Regional Implications
This expansion strengthens data sovereignty in the UAE, which is important for sectors dealing with sensitive data such as finance, health, government, and defense. By offering local cloud infrastructure, Alibaba Cloud helps entities satisfy regulatory requirements and reduce reliance on data centres abroad.
It also enhances the resiliency of cloud services in the region by adding redundancy and further disaster recovery capabilities. Multiple data centres allow for better load balancing and failover options.
For more details on this development, see the original report by Reuters:
Alibaba’s cloud business launches second data centre in Dubai Reuters
