Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. The Dubai property group
Speaker 1: DAMAK will be investing twenty billion dollars in new US
Speaker 1: data centers. The President's elect unveiled the deal alongside DAMAK
Speaker 1: founder an Cha Hussein Sejuani from mar Lago.
Speaker 2: The first phase of the project will be in Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Ohio, Illinois,
Speaker 2: Michigan and Indiana. Those places, and who's saying, I'd love
Speaker 2: you to come up and say a few words. Thank
Speaker 2: you very much, thank you, thank.
Speaker 3: You, thank you, miss our president. It's been amazing news
Speaker 3: for me and my family when he was elected in November.
Speaker 1: Sejjuani, mar a Lago earlier on this week. Now back
Speaker 1: in Dubai and joining us from there, Good morning, Thank
Speaker 1: you very much, indeed for your time. Let's talk about
Speaker 1: the deal that was announced earlier on this week. A
Speaker 1: lot of details obviously still need to be ironed out.
Speaker 1: I suspect, but when are we going to see ground
Speaker 1: being broken? When are these data centers gonna be built?
Speaker 3: As you appreciate, the announcement is only last less than
Speaker 3: forty eight hours, where me and my team are working
Speaker 3: very hard. We had already some discussions with a number
Speaker 3: of land owners in different parts of the States. The
Speaker 3: team is working and we hope sometime this year we'll
Speaker 3: be announcing some oppositions of lands and then of course
Speaker 3: we'll follow that design and construction. So there is a
Speaker 3: lot of work that we have to do to invest
Speaker 3: the twenty billion dollar.
Speaker 1: Twenty billion dollars, that's a substantial amount of money. How
Speaker 1: are you funding this deal? Can you provide specific details
Speaker 1: on where that twenty billion is coming from?
Speaker 4: As you appreciate, this is an acid base business infrastructure.
Speaker 4: Normally sixty to seventy percent you borrow from the banks
Speaker 4: or promise financial institutions or bonds leverage. Dem at Property
Speaker 4: will be able to put the equity which will be
Speaker 4: in the range of the other thirty percent, which will
Speaker 4: be a bound five to six billion dollar. Demat Property
Speaker 4: is balanceship today is capable of producing that money in
Speaker 4: the coming four years for its own resources.
Speaker 3: Having said that, if the opportunity increases and we get
Speaker 3: more opportunity, will be more than happy to bring their
Speaker 3: party partners with us.
Speaker 5: Who's saying it's creedy in London when you talk about
Speaker 5: those third party partners who are you talking about specifically?
Speaker 5: Are there banks, for example, that you have in mind.
Speaker 3: Were already talking first our first line is to talk
Speaker 3: to partners in US who will bring added value. If
Speaker 3: they are in the construction business, they are in the
Speaker 3: land business, they're in the power business. So first we're
Speaker 3: looking at added value partner not just to bring money,
Speaker 3: but to bring to help us to execute in this business.
Speaker 3: That will be the first choice.
Speaker 5: So who's saying part of this announcement with certain states
Speaker 5: that your investments are targeting lights of Michigan, Illinois among
Speaker 5: others Texas for example, are there specific players within those
Speaker 5: states that might help you get to those investment plans?
Speaker 3: Indeed, indeed, I mean we are open to all the
Speaker 3: options to execute the business plan from partners who are
Speaker 3: in their business or who will help grow their business.
Speaker 5: When it comes to those kind of partnerships, though, is
Speaker 5: state funding something that we're talking about. We know that
Speaker 5: Donald Trump, for example, has already asked you to double
Speaker 5: the investment, not just keep it at twenty billion, and
Speaker 5: go further. If you're talking about further investment in the
Speaker 5: United States, how much further do you have a number
Speaker 5: on that.
Speaker 3: I don't have a number on that. But as you know,
Speaker 3: it's a market and it's an opportunity today with AI
Speaker 3: data centers. Appreciate the business data center is growing in
Speaker 3: more than double digit and there is a huge growth there.
Speaker 3: So if we find the right opportunity, the right partners,
Speaker 3: I think we have the capability to take their business
Speaker 3: further beyond the twenty.
Speaker 6: Billion for saying good morning, it's Lizzie here in London
Speaker 6: as well. I know that the UKAE has gone big
Speaker 6: on AI investments over the past couple of years. Will
Speaker 6: the government be helping in any way or backing this project?
Speaker 3: No, we're not talking at the moment to any government backing.
Speaker 3: We're talking, as I said, to landowners and then to
Speaker 3: potential partners.
Speaker 6: But is the WW government supporting you?
Speaker 3: By the moment, We're not looking at any support from
Speaker 3: any government things. It's going to be very much commercial
Speaker 3: business plan.
Speaker 6: Sorry to clarify.
Speaker 1: Are they aware?
Speaker 3: Of course, everybody knows about it, and they were aware
Speaker 3: of our intention to invest globally. As you appreciate, we
Speaker 3: have already a data center under construction in three countries
Speaker 3: in Asia, three countries in Europe, Middle East. We are
Speaker 3: in more than ten countries around the world, covering Indonesia, Jaka, Indonesia,
Speaker 3: Thailand and Malaysia, Greece, Spain, and Italy coming next, Hussain.
Speaker 5: In your press conference with Donald Trump, you specifically made
Speaker 5: the comment that you've been waiting for years to invest
Speaker 5: in the AI space in the United States. You specifically
Speaker 5: said you've been waiting for four years to invest in
Speaker 5: the AI space between the election of Donald Trump and
Speaker 5: the administration of Joe Biden. Several of your other counterparts
Speaker 5: around the world have already been investing in AI in
Speaker 5: a big way. What has changed fundamentally to incentivize this
Speaker 5: move from you?
Speaker 3: In the last four years, we have invested more than
Speaker 3: and committed about two billion dollars in the private equity
Speaker 3: and in some direct deals like we are investor in XAI,
Speaker 3: in open Ai, you know, in the space x and
Speaker 3: we are more than sixty funds in the US. So
Speaker 3: we're not to stop investing, but we were investing through funds,
Speaker 3: investing directly. We wanted to see more friendly government who
Speaker 3: encourages the foreign investments, and we feel is the right time.
Speaker 1: Now there saying just coming there's kind of quick kind
Speaker 1: of quick questions just returning to the issue of funding.
Speaker 1: The funding is you are one hundred percent guaranteeing that
Speaker 1: the funding exists for this deal, that it's already in place,
Speaker 1: that you secure that funding, that you are ready to go.
Speaker 1: That's my first question is that a yes or no answer.
Speaker 1: Is the funding in place?
Speaker 3: The funding, our equity is in place. That debt will
Speaker 3: come as we go and as we build those data centers.
Speaker 1: That brings me on to the second point. You say
Speaker 1: you're going to build them. Are you going to build
Speaker 1: them or are you going to do the land deals
Speaker 1: and then let somebody else build them? Is that the
Speaker 1: way the model is going to work.
Speaker 3: No, the model is we buy the land, we hire
Speaker 3: a designer, and then we hire a contractor who will
Speaker 3: build it, and then we lease it to the hyper scalers.
Speaker 5: Whosaying, speaking of the hyperscalers, are there customers that you
Speaker 5: have in mind when it comes to who may, at
Speaker 5: the end of the day be some of the buyers
Speaker 5: of these data centers?
Speaker 3: You mean, you mean they're lazy. We're not going to
Speaker 3: sell at the center, but we're going to lease them.
Speaker 3: We're gonna we're gonna lead them to the hyper scaler,
Speaker 3: which are non Amazon, Microsoft, Google or a kill you
Speaker 3: and some large fourteen five hundred companies IBM and adults.
Speaker 5: Have you started having those conversations with them.
Speaker 3: We were having conversation with them about Asia and Europe
Speaker 3: for the last twelve months, and we have quite advanced
Speaker 3: in negotiation with some of them to finalize a deal
Speaker 3: and part of where we have data centers already.
Speaker 5: But when it comes to some of those negotiations, why
Speaker 5: not already have those investments in the United States again
Speaker 5: with the same players that you're working with in Asia
Speaker 5: and Europe as well. You made the comment of now
Speaker 5: having a friendlier government in place in the United States
Speaker 5: that is friendlier to foreign investment. Someone argued, that's the
Speaker 5: exact opposite message that Donald Trump is giving. Why not
Speaker 5: invest in the US earlier? Aren't you coming a little
Speaker 5: bit late to the game here?
Speaker 3: No, we're not late in the game because this AI
Speaker 3: business already started only last eighteen or twenty four months,
Speaker 3: and we've been quite focused on Asia and Europe in
Speaker 3: the year twenty three twenty four and now our focus
Speaker 3: is going to be heavily on us.
Speaker 6: Saying in terms of those potential customers, have you spoken
Speaker 6: to or met with Samuel Man and Elon Musk.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we were together there at the New Year on
Speaker 3: the same you know in Marie Lago and is an
Speaker 3: amazing gentleman with a vision and of course you know
Speaker 3: his accomplishments. We are already investor in these companies face
Speaker 3: X and XI.
Speaker 6: It's about Selon Musk. Have you met sam Oltman? Ad
Speaker 6: sam Oltman?
Speaker 3: No, I don't remember anybody like that.
Speaker 5: All right, Damax founder and chairman, who's say Delajuani. We
Speaker 5: will leave the conversation there. We thank you so much
Speaker 5: for your time and of course look forward to getting
Speaker 5: the updates on what that data center investment actually looks like.