Phaidra AI Pilot To Improve UAE Data Center Efficiency With Ministry And Private Partners

The UAE Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, Khazna Data Centers, Agility and Phaidra are launching a pilot that uses artificial intelligence to cut energy use in data centers and district cooling systems across the UAE. The initiative supports the UAE Net Zero 2050 Strategy and national AI ambitions, targeting lower power consumption and stronger performance in large-scale digital infrastructure.

The pilot will deploy Phaidra’s AI control technology in selected Khazna campuses to manage power, cooling and computing loads as one integrated system. The project will test how far cooling energy can be reduced, how much extra IT capacity can be unlocked, and how reliability can be maintained in the UAE’s high-temperature conditions while AI workloads expand.

The collaboration was announced during the World Governments Summit in Dubai, following a Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry and Agility. The MoU was signed during Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week by Eng. Sharif Al Olama, Undersecretary for Energy and Petroleum Affairs, and Tarek Sultan, Chairman of Agility, setting a framework to improve energy and economic performance in energy-intensive digital assets.

Under that framework, the partners aim to extend AI-enabled optimisation beyond the initial pilot into wider UAE infrastructure, including district cooling operations. The Ministry intends to align any scaled deployments with the UAE Energy Efficiency Strategy, while reinforcing the country’s position as a regional and global location for AI-driven digital infrastructure investment.

The initiative evaluates advanced control systems built by Phaidra, which designs artificial intelligence agents for complex infrastructure. These agents adjust cooling, power distribution and workload allocation in real time, seeking peak tokens-per-watt efficiency in AI data centers. This performance metric is becoming more important as AI models require higher power density and continuous compute capacity.

Khazna is already working with NVIDIA on AI infrastructure across the Middle East and Africa region. As part of that programme, Khazna is designing and constructing next-generation AI factories based on the NVIDIA DSX Blueprint, an open reference architecture intended for large AI deployments. The new pilot with Phaidra sits on top of this infrastructure roadmap.

AI data centers public-private roles and responsibilities

Khazna will apply its hyperscale operational experience to host and assess Phaidra’s reinforcement learning agents in live facilities. The Ministry will evaluate policy and regulatory implications, while Agility will contribute expertise from logistics and industrial operations. Together, the organisations will examine how AI data center optimisation methods could be applied at national scale across diverse energy-intensive sites.

Engineer Sharif Al Olama, Undersecretary for Energy and Petroleum Affairs at the UAE Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, said: "Enhancing the efficiency of energy-intensive infrastructure, especially data centers and artificial intelligence applications, is a key pillar of the UAE’s competitiveness and sustainability agenda. This partnership comes within the framework of adopting practical solutions based on advanced technology, which contribute to reducing energy consumption, enhancing the reliability of the infrastructure, and advancing the country’s leadership in developing the new generation of artificial intelligence data centers."

Tarek Sultan, Chairman of Agility, said: "This initiative underscores the importance of effective public-private collaboration as AI reshapes global digital and physical infrastructure. As AI workloads scale, infrastructure efficiency becomes a binding constraint. Advanced AI control systems allow complex power and cooling environments to operate as integrated, adaptive systems - materially improving efficiency, resilience, and long-term economics. Phaidra brings deep capability in intelligent data center control, and Khazna is setting the benchmark for sustainable hyperscale data centers. Together, this collaboration supports the UAE’s ambition to lead at the intersection of physical infrastructure, digital capability, and sustainability."

Hassan Alnaqbi, CEO, Khazna Data Centers, said: "AI-driven demand is fundamentally reshaping the requirements of modern data centers. As the operators powering tomorrow’s digital economies, we carry a clear responsibility: to scale sustainably while enabling nations to achieve their digital and AI ambitions. This pilot reflects that commitment. By advancing intelligent efficiency through collaboration, we want to ensure that the infrastructure underpinning AI and digital growth is as sustainable as it is powerful."

Jim Gao, CEO, Phaidra, said: "AI infrastructure is fundamentally different from traditional data centers. The previous technologies that got us here no longer suffice at gigawatt-scale. Phaidra is humbled by the opportunity to partner closely with NVIDIA, Khazna, Agility, and the UAE MoEI to pioneer next-gen digital infrastructure in the MEA region."

Collectively, the Ministry, Khazna, Agility and Phaidra are using this pilot to test how AI data center control systems can improve energy use, resilience and economics in the UAE. The findings will guide potential national deployments, supporting both sustainability targets and the country’s role as a hub for advanced AI infrastructure in the wider MEA region.

With inputs from WAM