(Bloomberg) -- Dubai property billionaire Hussain Sajwani — who this week stood alongside President-elect Donald Trump to pledge a $20 billion investment in US data centers — is likely to lean heavily on banks and other financial institutions for much of that investment.
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In an interview with Bloomberg Television on Thursday, the Damac Group chief said that the Dubai developer’s balance sheet would allow it to fund about 30%.
“This is an asset-based business. With infrastructure, normally you borrow 60% to 70% from the banks or financial institutions, or bonds, leverage,” he said. “Damac Properties will be able to put the equity, which will be in the range of the other 30%, which will be around $5-$6 billion.” The billionaire said he doesn’t foresee any funding from governments at the moment.
Damac had $2 billion in revenue in 2023 and Ebitda margins of around 40%, according to an S&P credit rating report from last February.
While Damac is primarily a real-estate firm, the billionaire has expanded into data centers in recent years. Damac last year said it plans to invest about $3 billion to build data centers across Southeast Asia as the region becomes a hub for AI and cloud services.
It’s working on building digital infrastructure that can house the high-end servers essential for storing data and providing artificial intelligence services. Apart from data centers, Damac has been investing in technology firms including Space X, xAI and OpenAI, Sajwani said, adding that his company had broadly committed more than $2 billion in private equity.
“For investing directly, we’d wanted to see a more friendly government that encourages foreign investments. And we feel it’s the right time now,” he said of the US.
The 71-year-old developer has had a relationship with Trump for years, and the two have partnered on a luxury golf course in Dubai. Damac, which has housing developments across the emirate, has been one of the big beneficiaries of its property boom. Sajwani’s net worth has surged in recent years to about $13 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Business leaders from around the world have sought to burnish their relationships with Trump as he prepares to return to the White House. The proposed data centers would extend from Arizona to Ohio. Sajwani said he hopes to announce some land acquisitions across the US sometime this year for the project.