Bloomberg Talks · Sep 23, 2026
With Brad Smith, Vice Chair and President of Microsoft
Microsoft will spend $10 billion in Gulf nations between now and 2030, a commitment announced in the hour before Brad Smith spoke to Bloomberg while the war with Iran goes on in the region.
A war usually gives a company a reason to pause spending in a region. Smith said Microsoft is adding more. He said the last seven months had taught it a lot about keeping the region's systems running, and that the safest place for data in a war is often somewhere else.
"Oftentimes, the best way to protect it is to move it, especially in a time of conflict."
Brad Smith, vice chair and president of Microsoft, on Bloomberg Talks, has been in the Microsoft boardroom for 25 years. He spoke in the middle of the UN General Assembly, where he said world leaders were asking him whether the industry should slow its most advanced AI models until safety catches up.
The full interview is covered here so you can skip it.
Here are the 8 takeaways that matter.
Key Takeaways
Microsoft is putting $10B into Gulf nations through 2030, and Smith said now is "the right time"
The 200-megawatt Abu Dhabi deal still stands, and new cloud services go live in Saudi Arabia in 5 weeks
In a war, the best way to protect data is often to move it, a lesson he said Europe learned during the war in Ukraine in 2022
It is easier to ship American GPUs to the UAE today than a year ago
An AI off switch should sit in 3 or 4 places, not with a single company or a single government
His comparison is the car: of all the safety measures added to roads, only the speedometer changed the car itself
No company should release a product it believes is unsafe, whatever its competitors are doing
Microsoft is doing well on water and waste, but carbon is where the whole industry is falling short
Nuclear power is not a real option for adding much electricity in 2026 or 2027, he said
1. $10B For The Gulf
The host opened with the breaking news: Microsoft is expanding in the Gulf with "a $10 billion commitment between now and 2030 for Gulf nations." He asked why Microsoft would do it now, with war in Iran and the region itself unsettled.
Smith said Microsoft has long supplied compute, cybersecurity and cloud services to the Gulf states, and the new money reflects two things. The first is confidence.
The Gulf states lead in AI adoption, in his view
One is our confidence in these countries. They're really leading the world in many ways in AI transformation.
Brad Smith
The second is what the last seven months taught Microsoft about keeping those countries' systems running under attack. He said the commitment covers more than spending and infrastructure built with each country's national champion companies.
A digital resilience program is part of the package
And what we're committing to is not just increasing and spending more money, building out more infrastructure, working with the national champions in those countries, but pursuing a digital resilience initiative to strengthen their ability to continue to prosper, to flourish during this time of conflict, to strengthen cybersecurity and the like.
Brad Smith
2. Protect Data By Moving It
The host brought up a deal from the end of last year, when Microsoft committed to use 200 megawatts of computing capacity in Abu Dhabi, and asked whether it survived the change in the region early this year. Smith said yes.
Saudi Arabia gets new cloud services in weeks
And what we're seeing in Abu Dhabi and the UAE and across the region, including in Saudi Arabia, where we'll bring live a new set of cloud services in just five weeks, is a commitment to protect these resources.
Brad Smith
He said the US government is helping to protect those sites. Physical attack is only one risk, and he said cyber defense needs closer cooperation as well.
Cybersecurity matters as much as physical defense
But in addition to, say, kinetic warfare, It's critically important that we strengthen cybersecurity.
Brad Smith
Digital resilience also depends on being able to shift data between locations, he said, which is what Europe learned during the war in Ukraine in 2022 and has kept learning since. He tied it to the current debate over digital sovereignty.
Keeping data in one place can be the risk
I think it's an important reminder when people are talking about things like digital sovereignty, you've got to be able to protect your data. Oftentimes, the best way to protect it is to move it, especially in a time of conflict.
Brad Smith
3. GPUs Ship More Easily
The host, who follows how much data center capacity actually comes online, asked whether Microsoft had started deploying the advanced GPUs, the chips that train and run AI models, that it promised for the region. Smith did not give a date or a count.
Microsoft says it is on track, and export has eased
What I would say is we are on track. We're doing the things we said we would do. We continue to explore opportunities to do more, and it's easier to ship American advanced GPUs to a place like the UAE today than it was a year ago.
Brad Smith
He said the long-term case gives "tremendous cause for optimism." Until there is peace in the region, Microsoft's job is to keep working with governments to protect the facilities.
4. What Leaders Ask At The UN
Asked what world leaders were raising with him at the UN General Assembly, Smith said he was getting three main questions and described two of them.
The first, heard in many countries, is how to spread AI faster so its benefits do not stay in the wealthier global north. He listed scientific discovery, medical advances and productivity gains as the benefits people expect.
The other question is whether to slow the frontier
Should we slow down the frontier while safety catches up? I think that is the other big conversation we're finding repeatedly in the United Nations this week.
Brad Smith
The frontier, in this debate, means the most advanced models the leading labs are building next. He said the question has become "a critical conversation."
5. More Than One Off Switch
The host said he had read Smith's writing on an AI off switch, or kill switch, and asked who gets to press it. The frontier labs say they understand the pace of their own work best. Should it be governments, or a company like Microsoft?
Smith said safety will not advance if it rests on one or two companies. The model makers matter. So do companies like Microsoft that make the software layer that controls AI agents, monitors what they do and lets a business manage what they spend and where they go. Hyperscalers, the largest cloud providers, a role Microsoft also plays, have a part as well.
Put the switch in several places
At times, you may want a government to be able to have the on-off switch. But why would you put that switch in only one place when you can put it in three or four?
Brad Smith
His comparison was the car. Once cars were fast enough to collide at intersections, society added stoplights, stop signs, better pavement, guardrails, speed limits, a police force and a speedometer.
Only one of those safety fixes changed the car
But of that list I just had, the only thing that changed the car was the speedometer.
Brad Smith
When something moves too fast, he said, the answer is to strengthen the whole system around it and bring it together on a safety framework.
6. OpenAI's Safety Board
The host said that, as they spoke, Sam Altman was briefing the UN Security Council on pacing the frontier and on independent evaluation of AI models. The host noted that Microsoft is OpenAI's most important strategic partner and has large financial exposure to it, and asked whether Microsoft has a say in what the frontier labs do.
Smith said Microsoft is part of that conversation by definition, because a joint deployment safety board with people from both OpenAI and Microsoft has to weigh in before OpenAI's next major model is released.
Microsoft has a say before a major OpenAI release
So, indisputably, we're part of that and part of that decision-making.
Brad Smith
He credited Altman and "Dario," the head of Anthropic, for sharing information and asking many of the right questions. He agreed there should be independent evaluators, with conditions: they must be capable, have access to the right data, be chosen properly and have real independence, so that the world can trust them. Smith called that "just one part" of the conversation.
7. Unsafe Products Don't Ship
The host said he grew up using Windows and Office and asked whether Microsoft could say for certain that its AI would never be used in a military or security setting. Smith did not answer that directly. He said Microsoft updated its ethical guidelines the week before for what he called "the age of AI," and that a simple question still applies to any company in any industry.
He does not accept competition as an excuse
As somebody who's been in the Microsoft boardroom for 25 years, if the product is not safe, it should not be released. And no company should do that. And I don't think any company should ever say, well, we don't want to do it, but we're worried about our competitor.
Brad Smith
He compared it to air travel. If one aircraft maker admitted its plane was unsafe but shipped it to beat a rival, he said, nobody would fly.
The same rule applies to AI
No one would want to come to New York or get on an airplane. AI is the same.
Brad Smith
8. Carbon Goals Need Changes
The last question was whether Microsoft can build all the data centers it has committed to and still meet its climate targets, given the natural gas and electricity those centers need. Smith said the first duty is to each local community: replenish more water than Microsoft uses, run with "zero waste," pay its own way and avoid adding electricity demand that raises prices for neighbors.
Carbon is the industry's weak spot
Where the whole industry is challenged is obviously carbon.
Brad Smith
Microsoft set its goals when the decade began, and he listed what has changed since. There are more data centers than it expected. Markets for greener steel, greener concrete and new forms of renewable energy are growing, but not as fast as hoped. Public policy has shifted, especially in the United States.
Nuclear power comes too late for the next two years
Yeah, nuclear is coming. It will get here in a variety of forms, but it's not really a viable option to add much in the way of additional electricity in, say, 2026 or 2027.
Brad Smith
He said Microsoft remains committed to what it set out to do in 2020 and still sees climate as one of the most important issues of the century. What it is now asking is whether it can hit the goals in the ways and on the timelines it planned six years ago.
Adjustments are coming, possibly by region
And I think what we're finding is we're going to have to make some adjustments. We may need to think about some parts of the world a little bit differently from others because of their different public policies.
Brad Smith
"But I'll tell you one thing, we will persist," he said. If needed, Microsoft will spend more of the near term laying groundwork for the long term, while continuing to earn the trust of each community where it builds.
Bonus Insights
The interview took place during UN General Assembly week
Bloomberg's anchor handed over to the host of Bloomberg Tech, who noted that Smith's schedule that week was very busy and that AI was "front and center" at the General Assembly. The interview aired live on Bloomberg TV and radio from Bloomberg's world headquarters in New York.
Smith's bottom line is that Microsoft will keep spending in the Gulf through the war and protect what it builds by being able to move data, that AI safety needs controls at several layers rather than one switch, and that the company's 2020 carbon goals will need adjusting even though it does not plan to drop them.
Products, Companies & Tools Mentioned
Microsoft (Smith's company; committing $10 billion to Gulf nations through 2030 and running a digital resilience program there)
OpenAI (Microsoft's strategic partner; a joint deployment safety board with Microsoft people weighs in before its next major model is released)
Windows and Office (The products the host said taught him to use a computer)
Watch the full interview
🟣 Apple Podcasts | 🔗 Episode page
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