Generally I'm not one to look down upon location-based startups, but the UAE has funded hundreds of such moonshots. They're an importer-state, which isn't a bad thing in a globalized economy but definitely presents it's problems when you want to foster innovation. Today it's cheap to buy OpenAI lunch, but Sam doesn't mince words when he's asking for trillions of dollars. This is a money-pit project that is being solved by throwing money at the problem. Sam Altman is appealing to desperate audiences.

There's definitely the willpower to make this happen, but seriously I doubt Abu Dhabi is any better positioned to outsmart Nvidia and TSMC than the rest of the market is. It would shock me if this played out any different from the other attempts to depose the current leaders.