G42’s Core42 Leases 20MW in Converted Minneapolis Office Building as UAE Expands US AI Data Centre Footprint
May 6, 2026 – 8:40 pm
TL;DR:
Core42, the cloud subsidiary of Abu Dhabi’s G42 Group, has leased 20 megawatts in a converted office building in downtown Minneapolis. Formerly an office space, the facility is now a data center, housing Core42 as its anchor tenant. This lease, reported by Bloomberg, is part of a larger trend:
- The UAE’s most ambitious AI company, G42, is expanding its American data center footprint.
- Simultaneously, they are constructing the largest AI compute facility outside the United States while traditional offices are being converted into data centers, ironic given that the same AI systems emptying offices are generating the demand to fill them with servers.
The Tenant:
G42, led by CEO Peng Xiao and backed by Abu Dhabi’s national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, is the UAE’s primary driver of AI infrastructure investment. They are behind the Stargate UAE campus, a 500 billion dollar joint venture with OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle, and MGX.
The Expansion:
- Core42’s US expansion includes:
- A 10-year lease for more than 70 megawatts in upstate New York with TeraWulf.
- One billion dollar data center investment planned in Vietnam.
- Establishment of European headquarters in Dublin.
The Minneapolis Lease:
While small in capacity (20 megawatts), the Minneapolis lease is significant due to:
- Its location in a city with increasing office vacancy rates post-pandemic.
- It being a converted office building, reflecting the broader trend of repurposing existing spaces for data centers.
Legacy Investing, the developer who converted the building, acquired it in 2019.