Trump’s business partner plans to build a data center in Ohio, which could spike utility costs
Trump’s business partner plans to build a data center in Ohio, which could spike utility costs
- Fri, Mar 27 2026 at 11:14 AM
Mark,
Two weeks before taking office, President Trump appeared alongside Hussain Sajwani, an Emirati billionaire and the chairman of a Dubai-based luxury real estate firm, at a press conference at Mar-a-Lago.
At that press conference, Sajwani announced that his company would spend $20 billion to develop data centers in the U.S.
Trump just so happens to have a longstanding business relationship with Sajwani—and suggested he would secure him "expedited reviews" of his projects.
What neither man said at the press conference was that Trump has profited to the tune of millions of dollars from their joint business ventures.
Trump’s administration has played a significant role in supporting data center development. Now, one year into his second term, Sajwani’s company appears to be planning a data center development outside of Canton, Ohio, where utility costs are already on the rise.
Mark, Trump’s longstanding business with Sajwani raises concerns that data centers’ future in the U.S. could be shaped by Trump’s relationships with his foreign billionaire business partners.
Beyond staging the press conference at Trump’s private resort—which he continues to own and profit from while in office—Sajwani and Trump have a relationship spanning over two decades.
Sajwani is currently a Mar-a-Lago member, joining sometime during or since the first Trump term, when the club became a hot spot for pay-to-play influence and the cost of a new membership soared.
In an interview following the announcement, Sajwani seemed to say he’d pitched Trump on bringing data centers to the U.S. while at the club for a New Year’s Eve event.
He told Forbes that his company had been contemplating a move to the U.S. before Trump’s reelection but “wanted to see a more friendly administration”…and when Sajwani arrived in Mar-a-Lago for the New Year’s Eve event, the president seemed amenable to the idea.
Sajwani’s company has partnered with the Trump Organization on two golf courses in Dubai: Trump International Golf Club, which opened in 2017, and Trump World Golf Club, which is apparently still under development.
CREW’s analysis of financial disclosures indicates that the company has paid Trump at least $13 million and as much as $19 million in licensing and management fees related to the properties.
That longstanding relationship appears to have aided Sajwani in his efforts to develop data centers in the U.S.
At the press conference where Sajwani announced his development plans, Trump suggested that he could secure “expedited reviews” for Sajwani’s data center projects in the U.S. to circumvent a “quagmire of environmental and various other regulations and rules.”
The administration has followed through and taken actions to support data center development. Trump issued an executive order stating that it would be “a priority of my Administration to facilitate the rapid and efficient buildout” of data center infrastructure “by easing Federal regulatory burdens.”
In September, the EPA announced that, pursuant to the executive order, the agency would “prioritiz[e] the review of new chemicals…that are intended for use in data center projects or for the manufacturing of covered components.”
Trump’s relationship with Sajwani raises questions about whose voices ring loudest: regular Americans who are facing rising costs, or his billionaire allies?
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