Abu Dhabi’s TII joins new AI security standard
TII founding partner of OPAQUE 3.0 to verify AI against quantum threats
#UAE #cryptography — Technology Innovation Institute (TII), the applied research arm of Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC), has been announced as a founding partner of OPAQUE 3.0, a new platform launched by US confidential computing company OPAQUE. The new platform empowers organisations to produce verifiable cryptographic proof of how their AI systems behave. TII has contributed the post-quantum cryptography that protects the platform against future quantum computers capable of breaking today’s encryption. The launch follows a US executive order issued on 22 June 2026 directing federal systems to migrate to post-quantum cryptography.
SO WHAT? — This is the UAE positioning itself at the centre of security infrastructure that AI agents will run on globally, rather than simply adopting the technology. Encrypted data captured today could be decrypted by quantum computers years from now, so the cryptography embedded in a system like OPAQUE 3.0 has to outlast the threats that it’s built to protect against. The use of TII-developed technology for this platform confirms the UAE’s ability to contribute to global AI initiatives in highly-advanced areas such as post-quantum cryptography.
KEY POINTS:
Technology Innovation Institute (TII), the global applied research centre of Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC), has been announced as a founding partner of OPAQUE 3.0, launched by US confidential computing company OPAQUE at the Confidential Computing Summit in San Francisco.
TII contributed the post-quantum cryptography securing OPAQUE 3.0, protecting AI systems against decryption by quantum computers expected in future years.
OPAQUE 3.0 generates tamper-resistant, independently verifiable records of how AI systems behave, covering the full AI lifecycle from training and deployment through to autonomous AI agents in production.
The launch follows a US executive order issued by President Donald Trump on 22 June 2026 directing federal systems to migrate to post-quantum cryptography and coordinate quantum security with allies.
TII’s contribution aligns with the UAE’s National Encryption Policy, which mandates a national shift to post-quantum cryptography and includes AI systems among the infrastructure to be assessed.
The deal builds on an earlier acquisition this year, when OPAQUE acquired cryptographic AI technology developed at TII, marking the first time UAE-developed technology of this kind was adopted at scale by a major US technology company.
OPAQUE 3.0 becomes generally available in July 2026, with a wider founding coalition of partners to be announced at launch.
TII operates nine research centres covering advanced materials, autonomous robotics, cryptography, AI and digital science, directed energy, quantum, secure systems, propulsion and space, and renewable energy, as the applied-research pillar of Abu Dhabi’s ATRC.
ZOOM OUT — The OPAQUE 3.0 news follows a deal announced with OPAQUE in May, under which it acquired TII’s confidential AI model training and post-quantum cryptography capabilities outright. The sale was the first time UAE-developed cryptographic AI technology had been acquired and deployed at scale by a US company, and it gave OPAQUE a single platform covering AI training, inference and agent execution with verifiable guarantees at each stage. OPAQUE, backed by a $300 million valuation and customers including ServiceNow, Anthropic and Accenture, said the acquired technology let it move enterprises and sovereign AI programmes into production four to five times faster. The OPAQUE 3.0 partnership extends the TII-OPAQUE relationship to an ongoing role shaping a critical open standard.
[Written and edited with the assistance of AI]
Source: TII
LINKS
US Post-Quantum Cryptography Executive Order (Whitehouse)
Read more about Technology Innovation Institute:
UAE builds national quantum defence layer (Middle East AI News)
TII sells cryptographic AI technology to OPAQUE (Middle East AI News)
Abu Dhabi startup turns CCTV & IoT into live intel (Middle East AI News)
TACTICA AI brings Agentic AI to mission-critical ops (Middle East AI News)
Abu Dhabi’s TII launches Falcon AI models that see (Middle East AI News)