Aramco reports $2.6B in AI value; Saudi names 2026 the Year of AI
Middle East AI News weekly digest...
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Welcome to this week’s Middle East AI News email digest, brought to you by big data analytics and AI company Presight!
As conflict in the Middle East threatens more disruption, many announcements, deals, investments and policy moves continue to take place. This week saw Saudi Aramco announce its annual results for 2025, showing $104.7 billion annual net income and a $2.6 billion value delivered by AI. Saudi Arabia also designated 2026 as the Year of Artificial Intelligence. Meanwhile, Oman revealed that its digital economy has reached OMR 800 million ($2 billion) in value.
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Energy
Aramco reports $2.6 billion AI value in 2025
#Saudi #EnergyTech - Saudi Aramco reported $5.3 billion in Technology Realised Value in 2025 from digital and AI initiatives, including $2.6 billion directly attributed to artificial intelligence across roughly 500 use cases. The gains support Aramco’s wider $104.7 billion annual income and expanding AI computing capacity. (Middle East AI News)
Telecom
GSMA whitepaper confirms AI agents critical for 6G networks
#UAE #agenticAI - GSMA and Khalifa University’s Digital Future Institute have published a whitepaper proposing agentic protocols as a core layer of future 6G telecom networks. The research outlines requirements for secure, telecom-grade multi-agent systems capable of coordinating AI-driven services reliably across global communications infrastructure. (Middle East AI News)
GSMA expands Open Telco AI leaderboard
#Spain #telecom - GSMA has launched Release 3 of its Open Telco AI Leaderboard at MWC Barcelona, expanding the benchmark used to evaluate large language models for telecom applications. Contributors including Khalifa University and Huawei Paris Research Centre added new operator workflow tasks and a broader range of models. (Middle East AI News)
Data Centres
MIS to build $501m AI data centre for HUMAIN
#Saudi #datacentres - Al Moammar Information Systems (MIS) has secured a contract worth about $501 million to design and build an AI-focused private data centre for national AI company HUMAIN. (Zawya)
Infobip opens sovereign data centre in Saudi
#Saudi #sovereignAI - Infobip has launched a sovereign data centre in Saudi Arabia enabling enterprises and government agencies to run AI workloads fully within the Kingdom. The facility meets national data residency requirements while improving latency and reliability for AI-powered customer engagement services. (Middle East AI News)
Funding
Rimal Semiconductors raises funding for chip design
#Saudi #funding - Saudi startup Rimal Semiconductors has secured bridge funding to expand chip design operations and international manufacturing partnerships. Founded in 2025, the fabless company develops high-performance power chips for energy, defence and data centres while distributing fabrication across multiple global foundries. (Middle East AI News)
Ayar Labs raises $500m for optical AI chips
#USA #funding - Ayar Labs has secured $500 million in Series E funding to scale its optical interconnect technology for AI infrastructure. Investors include Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) alongside semiconductor and venture firms. The funding will accelerate production of co-packaged optics designed to cut energy use and boost large-scale data centre performance. (Ayar Labs)
Policy
Saudi declares 2026 the Year of AI
#Saudi #policy - Saudi Arabia’s Council of Ministers has declared 2026 the Year of Artificial Intelligence, reinforcing national AI ambitions. The initiative accompanies government workforce training programmes, a mandatory university AI curriculum, construction of a large government data centre and participation in the Global Partnership on AI. (Middle East AI News)
UNESCO says Oman well placed for ethical AI
#Oman #policy - A UNESCO assessment says Oman is well positioned to lead regional efforts in ethical artificial intelligence governance. The report highlights the country’s national AI policy framework, data protection law and development of the Arabic large language model Mu’een. (Muscat Daily)
Digital Economy
Oman digital economy reaches OMR 800 million
#Oman #digitaleconomy - Oman’s digital economy has reached around OMR 800 million ($2B) in value, driven by government digitalisation programmes, artificial intelligence initiatives and expanding digital infrastructure. The growth forms part of the Sultanate’s Vision 2040 strategy aimed at diversifying the national economy. (Times of Oman)
Bilaterals
South Korea eyes faster AI ties with UAE
#UAE #SouthKorea - South Korea expects artificial intelligence cooperation with the UAE to accelerate once Middle East tensions ease, presidential aide Ha Jung-woo said. Current partnerships includes the U.S.-backed Stargate project to build a major AI data campus, with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix supporting computing infrastructure and energy systems. (Reuters)
Healthcare
Egypt launches national digital pathology network
#Egypt #diagnostics - Egypt’s Ministry of Health and Population has partnered with Roche Diagnostics to establish a national digital pathology network. The initiative will digitise pathology samples and deploy artificial intelligence tools to accelerate cancer diagnosis and improve accuracy across multiple medical centres nationwide. (Daily News Egypt)
Education
Morocco launches tech mentorship for women
#Morocco #education - Morocco’s Ministry of Digital Transition has partnered with Capgemini to launch a national mentorship programme supporting young women entering the technology sector. The initiative advances the Morocco Digital 2030 strategy by providing internships, training and industry mentorship opportunities for female technology graduates. (Morocco World News)
SDAIA launches applied AI bootcamp for engineers
#Saudi #training - SDAIA Academy has launched an Applied Artificial Intelligence Bootcamp in Riyadh to train national talent in advanced AI engineering. Running from March 29 to May 21, the programme will teach Python, ML pipelines, NLP, computer vision and large language model applications to develop agentic AI systems. (SPA)
LLMs
Algeria building national AI models
#Algeria #LLMS - Algeria’s Ministry of Knowledge Economy, Start-ups and Micro-enterprises is developing national AI models tailored to the country’s languages, culture and data. The initiative aims to support economic development and strengthen technological independence. (Radio Algeria)
Agritech
Algeria launches EU-backed agritech incubator
#Algeria #agritech - Algeria’s Ministry of Knowledge Economy, Start-ups and Micro-enterprises has launched an agritech incubation and acceleration programme under the EU-backed Development of Digital and Green Entrepreneurship initiative. Implemented with Germany’s GIZ, the programme supports start-ups building AI, IoT and drone solutions for digital agriculture. (The Startup Scene)
Islam
Dubai introduces AI into Sharia fatwa system
#UAE #Islam - Dubai authorities are deploying artificial intelligence within the emirate’s Sharia fatwa system to speed religious guidance services. The platform uses Arabic language processing and big data tools to help scholars analyse thousands of documented rulings while maintaining human oversight of final decisions. (Voice of Emirates)
[ This newsletter was both AI edited & human edited ]