G42 and Santander sign AI partnership for global collaboration
Agentic AI platform Catalyst to underpin co-development across Santander’s operations
#UAE #banking – Abu Dhabi-based global technology group G42 and Madrid-headquartered global banking group Banco Santander have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop joint artificial intelligence initiatives across banking intelligence, agentic financial services and large-scale AI infrastructure. The co-development partnership combines Santander’s banking scale, customer relationships and regulatory expertise, spanning 176 million customers across 6,600 branches globally, with G42’s AI, cloud and infrastructure capabilities. Two G42 companies are expected to lead joint development: agentic AI company Inception, which will contribute its Catalyst platform, and applied AI company Presight, which will focus on building a personalised AI-powered financial intelligence layer for Santander customers.
SO WHAT? – This is G42’s first truly global deal with a banking group and Santander is one of the world’s largest banks. The co-development partnership validates G42’s proposition that its sovereign, institution-grade AI can compete at global scale. Bringing in G42’s agentic infrastructure seems to indicate that Santander, has already taken the decision that AI will be foundational to its future operating model. So, the combined commitment and resources of G42 and Santander could prove to be benchmark setting for agentic AI deployment in the banking sector.
KEY POINTS:
G42 and Banco Santander have signed an MOU establishing a framework for strategic AI cooperation, structured as a co-development partnership across banking intelligence, agentic financial services, and large-scale AI infrastructure spanning Santander’s global operation.
Banco Santander is one of the world’s largest banks by market capitalisation, with €1.4 trillion in total funds. The bank has more than 176 million customers, 6,600 branches and 185,000 employees as of the first quarter of 2026. It operates across retail, commercial, investment banking, wealth management and payments.
G42’s agentic AI company Inception will contribute its agentic platform, Catalyst, as the technical foundation for joint development.
G42’s applied AI company Presight will focus on building a personalised financial intelligence layer. AI-powered agents will be designed to know, anticipate and act for individual customers within boundaries they set, extending a level of personalised service previously available only to private banking clients.
The partnership is framed as co-development, with Santander contributing banking domain expertise and real-world use cases to pressure-test G42’s agentic platform in one of the most demanding institutional environments globally.
Initial workstreams include AI-enabled advisory and savings solutions for banking customers and a banking intelligence layer spanning Santander’s entire global operation. Each workstream will be governed separately, with commercially binding arrangements subject to full regulatory and governance approvals.
The collaboration is one of the largest enterprise agentic AI mandates in European and Latin American banking, with the potential to set a global benchmark for AI innovation in financial services.
The deal is also unprecedented for a UAE company bringing a locally developed technology portfolio to a global multinational business on this scale.
ZOOM OUT – The Santander deal is the latest in a sequence of financial sector partnerships for Presight over the past year. The company signed an agreement with First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), the UAE’s largest bank by total assets, to deploy AI and data analytics across customer intelligence, resource planning and commercial growth operations, building on pilot programmes already delivered. Presight also signed an MOU with HSBC UAE to deploy AI across risk and compliance, human capital intelligence and client acquisition, and partnered with the UAE Central Bank-backed Emirates Institute of Finance Innovation Hub to develop financial services AI use cases. In addition, Presight launched a joint venture with the UAE Central Bank itself to develop and maintain critical financial market infrastructure: a mandate that places it at the heart of the UAE's sovereign financial system.
[Written and edited with the assistance of AI]
Source: G42, Santander
Read more about G42 Group’s work in the banking sector:
FAB partners with Presight on AI-Driven banking strategy (Middle East AI News)
HSBC UAE and Presight partner on AI (Middle East AI News)
UAE finance institute partners to explore banking use cases (Middle East AI News)
UAE central bank, Presight form AI fintech joint venture (Middle East AI News)