Good morning!
Welcome to this week’s Middle East AI News email digest!
Another busy week for AI across the Middle East, with investment, infrastructure and adoption continuing to accelerate. In today’s edition, Microsoft commits more than $10 billion across four Gulf markets; Abu Dhabi prepares to host 400-plus AI builders and startups; NVIDIA expands its Egypt ecosystem to more than 200 startups; UAE manufacturers lead surveyed markets in industrial AI adoption; and Saudi Arabia’s AI business registrations jump 31 percent to 24,552.
Scroll down for more news!
And don’t forget Ai Everything Abu Dhabi is coming up fast! October 6th and 7th. So, if you haven’t yet registered for the event, here’s the link!
Thanks for reading!
/Carrington
Investment
Microsoft adds $2B to Gulf investment plans
#GCC #investment - Microsoft will invest more than $10 billion across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait through 2030, including roughly $2 billion in new spending. Plans cover cloud infrastructure, more than $400 million in connectivity, digital resilience, cybersecurity cooperation and skills programmes targeting 4.2 million people. (Middle East AI News)
Ai Everything Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi AI expo to host 400 builders
#UAE #AiEvertying - Ai Everything Abu Dhabi will bring more than 400 AI builders and startups from 60 countries to ADNEC Centre in October. Abu Dhabi’s Department of Government Enablement (DGE) will showcase its push for an AI-native government by 2027, alongside 180-plus speakers including Mistral CEO Arthur Mensch and Boston Dynamics founder Marc Raibert. (Middle East AI News)
Startups
NVIDIA expands Egypt startup ecosystem
#Egypt #startups - NVIDIA says more than 200 Egyptian startups now participate in its Inception programme, while its local developer community exceeds 46,000. The company is preparing a strategic partnership with ITIDA to support startups, technology talent and locally developed AI applications as Egypt seeks commercial growth from its engineering base. (Saudi Press Agency)
Stone Venture leads GENISOM AI Series B
#China #funding - GENISOM AI has completed a Series B funding round worth several hundred million yuan, led by UAE-based Stone Venture. The Chinese robotics company says the capital will support technology development and overseas expansion, including potential applications in energy, security and emergency response markets. (EqualOcean)
Arabic AI
TokenAI open-sources 6bn-token Arabic model
#Egypt #Arabic - Alexandria-based TokenAI has open-sourced Horus Taleeq 0.2B Base, an Arabic-only language model trained from scratch on 6 billion Arabic tokens. Training code and data sources are also available under an MIT licence. The model was trained in 30 hours on a single NVIDIA Blackwell server. (Middle East AI News)
AI drones
UAE drone study finds reliability gaps in AI models
#UAE #research - Researchers at UAE University, Khalifa University and Abu Dhabi’s Technology Innovation Institute tested 29 foundation models on 10,178 drone decisions. GPT-5.3 Chat achieved 52 percent accuracy on unseen tests, while every model performed worse on fresh scenarios than on tuning data, exposing significant reliability gaps. (Middle East AI News)
Education
SDAIA applies new data and AI training standards
#Saudi #training - SDAIA has begun applying new standards to data and artificial intelligence training programmes in Saudi Arabia, initially covering 10 programmes. The authority has also launched four professional data-management certifications, extending its efforts to formalise skills development and strengthen nationally recognised capabilities across the Kingdom’s data economy. (Daily News Egypt)
SDAIA launches five data and AI skills frameworks
#Saudi #training - SDAIA has launched five frameworks to strengthen Saudi Arabia’s data and artificial intelligence capabilities across education, training and professional development. They set standards for academic and training programmes, K-12 competencies, professional roles and university learning outcomes, with responsible use and labour-market alignment built in. (Saudi Press Agency)
Egypt expands AI programmes across universities
#Egypt #education - More than 100 faculties and institutes in Egypt now offer computer science and artificial intelligence programmes, as universities broaden strategies for AI in teaching and research. More than four million students are expected across 131 universities and 185 institutes during the new academic year. (State Information Service)
Manufacturing
UAE manufacturers lead industrial AI adoption
#UAE #manufacturing - Schneider Electric says 23 percent of surveyed UAE food and beverage manufacturers now consider AI core to operations, versus 16.3 percent globally. Another 59 percent expect transformational adoption by 2030. Cost remains the leading barrier, while 38 percent identify cybersecurity as a major priority. (Middle East AI News)
Government
Abu Dhabi council deploys agentic AI platform
#UAE #agenticAI - Abu Dhabi Executive Council has used an agentic AI platform during a meeting for the first time. The system analyses agenda items, prepares summaries, provides real-time fact-checking and analysis, then generates minutes and action summaries, with outputs traceable to source documents for greater transparency. (Middle East AI News)
Jordan launches public-sector digital framework
#Jordan #digitalgovernment - Jordan has launched Irtiqa, a national framework to measure digital maturity across the public sector. It sets 34 standards across 10 areas and 16 dimensions, with an initial assessment covering 34 government entities. The Prime Minister’s Digital Transformation Unit will oversee implementation and improvement planning. (Petra)
Aviation
Dubai Police expands AI across airport security
#UAE #security - Dubai Police says it secured 95.2 million passengers and more than 86.75 million pieces of baggage at Dubai airports in 2025. AI-enabled screening, unattended-baggage detection and camera analysis are expanding, while more than 4,500 airport security employees have received specialised training. (Khaleej Times)
Wearables
Meta launches UAE wearables programme
#UAE #wearables - Meta, the UAE Cyber Security Council and Startupbootcamp have launched Wearables Studio UAE, giving students, developers and startups access to Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta smart glasses, technical training and mentorship. The programme targets several sectors, with three winning teams sharing $10,000. (Middle East AI News)
AI Business
Saudi AI registrations rise 31% to 24,552
#Saudi #licencing - Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Commerce says commercial registrations for artificial intelligence activities rose 31 percent year on year to 24,552. The Kingdom, which designated 2026 its Year of Artificial Intelligence, is also recording strong growth in logistics, cybersecurity, virtual reality, gaming and e-commerce. (Arab News)
AI Strategy
Egypt targets $8B digital exports by 2028
#Egypt #AIstrategy - Egypt is accelerating investment in artificial intelligence, cloud computing, data centres and 5G, with digital exports targeted to reach $8 billion by 2028. Its Karnak AI programme is developing Arabic generative AI capabilities, while government initiatives are expanding unified digital services and stronger online protections for children. (Egypt Independent)
Algeria moves national AI strategy into rollout
#Algeria #AIstrategy - Algeria’s national artificial intelligence strategy is moving into implementation, with committees setting priorities for infrastructure, data, training and funding. A new AI research centre is also advancing through legal procedures, signalling a shift from strategic planning towards institution-building and execution across the country’s emerging AI ecosystem. (DZ Watch)
Telecom
Vodafone Egypt deploys Ericsson AI RAN processor
#Egypt #telecom - Vodafone Egypt has commercially deployed Ericsson’s AI-powered RAN Processor 6672, a 5G Advanced-ready platform capable of delivering up to four times higher processing capacity while cutting energy use by more than 50 percent. It also allows AI workloads to run directly at radio sites. (Ericsson)
[ This newsletter was both AI edited & human edited ]