Good morning!
Welcome to this week’s Middle East AI News email digest, brought to you by big data analytics and AI company Presight!
Lots of news to share this week, including the fund raises of three AI startups! In other news, Dubai creates an AI Acceleration Task Force. KAUST opens a 1,000sqm robotics lab, Khalifa University announces new telecom LLM benchmarks; Jordan opens a digital hub in Aqaba; and Chinese paint robotics company Lianhe Sowell could build a $105 million manufacturing plant in the UAE.
And on today’s Middle East AI News LIVE show at 12 noon KSA / 1pm UAE time, I’ll be talking to HP’s Fadle Saad about HP’s new PC manufacturing plant in Riyadh and a new AI R&D centre in Dhahran. You can watch via LinkedIn or YouTube.
Thank you for reading! And if you’d like to find out more about our Strategic Sponsor Presight, find out more here!
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Funding
TabSense raises $5M for AI restaurant platform
#Saudi #retailtech – Riyadh startup TabSense has raised $5 million from Jasoor Ventures to develop an AI agentic point-of-sale platform for restaurants and cafés. The system uses autonomous AI agents to optimise menus, operations and management for food businesses across the MENA region. (Middle East AI News)
SehaTech secures $1.1 million to expand AI insurtech
#Egypt #insurtech – Cairo-based SehaTech has raised $1.1 million in Seed funding led by Nigeria’s Ingressive Capital, bringing its total to $2 million. The company plans regional expansion of its AI-driven health insurance automation platform to boost efficiency and reduce fraud across Africa and the Middle East. (Middle East AI News)
KLIQ raises $2.25 million for influencer AI platform
#Saudi #martech – Riyadh-based KLIQ has secured $2.25 million in Seed funding led by Sanabil Venture Studio and Germany’s Stryber. The AI-powered influencer marketing platform intelligently matches brands with verified creators, automating contracts and campaign performance tracking. (Middle East AI News)
Manufacturing
Lianhe Sowell to build $105 million robot plant in UAE
#UAE #robotics – China’s Lianhe Sowell has signed a non-binding $105 million financing term sheet to build its first Middle East robot manufacturing and R&D facility in the UAE. Backed by Excellent Capital Investments, the plant could produce thousands of AI-powered industrial robots. (Middle East AI News)
Telecom
Khalifa University launches telecom AI benchmarks
#UAE #LLMs – Abu Dhabi’s Khalifa University has revealed a new telecom AI model benchmarks as part of the GSMA’s Open-Telco LLM Benchmarks 2.0, with a live leaderboard hosted on Hugging Face. The project assesses large language models in network operations, with GPT-5 leading results and domain-tuned systems excelling on specialised telecom tasks. (Middle East AI News)
AI Labs & CoEs
Jordan opens Aqaba Digital Hub for regional connectivity
#Jordan #infrastructure – Jordan has inaugurated the Aqaba Digital Hub, one of the region’s largest infrastructure projects, opened by Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah al-Hashimi. The facility includes the Kingdom’s first marine cable landing station and neutral data exchange centre, positioning Jordan as a new gateway for global cloud and AI-ready data services. (The Jordan Times)
Algeria to open Africa’s largest R&D centre
#Algeria #R&D – Algiers will soon inaugurate Africa’s largest research and development centre to accelerate innovation and strengthen its knowledge economy. The facility partners with leading global tech firms to drive AI and advanced technology research. (AL24 News)
KAUST opens 1,000 m² robotics research bay
#Saudi #robotics – King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) has inaugurated the Robotics Bay, a 1,000-square-metre facility for designing and testing autonomous systems. The centre supports Saudi giga-projects and advances national robotics and AI capabilities. (Middle East AI News)
UM6P and Syensqo form AI lab for green industry
#Morocco #sustainability – Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) has partnered with materials science firm Syensqo to establish an AI research lab in Ben Guerir. The collaboration will apply advanced AI to chemistry and materials innovation, driving sustainable industrial processes and accelerating Morocco’s green technology agenda. (Morocco World News)
Government
Dubai launches AI acceleration taskforce
#UAE #implementation – HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum has unveiled the Dubai AI Acceleration Taskforce to drive adoption across 27 government bodies. The initiative includes an AI Infrastructure Empowerment Platform and Unicorn 30 Programme to support billion-dollar startup creation. (Middle East AI News)
Sovereign AI
e& enterprise unveils sovereign AI platform
#UAE #inference – e& enterprise has launched a sovereign inference AI platform with Intel and Dell Technologies, powered by Intel Gaudi 3 chips. Revealed at GITEX Global 2025, it provides secure, high-performance inferencing for enterprise and government clients across the Middle East. (Middle East AI News)
Deals
Foodics signs $10 million cloud AI deal with AWS
#Saudi #cloud – Riyadh-based Foodics has agreed a $10 million deal with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to boost its AI roadmap. The partnership will deliver predictive, pricing and inventory tools for over 33,000 restaurant branches across the region. (Middle East AI News)
Education
Morocco launches AI training for 200,000 students
#Morocco #training – Morocco has begun a nationwide digital skills initiative to train 200,000 schoolchildren in AI and technology under its Digital Morocco 2030 plan. The pilot, running across twelve cities, aims to foster digital literacy and support the country’s vision for an inclusive, innovation-driven economy. (Ecofin Agency)
Archaeology
Saudi innovator fuses AI with archaeology
#Saudi #archaeology – Al Khobar entrepreneur Hanin Al-Zahrani is combining AI and archaeology through startups ArchTech and AeroQuest, digitising ancient inscriptions and creating immersive heritage tourism experiences aligned with Vision 2030’s cultural preservation goals. (Arab News)
[ This newsletter was both AI edited & human edited ]