This was the week that Abu Dhabi’s G42 announced five memoranda of understanding in Greece, paving the way for an AI factory and smart city projects; Saudi Arabia’s HUMAIN revealed plans to deploy 27,000 NVIDIA GPUs across 84MW of AI infrastructure; and Qatar approved the creation of a new National Center for AI to drive the country’s AI strategy and regulation.
In other news, a new survey revealed that 82% of GCC professionals use AI weekly, despite limited formal AI training; Emirates NBD became the first bank in the Middle East and North Africa to use OpenAI’s in-country inference in the UAE; and G42 signed agreements with Yann LeCun’s AMI Labs to explore world models. Meanwhile, Egypt launched its Chat EGYPT platform to combat misinformation, Ericsson predicted growing network demand from AI agents, and UAE startups secured new investment for AI-powered brand intelligence and filmmaking.
Here are this week’s biggest AI news stories!
Monday, October 19th
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🔥 Emirates NBD first MENA bank on OpenAI’s in-country inference
Emirates NBD to run OpenAI models according to UAE data residency rules
🔥 Ayan raises AED 2.2M to track what AI tells shoppers
Dubai-based Ayan lands pre-seed funding as AI shapes brand choice
🔥 Popcorn AI Studio raises $1m pre-seed for AI filmmaking
Emirati investor backs AI video startup with $1m, targets Arabic AI filmmaking
Tuesday, October 20th
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🔥 Egypt launches ‘Chat EGYPT’ AI platform to counter rumours
Platform analyses text, images and video against official data
🔥 Qatar to create National Center for AI to drive AI strategy
Qatar sets up national body to lead national AI strategy and regulation
🔥 G42, AMI Labs sign MoUs on world models
G42 signs non-binding AI deals with Yann LeCun’s world model company
🔥 UAE marketers use AI but struggle with integration
91% of UAE marketing teams use AI on disconnected systems
Wednesday, October 21st
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🔥 Hyperfusion, VAST Data launch containerised AI data centre
Hyperfusion’s Sentinel provides sovereign, air-gapped inference
🔥 Ericsson study: AI agents will reshape network demand
63% of UAE smartphone users will delegate to AI: UAE doubles AI agent use
Thursday, October 22nd
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🔥 82% of GCC professionals use AI weekly, few are AI-trained - survey
Confidence gap: trained staff are 2.5 times more confident with AI
🔥 HUMAIN plans 27,000 NVIDIA GPUs across 84MW
Announced at GTC Berlin as HUMAIN scales AI factories; to deploy Vera Rubin
Friday, October 23rd
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🔥 G42 takes its Intelligence Grid to Greece signing five MoUs
Abu Dhabi’s G42 plans Greek AI factory, smart city projects
[ This summary was AI written and human edited ]