This was the week that Saudi Arabia unveiled the Riyadh Digital District, a new technology hub spanning AI, cybersecurity and robotics, as the Kingdom pushes ahead with its ambitions to become a major global technology centre.
In other news, HUMAIN announced major partnerships with Mistral and Microsoft focused on AI development, infrastructure and Arabic-language models; Qatar added AI and data science to its new school curriculum; Abu Dhabi’s Technology Innovation Institute joined AMD and Intel to help establish a new AI trust standard; and Dubai made its AI-powered government workforce productivity system a permanent framework covering 32 entities.
Here are this week’s biggest AI news stories!
Sunday, August 23rd
🔥 ‘UAE AI Program’ opens 7th cohort for admissions
‘UAE AI Program’ adds Agentic AI focus, targets national leaders
🔥 Syira AI launches with Doha office
New firm targets six regional industries, six products span education to procurement
Monday, August 24th
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🔥 Dubai government adopts AI workforce productivity system
Five-year pilot becomes permanent framework, covering 32 entities
🔥 Dubai startup launches verifiable AI inference service for SMEs
Lower-cost GPU access targets UAE SMEs, customers can verify data protection
Tuesday, August 25th
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🔥 e& bundles Microsoft Copilot into fibre plans
UAE SMEs to get AI, fibre and tools all via one package and one bill
🔥 New Mistral-HUMAIN deal worth hundreds of millions
Mistral, HUMAIN partner on AI development, infrastructure and cybersecurity
Wednesday, August 26th
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🔥 LEAP 2026 returns to Riyadh with strong AI focus
Over 1,800 tech firms expected at fifth edition of LEAP next week
🔥 HUMAIN Arabic models coming to Microsoft’s AI platforms
HUMAIN, Microsoft announce AI partnership, with focus on Arabic AI
🔥 Abu Dhabi’s TII helps found AI trust standard
TII joins AMD, Intel to build TRACE standard to verify what AI agents actually do
🔥 Otech and DeepAstra launch sovereign AI platform
Pay-per-use platform, single API gives access to multiple AI models
Thursday, August 27th
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🔥 Riyadh Digital District launched as future global tech hub
New district will span AI, cybersecurity and robotics
🔥 Qatar adds more AI to new school curriculum
Education ministry adds new subjects from AI and data science, to entrepreneurship
🔥 UAE, Saudi telcos bet big on AI networks
Ciena survey: AI networking rush in Gulf, telcos expect AI services to drive revenue
Friday, August 28th
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Saturday, August 29th
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[ This newsletter was both AI edited & human edited ]