This week’s top stories — 5–11 Jul 2026
US eases AI chip exports to UAE; Deutsche Bank expands Qatar research
This was the week that the United States upgraded the UAE’s AI chip export status, clearing G42 to import advanced AI chips without individual export licences. The move marks another milestone in the strategic AI partnership between the two countries.
Elsewhere, Deutsche Bank opened a new research hub in Qatar to strengthen its regional innovation capabilities; Cohere unveiled a leading open-source Arabic speech transcription model and partnered with HUMAIN to build sovereign Arabic AI models; while governments and enterprises across the Middle East accelerated AI deployments in education, healthcare, transport and the public sector.
Here are this week’s biggest AI news stories!
Monday, July 6th
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🔥 startAD launches AI health sector barometer for UAE
52 organisations surveyed, with two implementation playbooks published to accelerate AI adoption across the UAE healthcare sector.
🔥 Abu Dhabi rolls out Microsoft Copilot to 35,000 civil servants
Microsoft deployment spans 27 government entities in one of the region’s largest sovereign AI rollouts.
🔥 Emirates NBD, Techstars launch AI FinTech accelerator
Global founders gain access to Emirates NBD’s banking infrastructure to develop AI-powered financial services.
Tuesday, July 7th
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🔥 Qatar launches Global Alliance for AI Ethics at UN
HBKU’s new alliance aims to develop cross-cultural frameworks for responsible AI governance.
🔥 UAE trains 25,000 teachers in AI in seven weeks
Alef Education delivers the country’s largest AI training programme across 710 schools.
Wednesday, July 8th
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🔥 ASUS, Intel open AI Lab in Ibri area
New AI lab will develop AI skills among students and teachers in Oman’s Al Dhahirah Governorate.
🔥 Presight, Kazakhstan ministry sign deal for AI transport platform
Agreement targets road safety, freight monitoring and smarter transport management.
🔥 TokenAI’s Horus Hiero multimodal AI reads hieroglyphics
AI startup unveils a model capable of interpreting 5,000-year-old Egyptian hieroglyphics.
Thursday, July 9th
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🔥 Cohere launches high accuracy Arabic transcription model
Open-source speech recognition model tops the Arabic ASR leaderboard and outperforms Whisper for Arabic.
🔥 HUMAIN, Cohere to build Arabic AI models
Partnership will develop sovereign Arabic AI models supported by 50MW of AI compute.
Friday, July 10th
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🔥 Deutsche Bank opens Qatar research hub
New centre supports the bank’s Global Hausbank strategy while expanding its long-term research presence in Qatar.
Saturday, July 11th
🔥 US to ease AI chip export rules for UAE
Washington upgrades the UAE’s export status, allowing G42 to import advanced AI chips without individual export licences.
[Summary written by AI and edited by a human]