Why The UAE Is All-In On Artificial Intelligence

The United Arab Emirates is making a transformative bet on artificial intelligence, viewing it as the cornerstone of future economic prosperity and global leadership. The National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence 2031 aims to make the UAE a global AI leader, with AI projected to contribute 335 billion AED—or 20% of the nation's non-oil GDP by 2031. For a country diversifying away from oil, this represents a critical economic shift.

Massive Financial Investments

Abu Dhabi launched MGX in 2023, an AI investment firm targeting $100 billion in assets under management, making it one of the largest AI-focused investment vehicles globally. MGX spans AI infrastructure, semiconductors, and core technologies, investing in major players like OpenAI, Databricks, and xAI. Microsoft's $1.5 billion investment in G42 further demonstrates the scale of capital flowing into UAE AI initiatives, integrating Azure cloud services and establishing a sovereign cloud platform.

World-Class Infrastructure

The UAE is building unprecedented AI infrastructure. OpenAI announced Stargate UAE, a 1-gigawatt AI computing cluster in Abu Dhabi—the world's largest AI data center. The first 200MW is expected operational in 2026, with a planned 5GW UAE–U.S. AI Campus. Khazna Data Centers is constructing three additional AI-optimized facilities across Ajman and Abu Dhabi, while Oracle deployed the Middle East's first NVIDIA Blackwell–powered AI supercluster in Abu Dhabi, enabling local workloads to run without data leaving the country.

Developing World-Class Talent

MBZUAI, the world's first graduate-level institution dedicated exclusively to AI, ranks among the top 10 universities globally in core AI disciplines. It offers 13 master's and PhD programs plus a new bachelor's degree with full scholarships to all students. With 80% of graduates remaining in the UAE, MBZUAI is building a homegrown talent pipeline. The UAE now offers over 44 academic AI programs across institutions, making AI education a national strategic priority.

Sovereign AI Technology

Rather than relying exclusively on Western AI models, the Technology Innovation Institute developed the Falcon LLM series—powerful large language models made freely available globally. Falcon 40B ranked as the number one LLM on Hugging Face's leaderboard, while Falcon 3 (launched December 2024) democratizes AI access by operating efficiently on standard infrastructure. TII also developed Noor, the world's largest Arabic LLM, ensuring AI technologies benefit Arabic-speaking populations.

AI-Powered Government Transformation

The UAE Pass digital identity platform powers AI-driven services across agencies. Dubai's Paperless Strategy eliminated 336 million paper transactions annually, saving 1.3 billion sheets of paper. Healthcare is being transformed through voice recognition systems implemented in 82 hospitals, with 1,200 active doctors utilizing AI systems achieving 97.6% clinical documentation accuracy. Abu Dhabi launched the Global AI Healthcare Academy to train healthcare professionals in AI adoption.

Global Expansion

In November 2025, the UAE announced $1 billion in African AI infrastructure investment, positioning itself as a global AI leader beyond the region.

Strategic Imperatives

The UAE's AI investment stems from three drivers: economic diversification away from oil, technological sovereignty through homegrown capabilities, and regional and global leadership. The country now holds over 188,000 AI chips, second only to the United States. For businesses and content creators in the UAE, understanding this transformation is essential—AI will increasingly embed itself in government services, business operations, and consumer experiences across the Emirates.