Last month, the UAE made headlines by participating in the most lucrative funding round in Silicon Valley history: the US$ 6.6 billion deal closed by OpenAI. The investment was made through MGX, a state-backed technology firm focused on artificial intelligence and semiconductors.
The move was part of the UAE's bid to become a global AI leader by 2031 through strategic initiatives, public engagement, and research investment. Last year, the country's wealthiest emirate, Abu Dhabi, launched Falcon — its first open-source large language model.
State-backed AI firm G42 is also training large language models in Arabic and Hindi to bridge the gap between English-based models and native speakers of these languages.
Another indication of the UAE's commitment to AI is its appointment of Omar Sultan Al Olama as the country's AI Minister in 2017.
The minister acknowledges that the UAE faces tough competition from powerhouses like the United States and China, where private investment in AI technology in 2023 totaled US$ 67.2 billion and US$ 7.8 billion, respectively, according to Stanford's Center for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence.
So he says he is embracing cooperation over competition.
"I don't think it's going to be a zero-sum game where it's only going to be AI that's developed in the US, or only going to be AI that's developed in China or the UAE," Al Olama said at an event hosted by the Atlantic Council, a DC think tank, in April.
"What is going to happen, I think, is that we're going to have centers and nodes of excellence across the world where there are specific use cases or specific domains where a country or player or a company is doing better than everyone else," Al Olama added.
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