The United Arab Emirates has emerged as a global frontrunner in artificial intelligence (AI) in 2025, marking a transformative year that positioned the country as a key player in shaping the future of the digital economy. According to official data, the UAE achieved the highest AI tool usage worldwide at an impressive 97% adoption rate, with more than 450,000 developers contributing to this digital revolution.
Strategic Global Partnerships and Mega Projects
Throughout 2025, the UAE spearheaded several high-impact global initiatives, strengthening its international presence in the AI ecosystem. Among the highlights was the launch of the UAE-France AI cooperation framework, which included collaborative projects in renewable energy, advanced semiconductors, and joint research platforms. This initiative also featured a massive investment in a 1-gigawatt computing hub in France.
In a landmark move, the UAE and the U.S. partnered to develop a 5-gigawatt AI supercomputing hub in Abu Dhabi, now the largest AI compute cluster outside of the United States. Powered by a mix of nuclear, solar, and gas energy sources, this infrastructure aims to support billions of users globally.
Stargate UAE: A New Era in Advanced Processing
Another major announcement was the Stargate UAE project, launched in collaboration with major global tech players such as G42, OpenAI, Oracle, Cisco, SoftBank, and NVIDIA. The project, with a compute capacity of 1 gigawatt, will house cutting-edge Grace Blackwell GB300 chips, making it one of the region’s largest advanced processing facilities. The first operational phase is scheduled for 2026, integrated into the newly established UAE-US AI complex.
Record-Breaking Investments in AI Infrastructure
The UAE’s private sector also made waves in 2025. Emirati firm MGX, in partnership with BlackRock and Microsoft, welcomed NVIDIA and xAI into its AI infrastructure consortium. The collaboration aims to build next-generation data centers and advanced energy solutions, with potential investments totaling $100 billion.
Additionally, the UAE committed $200 million in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop an AI-driven agricultural system supporting global food security. This initiative was unveiled during COP28.
At the G20 Summit, the UAE announced a $1 billion “AI for Development” fund, aimed at fostering AI projects across African nations.
Innovation and Regulation at Home and Abroad
The UAE’s AI efforts extended beyond infrastructure into regulation and public services. The government introduced the world’s first AI-based legislative framework, capable of analyzing laws, forecasting impacts, and guiding policymaking.
Locally, Emirati companies continued to expand their footprint, with Presight AI opening a smart city lab in Kazakhstan to support Central Asia’s digital transformation. The launch of the UAE-US AI Corridor further accelerated the flow of advanced semiconductors into national industries.
The government also launched the Tahnoun Bin Zayed AI Excellence Grant to support top AI students at Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence.
AI-Powered Governance and Linguistic Innovation
One of the most practical AI deployments in 2025 was the introduction of an AI-powered HR assistant offering 108 government services to over 50,000 employees, saving thousands of work hours annually.
In the field of language AI, the UAE released Jais 2, the world’s most advanced open-weight Arabic large language model, built from scratch using 70 billion parameters and trained on the largest native Arabic dataset to date.
The UAE also developed K2 Think, one of the most sophisticated open-domain reasoning models, and introduced “AI in the Field”, a unique index that evaluates AI models’ alignment with Emirati culture based on 250 cultural indicators — a global first.
AI Investment Surpasses AED 543 Billion
Crowning a year of unprecedented progress, total AI-related investments in the UAE reached AED 543 billion ($148 billion USD) across 2024 and 2025. Tech giants such as Microsoft and KKR announced major investments within the country, further solidifying the UAE’s role as a global AI powerhouse.
