Another week, another emirate—and another big AI play. Hello this week from Dubai, where I’ve been attending the third Dubai AI festival in downtown Dubai that ran across Monday and Tuesday. The event brought together more than 20,000 participants from 100 countries, along with 500 investors and 200 exhibitors.
Interestingly, more than 100 Chinese technology companies were exhibiting, alongside a dedicated pavilion showcasing 23 Indian firms specializing in cloud, data center, and GPU infrastructure.
Dubai’s most high-profile AI champion, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, crown prince of Dubai, also made an appearance on the opening day.
Along with touring numerous pavilions, the crown prince announced he was raising the targets for the Dubai AI Campus, aiming to attract more than 1,000 specialized AI companies and create over 5,000 highly skilled jobs by 2030.
The campus has already attracted more than 500 AI companies and over AED 1 billion ($272 million) in private equity and venture capital investment since its launch in May 2024, according to the Dubai government.
It has also helped generate more than 2,000 specialized technology jobs, reaching its original five-year employment targets two years ahead of schedule.
Located in the Dubai International Finance Center (DIFC), the campus offers a dedicated AI licence built on DIFC’s independent legal framework, and facilitates tech partnerships with companies including Amazon Web Services, HP, Microsoft, Oracle and Nvidia.
In May this year, Sheikh Hamdan announced that his goal was to make Dubai the world’s leading city for the economic and commercial adoption of agentic AI.
Arguably, the biggest corporate news story to emerge from the festival was the announcement by U.S. tech company Scale AI that it is now open for business in the UAE after establishing an office at the DIFC.
Valued at $29 billion following a major investment led by Meta Platforms in June last year, Scale AI partners with the world’s leading frontier AI labs, developing evaluations and benchmarks to assess the performance and capabilities of advanced AI models. It then applies these to help businesses and governments build, test, and deploy reliable AI systems.
The company already lists Meta, Cisco, Instacart, Nvidia, OpenAI, Microsoft, and Time, as well as the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army, among its clients.
Speaking at a signing ceremony at the festival, Trevor Thompson, global managing director at Scale AI, noted how the UAE has set a “clear, ambitious vision for AI and is now putting it to work across government and the economy,” adding that the company’s plans will complement the UAE’s digital ambitions.
“Making our home at DIFC is a long-term commitment,” he said. “We are here to help UAE institutions build AI they can trust and use for their most critical use cases and important decisions.”
The importance of data quality and trustworthy AI was an issue highlighted at the Dubai AI Festival by H.E. Younus Al Nasser, CEO of Dubai Data & Statistics Establishment at Digital Dubai, as I expand on in my article here.
“An era in which AI provides trusted information is crucial, as it empowers us to analyze data more effectively and derive meaningful insights,” Al Nasser said. “In turn, this is enabling faster, more reliable, and more informed decision-making across the city of Dubai.”
Earlier this month, Scale AI signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Abu Dhabi-headquartered Presight, a global leader in applied AI, to jointly design, build, and refine high-performing, reliable AI solutions for government and enterprise customers in the UAE, as well as to accelerate responsible AI adoption across the region.
Scale AI already has a track record elsewhere in the Gulf; it has trained or upskilled nearly 6,000 people in Qatar, with applications it developed now integrated into everyday life across the country.
Melissa Hancock
And as ever, thanks for reading, and do keep in touch with your thoughts and ideas.
melissa.hancock@fortune.com
Old rivals, new realities
Qatar looks to U.S. to shore up gas supplies
The toll of the Iran war on Qatar’s LNG exports has come into sharp focus over the last week.
Qatar ranked as the world’s second-largest LNG exporter in 2025 with 18.7% of global supplies, placing it behind the U.S. which topped the ranking with 25.3% of supplies. Now the Gulf nation is looking to the U.S., its key competitor in the market, to meet its supply needs.
Last Thursday, state-owned QatarEnergy agreed to purchase four million metric tons of LNG per year from U.S. supplier Cheniere Energy under a long-term contract running until 2054, with shipments scheduled to begin in the 2030s.
Two million metric tons per year (mpta) will be sourced from Cheniere’s Sabine Pass facility in Louisiana, and another 2 mtpa will come from its Corpus Christi terminal in Texas.
The state-owned oil and gas giant is also in advanced talks with the U.S.’s Venture Global for a long-term supply deal to buy at least 3 million mpta of LNG, according to Reuters. QatarEnergy has already been buying LNG on the spot market from Venture Global to supply some of its customers.
It is also reportedly in talks with the U.S.’s Woodside Energy to buy up to 3 million mpta of LNG for 15 to 20 years.
Qatar, along with other Gulf states such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia, has been striking deals across the globe to shore up gas supplies to serve customers when domestic exports are under strain.
Qatar’s exports between April and the end of September dropped by almost 90% compared with the same period last year due to the ongoing blockade on the Strait of Hormuz and damage from Iranian strikes, which have knocked out nearly a fifth of its export capacity.
QatarEnergy has been forced to declare force majeure on numerous LNG contracts since the onset of the U.S.-Iran war in February.
On Tuesday, QatarEnergy further extended a force majeure clause with Italy’s utility company Edison, delaying delivery of LNG cargoes to the company until the end of December.
However, on a state visit to Qatar last week, French President Emmanuel Macron signed an agreement with Doha to secure 2 TWh of LNG per month this winter.
Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani is currently in Moscow to attend the Gas Exporting Countries Forum.
Apollo deepens Abu Dhabi ties
Apollo deal will help Mubadala Capital reach broader global investor base
The U.S.’s Apollo Global Management has acquired a 10% stake in Mubadala Capital, investing just over $1 billion to support the Abu Dhabi-based asset firm’s expansion.
Under the deal, other strategic investors will also take minority stakes in Mubadala Capital and, alongside Apollo, are expected to commit a combined $5 billion to the firm’s investment strategies at the initial close.
The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026, subject to regulatory and legal approvals.
Apollo, which manages more than $1 trillion in assets, said its investment will “help the firm broaden its investor base, expand its strategies, and pursue new opportunities globally”.
The deal will deepen existing ties between Apollo and Mubadala, which include a multibillion-dollar partnership focused on global origination opportunities.
“Apollo has been a trusted partner to Mubadala and across Abu Dhabi for many years, and we look forward to working even more closely with them as a shareholder,” said Hani Barhoush, CEO of Mubadala Capital.
Established in 2011 as the alternative asset management arm of the $385 billion Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala, the firm has grown rapidly with its core alternatives business overseeing more than $60 billion in assets across five investment strategies today.
Last year, the firm formed a $1 billion strategic partnership with New York-based investment firm Fortress to invest in private credit, following an earlier partnership with Goldman Sachs.
However, the Apollo deal marks only the third time that Mubadala Capital has agreed to sell an ownership stake to an external investor.
Last year, TWG Global, led by Mark Walter, agreed to acquire a 5% stake in the firm as part of a broader strategic partnership between the two companies.
However, the transaction was delayed by a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into Walter’s business interests, and no funds had changed hands as of August, Bloomberg reported.
In 2024, Mubadala Capital also agreed to offer equity stakes as part of its acquisition of a 42% interest in Silver Rock Financial, a credit-focused asset manager.
From clicks to cash
YouTube turns UAE and Saudi creators into shopfronts
YouTube has launched its Shopping affiliate programme in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, allowing smaller content creators to earn commissions when viewers buy products they recommend—without needing a massive following or relying entirely on brand deals.
Launched on Monday, the programme allows eligible creators with as few as 500 subscribers to tag products in videos, Shorts, and livestreams.
Amazon is the service’s first retail partner, with more retailers expected to join in the future, according to YouTube.
The U.S. online video-sharing and social media platform reported that more than 40 million logged-in users across five MENA markets—the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco, and Algeria—made shopping-related searches on the platform in June 2026.
The Big Number
$1 billion
Emirates NBD, Dubai’s largest bank by assets, is marketing a syndicated loan of up to $1 billion to Asian banks, with a base of $500 million and an option to increase it by a further $500 million. The planned borrowing follows a series of financing deals secured by major Middle Eastern companies from Asian lenders in recent months, including Qatar National Bank, Boubyan Bank, and QatarEnergy.
The 3 things we enjoyed reading this week
- Researchers at Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) in Abu Dhabi have won an international award for developing Janus AI, a tool designed to assist surgeons during robotic operations. The system analyzes live surgical footage and retrieves short clips from similar past procedures, allowing doctors to compare approaches and receive real-time visual guidance. Developed in collaboration with surgeons at the University of Illinois Chicago and researchers at the University of Turin, it aims to support decision-making and help less-experienced surgeons learn from previous operations.
Iraq and Pakistan have closed key border crossings with Iran, intensifying the country’s economic isolation amid U.S. sanctions, a naval blockade, and restrictions on aviation and banking. The closures are adding to congestion at land borders, which are already struggling to compensate for reduced maritime shipping capacity and contain rising prices of essential goods for Iranian consumers. Iranian households have reportedly lost 90% of their purchasing power in the past year, while food prices have risen by 128%. Iran’s already struggling economy faces further destabilization. On Thursday, the value of the Iranian rial fell to a new low of 2,740,000 against the U.S. dollar.
- Sotheby’s will hold its first fine art auction in Abu Dhabi on December 10, titled “Breaking Ground,” with works by Claude Monet and Andy Warhol going under the hammer alongside paintings by pioneering Emirati artists such as Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim, Hassan Sharif, and Najat Makki. Two artists, Nujoom Al-Ghanem and Nasser Al-Yousif, will be introduced to auction for the first time, with the sale highlighting women artists including Huguette Caland, Etel Adnan, and Fahrelnissa Zeid. The sale falls a day before Guggenheim Abu Dhabi opens and follows Christie’s first fine art auction in the city and the inaugural Frieze Abu Dhabi.