The United Arab Emirates achieved significant strategic milestones in artificial intelligence in 2025, confidently advancing towards building one of the world's most powerful digital infrastructures and solidifying its position as a pivotal nation shaping the new global economy. The adoption rate of AI tools in the country reached 97%, the highest globally, while the number of programmers surpassed 450,000. The international scene was marked by extensive UAE-led initiatives in AI. In 2025, the UAE-French framework for AI cooperation was launched, encompassing projects in renewable energy and advanced semiconductors, as well as the development of joint research platforms. Additionally, investments were announced in a one-gigawatt computing complex in France. A major turning point was the establishment of the UAE-American AI complex in Abu Dhabi with a capacity of 5 gigawatts, now the largest supercomputing facility outside the United States. This project provides computational power capable of serving billions of users, relying on diverse energy sources including nuclear, solar, and gas. The UAE also announced the 'Stargate UAE' project, a one-gigawatt initiative in partnership with G42, OpenAI, Oracle, Cisco, SoftBank, and Nvidia. It will feature the latest Grace Blackwell GB300 chips, making it one of the largest advanced computing clusters in the region. The first phase is scheduled to begin operation in 2026, with infrastructure being implemented within the new UAE-American complex. This year, Mubadala Investment Company (MIC) announced an expansion of its AI infrastructure partnership with BlackRock and Microsoft, to which Nvidia and C3.ai have also joined. The goal is to invest in next-generation data centers and advanced energy solutions, with a total potential investment of up to $100 billion. The UAE launched an AI system to support the international agricultural sector in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, valued at $200 million, announced during the COP28 conference. At the G20 summit, the UAE unveiled the 'AI for Development' initiative, valued at $1 billion, to support AI projects in African nations. Emirati companies continued their global AI activities; Presight opened a 'smart cities' lab in Kazakhstan to support digital transformation programs in Central Asia. The 'UAE-American AI Corridor' was also announced, facilitating the flow of advanced semiconductors to national companies. The UAE unveiled the world's first AI-driven legislative system for analyzing laws, assessing legislative impact, and preparing public policies. Furthermore, the Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Scholarship for Excellence in AI was launched to support outstanding undergraduate students at Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence. An intelligent HR assistant was introduced, offering 108 services covering various government procedures and serving over 50,000 employees, saving thousands of man-hours annually. The 'Jais 2' model, the world's most advanced open-weight Arabic language model, was also launched. Developed from scratch with 70 billion parameters and trained on the largest and richest homegrown Arabic dataset to date, it represents a leap forward in regional AI capabilities. The UAE continued to produce high-quality AI models, including the advanced 'K2 Think' reasoning model, one of the most sophisticated in open-domain linguistic reasoning. The 'AI in Action' index was launched to measure AI models' alignment with Emirati culture through 250 cultural indicators, making it a global first. Total investments directed towards artificial intelligence exceeded AED 543 billion in 2024 and 2025, with various international companies like Microsoft and KKR announcing significant investments within the country.
