👋 Hello from the Middle East!

Today we’re looking at the UAE’s new $200 million fund for exporting technology to poorer countries, Saudi Arabia’s collaboration with Canada’s Northstar on tracking space debris, Mubadala CEO Khaldoon Al Mubarak’s views on upcoming investment opportunities and a report on the MENA region’s e-commerce boom. But first, is consensus building for how to govern AI?

OpenAI’s Sam Altman had two suggestions for the UAE’s Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence Omar Al Olama at the World Governments Summit earlier today. Altman said that the UAE could be the world’s regulatory sandbox to experiment with AI technologies and the country is well placed to lead the formation of a global AI watchdog.

“It’s very hard to get all the regulatory ideas right in a vacuum,” Altman said while appearing via video, adding that allowing experimentation and running scenarios would make for better laws governing the fast-evolving technology. The ChatGPT creator repeated a recommendation that both he and Al Olama have made in the past: that there should be an oversight body like the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to address open existential questions. “What happens with the most powerful of these systems?” Altman said. “What sort of auditing, safety measures do we want in place before we deploy a super-intelligence?”

The conversation onstage in Dubai comes as Altman looks to raise trillions of dollars to amass the semiconductors needed to power advanced AI, and is reportedly courting the UAE as an investor. The UAE has made AI leadership, with Abu Dhabi-backed G42 at the forefront, the foundation of its economic transformation aims. As a result, the country has become a crossroads for some of the biggest players in AI. Later this week Nvidia, in partnership with Microsoft, will host an event for generative AI content creators in Abu Dhabi. Founder Jensen Huang appeared at WGS on Monday.

The United Arab Emirates is launching a $200 million fund to export advanced technologies to poorer nations, unveiling the project on the sidelines of the World Governments Summit in Dubai on Monday.

Financed by the Abu Dhabi government, the fund will be overseen by the Advanced Technology Research Council, the country’s applied research and development arm.

ATRC Secretary General Faisal Al Bannai said the aim is to open up technologies devised in the UAE to governments and organizations in less developed nations.

“We will have the country become a private client for us to test what they need solved,” he said.

The solution would either be donated to the country or sold to it at an affordable price, according to ATRC. 

Also on Tuesday, Abu Dhabi formed the non-profit Falcon Foundation, with an initial funding of $300 million to back sustainable open-source AI projects.

OpenAI’s Sam Altman had two suggestions for the UAE’s Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence Omar Al Olama at the World Governments Summit in Dubai on Tuesday.

Altman said that the UAE could be the world’s regulatory sandbox to experiment with AI technologies and the country is well placed to lead the formation of a global AI watchdog.

“It’s very hard to get all the regulatory ideas right in a vacuum,” Altman said while appearing via video, adding that allowing experimentation and running scenarios would make for better laws governing the fast-evolving technology.

The ChatGPT creator repeated a recommendation that both he and Al Olama have made in the past: that there should be an oversight body like the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to address open existential questions. “What happens with the most powerful of these systems?” Altman said. “What sort of auditing, safety measures do we want in place before we deploy a super-intelligence?”

The conversation onstage comes as Altman looks to raise trillions of dollars to amass the semiconductors needed to power advanced AI, and is reportedly courting the UAE as an investor.

The UAE has made AI leadership, with Abu Dhabi-backed G42 at the forefront, the foundation of its economic transformation aims. As a result, the country has become a crossroads for some of the biggest players in AI.

Later this week Nvidia, in partnership with Microsoft, will host an event for generative AI content creators in Abu Dhabi. Founder Jensen Huang appeared at WGS on Monday.

Khaldoon Al Mubarak, Group CEO and Managing Director of Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Co., said the sovereign wealth fund sees growing opportunities in India, China and the global transition from carbon-based fuels.

Speaking on a panel at the World Governments Summit in Dubai on Monday, Al Mubarak said the two most populous countries have tremendous infrastructure and energy needs that are attractive investments for Mubadala.

India “is one of the most digitalized economies in the world,” Al Mubarak said. “It’s an “interesting economy that one has to keep a very close eye on and infrastructure is going to be a key driver to growth there.”

China’s economic slowdown and huge infrastructure needs make its companies especially ripe for investment, the Mubadala chief said. “It’s actually quite cheap and I think for an investor that’s looking at a 5, 10-year horizon, there’s an interesting opportunity for sure there.”

Noting that the UAE is one of the biggest investors in solar, wind and other renewable power sources, Al Mubarak said fossil fuels will remain a crucial part of world energy requirements. Particularly power-hungry are data centers dealing with artificial intelligence, he said.

“The world is big,” Al Mubarak said, recommending that investors look beyond the U.S. market. “It depends what your investment appetite is, what your risk appetite is, when you’re looking at growth and when you’re looking at innovation. You have to, I think, be open minded to both east and west, and north and south.”

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang made a strong sales pitch to the UAE’s Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence Omar Al Olama onstage today at the World Governments Summit in Dubai. More than 25 world leaders, 140 governments and 85 international organizations are among the 4,000 attendees at the three-day event under the theme “Shaping Future Governments.”

The semiconductor chief, whose California-headquartered firm has a $1.73 trillion market cap, said that every country should have its own AI infrastructure and protect its “data sovereignty.” Doing so would capture the most economic upside, he said, adding that companies in the Gulf like Saudi Aramco and Abu Dhabi-backed G42 are already doing this. “You cannot allow that to be done by other people,” Huang said. “Build the infrastructure as fast as you can.”

Minister Al Olama asked Huang about the eye-watering $7 trillion OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is seeking — and reportedly courting UAE investors on — to realize his biggest ambitions for ChatGPT. Huang quipped that Altman was apparently looking to buy “all” of the world’s AI chips.

In October of last year, the U.S. expanded restrictions on chips and Nvidia said at the time it was working with customers in China and the Middle East to obtain export licenses for new products to comply. Huang did not provide an update on the issue today. On Friday, G42 said it has sold its stakes in Chinese companies including TikTok owner ByteDance, as the group seeks to reassure U.S. partners by cutting ties with China, the Financial Times reports.

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – Dubai has taken another step toward launching flying taxis amid growing gridlock on the emirate’s roads.

Key stakeholders in the project – Dubai and federal regulators, U.S. aircraft company Joby Aviation and UK company Skyports Infrastructure – signed an agreement ahead of the World Governments Summit in Dubai on Sunday to get Joby’s aircraft into service by 2026.

A spokesperson for Skyports told The Circuit the four planned takeoff locations – near Dubai International Airport, the Downtown area, Dubai Marina, and Palm Jumeirah – would cost around $10 million each to construct.

Skyports will foot the bill and generate revenue by charging Joby takeoff and landing fees. A typical journey from DXB to Palm Jumeirah is expected to take 10 minutes by air taxi compared with 45 minutes by car.

The Joby Aviation S4 is designed to accommodate four passengers plus a pilot and is clearing regulatory hurdles to be certified for commercial flight.

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – Aldar Properties is continuing its foray outside the Middle East with a $111 million co-investment with private equity firm The Carlyle Group in logistics and storage assets across Europe.

Aldar will join the Carlyle Europe Realty platform, the investment firm’s pan-European real estate portfolio, as part of the deal.

Abu Dhabi’s largest listed developer, which is 25% owned by Mubadala and 26% owned by International Holding Co., also unveiled this week a $1.4 billion investment plan to develop a range of income-generating assets in Abu Dhabi.

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – Nerds and culture vultures have more than one reason to make a stop in Abu Dhabi this month as Comic Con gets underway today and the capital is set to host the Middle East premiere of “Dune: Part Two” on Feb. 18. The 12th annual pop culture fest is the largest in the region, with actor Oscar Isaac of “Dune,” Marvel Universe and “Star Wars” fame headlining this year’s event. It’s all in good fun — but movies and gaming are also big emerging businesses in the Gulf. 

“We are proud to have supported an incredibly successful filming franchise once again,” Mohamed Dobay, acting director-general of the UAE’s Creative Media Authority, said today. “Dune” and “Dune: Part Two” are among at least 150 productions that have used Abu Dhabi as a location in recent years. 

In addition to Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures, the capital has lured the likes of Disney, Netflix, Paramount and Universal, marketing its diversity of locations — the city, Arabian Sea and the Liwa Desert — its pool of production talent and the incentive of a 30% rebate for production costs. Films that have been shot in Abu Dhabi include movies from the “Mission Impossible,” “Star Wars” and “Fast & Furious” franchises, as well as Bollywood productions.

Major theatrical productions are a part of a wider effort by the UAE and Saudi Arabia into developing entertainment and gaming. The countries have poured billions of dollars into studio investments, developing talent and building up local capabilities to support the creative industries. Saudi Arabia invested $8 billion into gaming in 2022 and the first half of 2023, the Financial Times reported at the time, mainly through purchasing shares in leading global companies. But its war chest remains intact: the kingdom has earmarked $38 billion to become an international gaming center.