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Key Takeaways The UAE links national policy, residency incentives and sovereign capital to accelerate AI development.
Growing research output and rising investment share position the Middle East as a durable competitor.
Trust, regulation and export controls will determine whether Gulf AI becomes globally accepted.
The United Arab Emirates already has the world’s first Ministry of Artificial Intelligence, a federal strategy that aims for AI to add fourteen percent of GDP by 2030, and a growing network of sovereign-backed chip ventures. The International Institute for Strategic Studies describes the effort as a bid for “digital leverage” that reaches far beyond the Gulf.
Policy comes first. All ministries must adopt AI tools and share data through a national cloud, while new “golden visas” let scientists stay for ten years or more. Capital follows policy. Sovereign funds have poured billions of dollars into cloud infrastructure, semiconductor design and large-language-model research.
Talent is rising in step with capital. MacroPolo’s Global AI Talent Tracker reports that the Middle East’s share of top-tier conference papers grew sixfold between 2018 and 2024, with the UAE accounting for roughly half of that increase.
Dual-degree PhD programs with U.S. and European universities and long-term residency incentives have helped attract that talent.
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