The Startup Scene in Abu Dhabi and Dubai is Bustling

I just landed back in New York after spending the past week in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, two important cities in a region undergoing a remarkable transformation into a global tech hub.

Government initiatives are propelling those changes, and those efforts seem to be paying off. Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, has become an important hub for artificial intelligence because of the success of the government-funded Arabic large language model Falcon and of artificial intelligence company G42, which recently struck a $1.5 billion deal with Microsoft. And startup activity in Dubai and nearby Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, is also increasing, causing local investors to anticipate an uptick of capital from U.S. investment firms. 

Two main factors are fueling this trend. Firstly, limited partners in the region—sovereign wealth funds like the Saudi Public Investment Fund—are urging U.S. funds they’ve invested in to put capital to work in the region, catalyzing startup activity and, crucially, attracting talent to the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Secondly, the maturation of startups in the region is making them more attractive to foreign investment.