“The UAE ranks second only to the US in attracting top AI talent, with many of these experts now calling the UAE home.”
Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, the country’s Minister of Economy, made this statement on Monday’s opening day of Gitex Global 2024.
The Minister stated that the UAE is doubling down on AI education, with a sharp focus on youth development.
The government has ramped up investment in STEM programs and launched camps for students, aiming to equip the next generation with skills to drive UAE’sthe AI ambitions forward.
Research and development (R&D) is also high on the agenda. Al Marri underscored the UAE’s aspiration to become a global research and development hub, attracting international talent and innovation centres.
He said, “We want the world to look at the UAE as an R&D hub, not just for our 10 million people, but for the 300 million across the region. The UAE has always been a gateway for the region.”
With a target of 7 per cent growth, which will allow the country to double the size of its economy, the UAE’s sandbox-style regulation model and dynamic regulatory approach could offer significant benefits.
Data centres, energy requirements
The UAE is rapidly becoming a magnet for data centre investments, drawing in tech giants like Microsoft and Cisco.
These projects are essential to meeting the massive computational demands of generative AI and other advanced technologies.
“The partnership (with Microsoft) isn’t new. We’ve been collaborating with them for years, and a lot has come from AI and data centres,” he added.
Al Marri said that energy availability is central to the expansion of this industry. “We have a nuclear power plant in full operation and are seeing more solar energy added to the grid. Clean energy now forms about 30 per cent of our energy mix, making the UAE an attractive destination for data centre investments,” he said.
The minister also pointed to the significant economic ripple effect generated by data centres, explaining that every dollar invested could yield up to ten dollars in economic value.
