… The extra revenue would give the government more capital to deploy through its AI and energy investment funds, Babak Hafezi, CEO of HafeziCapital, a firm that advises Gulf governments on investment strategy, told Rest of World . “Gulf capital is structurally becoming infrastructure capital for the … …
… They are now pushing for data sovereignty, local talent, and better terms from foreign providers, the experts said. “Africa’s push for digital sovereignty cannot mean total independence from global AI supply chains,” Rachel Adams, founder of the Global Center on AI Governance, told Rest of World . … …
… While it started building its first data center in Bahrain in 2021, it scaled up cloud infrastructure in 2025 with a $150 million Saudi investment. At the same time, competition in cloud infrastructure in the Gulf has become far more crowded than a simple U.S.-China battle. …
… Amazon committed $5 billion to an AI hub in Riyadh with Saudi Arabia’s Humain. The Gulf states held up their end. It was Washington’s decision to strike Iran that put those investments in the line of fire. …
… It’s equally important, he said, to look at the way established players in different regions actually use AI tools that already exist. “There’s a graveyard of technologies that never get diffused into the economy, and never make anyone money,” Nyatta said of the startup landscape. “The real value f… …
… The region has sovereign wealth funds of staggering depth and ambition to match: The UAE’s MGX had joined OpenAI and SoftBank on the $500 billion Stargate project ; Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund had committed tens of billions to global AI ventures. …
… While India has been positioning itself as being data-rich and the AI use case capital of the world, other countries like Rwanda and Nigeria have positioned themselves as sites for scaling hubs, and the United Arab Emirates is increasingly attractive for Big Tech to raise the capital it needs to fi… …
… According to Tahir Gok, lead senior analyst for the Middle East and North Africa at U.S.-based market intelligence firm datacenterHawk, businesses that spread their operations across multiple zones are far more protected than those running everything in one place. “Hyperscaler regions are architect… …
… Elon Musk trial, campaigners lobbying for better wages for workers gathered with a large banner that said, “Workers demand a piece of the pie.” In his Facebook post, presidential policy chief Kim said that South Korea has a rare opportunity to transform from being a mere provider of AI infrastructu… …
… The Gulf strikes demonstrate “where AI-era conflict is heading,” Miah Hammond-Errey, founding chief executive of Strat Futures, a risk consultancy, wrote in a blog post for The Lowy Institute. “Governments have integrated classified military and intelligence systems so deeply into commercial infras…