Rather than diversifying into familiar industries, they are betting on the highest value-added sectors: artificial intelligence, biotechnology and the data economy. These fields demand enormous compute, and the Gulf monarchies have taken a radical tack \u2014 buy the best kit on the market.<\/p>\n
In 2023 it emerged that Saudi Arabia and the UAE were buying NVIDIA H100 accelerators in bulk for training large language models (LLMs). According to Financial Times<\/a>, the Saudis, via the research centre at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), bought at least 3,000 such chips at roughly $40,000 apiece, for a total of about $120m.<\/p>\n In May 2025 Nvidia and Saudi Arabia concluded a partnership<\/a> to build large-scale infrastructure in the kingdom. The centrepiece is a fleet of \u201cAI factories\u201d with up to 500 MW of power, to be equipped over five years with hundreds of thousands of GPU<\/span>. The first phase will deploy a supercomputer with 18,000 of the latest GB300 chips, while the Data and AI Authority (SDAIA) will add up to 5,000 Blackwell GPUs. The aim is to turn the country into a leader in artificial intelligence under the Saudi Vision 2030 strategy.<\/p>\n The UAE is acting on a similar scale. The country has become a pivotal partner for American AI firms. Abu Dhabi\u2019s G42, chaired by the UAE\u2019s national-security adviser Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan, collaborates<\/a> with Cerebras Systems. Together they are building a series of nine Condor Galaxy AI supercomputers. The first, CG-1, launched in the United States, already ranks among the world\u2019s top 50 most powerful machines. The rest will be deployed in both the US and the UAE.<\/p>\n In July this year, WSJ<\/a> reported that the United States had paused a deal to sell Nvidia and other chips to the United Arab Emirates, owing to concerns that semiconductors could end up in China. According to the paper, the risk of smuggling was also discussed<\/a> when the agreement was struck. At the time, representatives of the UAE and Saudi Arabia assured Washington that safeguards were in place.<\/p>\n \u201cSilicon fever\u201d is not merely a chase for raw power. It is a strategic gambit to secure \u201cdigital sovereignty\u201d. With their own advanced compute clusters, Gulf states reduce dependence on foreign tech giants such as Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure and can train AI models tailored to regional needs.<\/p>\n Hardware without talented people is dead weight. Aware of that, the UAE and Saudi Arabia have launched an unprecedented drive to attract human capital. The goal is not just to hire expatriates but to forge a global talent hub to rival Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n The main instrument is \u201cgolden visas\u201d. In the UAE, a 10-year residence permit \u043c\u043e\u0433\u0443\u0442 \u043f\u043e\u043b\u0443\u0447\u0438\u0442\u044c<\/a> outstanding scientists and technologists, researchers, programmers and Web3 entrepreneurs. The visa lets holders live and work without being tied to a specific public or private employer, bring their families and enjoy tax advantages. <\/p>\n Saudi Arabia \u0437\u0430\u043f\u0443\u0441\u0442\u0438\u043b\u0430<\/a> the Premium Residency programme and offers similar terms to attract foreign professionals.<\/p>\n Pay is another magnet. AI engineers and blockchain developers in Dubai or Riyadh can expect compensation on a par with, or exceeding, offers in America and Europe \u2014 and there is no personal income tax.<\/p>\n The region is not limiting itself to \u201cbuying\u201d ready-made expertise. Billions of dollars are going into building its own scientific schools. A standout example is the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZAI) in Abu Dhabi, the first university in the world dedicated entirely to AI. It offers free tuition, stipends and housing for top students globally, luring them with access to leading professors and state-of-the-art compute.<\/p>\n Saudi Arabia is developing KAUST into a centre for fundamental research, lavishing funds on its laboratories and providing grants for breakthrough projects. <\/p>\n The aim is simple: to create an environment in which the best minds can not only work but also create \u2014 launching start-ups and seeding a new technology ecosystem from scratch. <\/p>\n The Gulf strategy is to build a full technology stack \u2014 from fundamental research to practical deployment in gigantic infrastructure projects.<\/p>\n Its apex in the UAE is the development of a home-grown large language model, Falcon<\/a>, built by the Technology Innovation Institute in Abu Dhabi. On release in 2023, Falcon-180B outperformed<\/a> Meta\u2019s Llama 2 on a number of benchmarks and competed with OpenAI\u2019s GPT-4. Crucially, Falcon was made openly available for commercial and research use \u2014 a canny move in the global AI contest, showing that the UAE can create, not just consume, cutting-edge products.<\/p>\n In Saudi Arabia the main test bed for tomorrow\u2019s technologies is the $500bn NEOM megaproject. <\/p>\nA battle for brains: a reverse brain drain<\/h2>\n
![\"MBZAI\"](\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/MBZAI-1024x446.png\")
![\"KAUST\"](\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/KAUST-764x1024.png\")
From Falcon to NEOM: a national technology stack<\/h2>\n