News

GITEX 2025 Opens In Dubai With AI, Quantum And Biotech In Focus

The 45th edition takes place at the Dubai World Trade Centre and Dubai Harbour, and underscores the UAE’s position as a global tech and AI hub.

Published

12 months ago

October 13, 2025

Nour Nasir

gitex 2025 opens in dubai with ai quantum and biotech in focus

GITEX Global 2025 opened in Dubai today, drawing technology leaders, policymakers and investors to a city positioning itself at the center of the AI economy.

The 45th edition runs across the Dubai World Trade Centre and Dubai Harbour — the largest GITEX yet — and turns attention to how artificial intelligence, quantum computing and biotechnology are reshaping global industries.

Organizers say this year’s event moves past theory as AI is now well integrated into critical sectors such as healthcare, green data centers and semiconductor assembly lines. Governments and companies are expected to outline how they’ll handle AI governance, data sovereignty and ethics, alongside new pushes in chip manufacturing, cybersecurity and sustainable infrastructure.

The program includes tracks on quantum-powered computation, precision medicine and climate resilience — areas now defining the race for digital competitiveness. Exhibitors are expected to showcase advances in semiconductors, automation systems and energy-efficient data centers, technologies increasingly seen as the backbone of national AI strategies.

The UN Conference on Trade and Development estimates the AI market will approach $4.8 trillion by 2033, intensifying the race to secure computing power and data capacity.

Also Read: UAE Deploys First Fleet Of Driverless Electric Cargo Trucks

For the UAE, GITEX highlights its wider strategy to become a leading AI-driven economy under Vision 2030, anchored by investment in digital infrastructure, biotech and advanced manufacturing. The country’s universities and research centers are also deepening AI and quantum programs to feed a growing demand for skilled talent.

Across the region, governments are backing similar pushes as geopolitical and economic pressures make technological self-reliance a priority. Dubai’s role, through GITEX, is to keep that momentum visible — a meeting ground where global and regional ambitions align.

News

Microsoft Plans $10 Billion-Plus Gulf Expansion Despite Iran Conflict

Security is shaping Microsoft’s approach, from resilience work with governments to what it will say about how the money splits by country.

Published

4 days ago

September 24, 2026

Nour Nasir

Microsoft

Microsoft is planning more than $10 billion of investment across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait through 2030, Vice Chair and President Brad Smith told Reuters, calling the spending schedule aggressive. The Iranian conflict that began on February 28 has not persuaded the company to scale back.

“We’re sustaining all the investments we planned to make before this conflict started, and we are in fact adding to them,” Smith said. The $10 billion-plus total does not, however, show how large those additions are.

The investment, which Smith described as part of Microsoft’s continued infrastructure expansion, is aimed at cloud and AI infrastructure and at the company’s growing regional operations. Microsoft also intends to put more than $400 million into subsea and terrestrial connectivity across the Middle East by 2030.

The spending fits the region’s own ambitions too. Gulf governments have been investing heavily in AI infrastructure as part of a push to diversify their economies beyond oil and gas and turn themselves into global technology hubs. Major cloud and AI providers have been drawn in part by the land and relatively low-cost energy on offer.

Microsoft is widening its partnerships with regional AI companies, though not on identical terms. In 2024, it invested $1.5 billion in Abu Dhabi-based G42 for a minority stake, and Smith currently sits on G42’s board. Saudi Arabia’s Humain and Qatar’s Qai are working with Microsoft on selected priority areas, but Smith said the company does not plan to make capital investments in either.

Also Read: Egypt’s Mobile Wallets Are Booming, But Cash Still Has Power

The conflict has added another strand to Microsoft’s work in the region. Since it began, Smith said, the company has supported regional partners with digital resilience assessments, and it is now working with Gulf countries through a digital resilience initiative focused on preparedness and the protection of critical data.

So far, the company has given no country-by-country breakdown of the investment, citing security among other factors. So while the headline figure is public, how Microsoft divides the spending among the four countries is not.