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In Kuwait, Your Surgeon Might Be Operating From Another Country
Kuwait’s hospitals have performed more than 1,300 robot-assisted procedures. Going remote raises new questions about connectivity and consent.
For most of medical history, a surgeon and a patient obviously had to be in the same room. That assumption is no longer a given in Kuwait.
More than 1,300 robot-assisted procedures have now been carried out across five hospitals and specialist centers. Fifteen were performed remotely, with 12 by surgeons in other countries.
All 15 took place at Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Kidney and Urology Center, which launched its remote program in December 2024. Patients remain at the center, with a medical team at their side, while the surgeon operates over a digital connection. Eight of the international cases were performed from Shanghai, two from Strasbourg and one each from Muscat and Padua.
The operations also run both ways. In September 2025, a Kuwaiti team at Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Hospital operated remotely on a patient at Cruz Vermelha Hospital in Brazil, and a Brazilian team then performed a procedure on a patient in Kuwait. The two procedures spanned 12,034.92 kilometers and were recognized by Guinness World Records for the longest distance between a patient and surgeon.
Remote cases still only account for about 1% of the total. Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Hospital alone has completed 1,145 procedures since launching its program in 2019.
New Jahra Hospital, whose first robotic operation was in April 2025, completed 100 within six months and had reached 155 by September 6, 2026. Farwaniya Hospital also performs robotic surgery, and Chest Diseases Hospital has used the technology in 30 thoracic and 25 cardiac procedures. The figures measure adoption, not clinical outcomes.
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The push comes as Kuwait seeks to strengthen its position as a regional hub for advanced medical services. The Ministry of Health says further growth will require investment in equipment, training, maintenance and digital infrastructure, and that reliable connectivity, data protection and systems that operate safely and consistently are especially important for remote procedures.
Patient consent is part of the process too, with healthcare teams expected to explain how the robotic system works and the potential benefits, risks and alternatives – as well as where the surgeon is located and who is responsible for the patient.
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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.
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.
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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.
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