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Oracle Plans Dubai Expansion And Cloud Infrastructure Upgrade
The company is working to meet surging worldwide demand and is set to expand its presence across the wider region.
Oracle is set to expand its presence in Dubai as part of a broader strategy to bolster its cloud infrastructure in the Middle East in the midst of the region’s ongoing digital transformation.
The forthcoming expansion of Oracle’s Dubai office aims to provide customers with the opportunity to explore the future of their businesses through cutting-edge AI and cloud technologies.
A pivotal aspect of the expansion entails the development of a state-of-the-art customer experience center within Oracle’s Dubai facility. This center will not only serve as a showcase for innovative AI and cloud technologies but also feature futuristic workspaces designed to enhance employee productivity.
Presently, Oracle operates three live cloud regions in the Middle East, distributed across Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Jeddah. Additionally, they have plans to establish two more in Riyadh and Neom, Saudi Arabia’s emerging high-tech city, to meet escalating demand.
While no specific timeline was provided for the launch of these upcoming cloud regions, it is evident that cloud adoption in the Middle East is thriving. A tech-savvy younger generation and government efforts to shape the digital future of their economies have spurred global cloud providers, including Oracle, Microsoft, Amazon, IBM, and Alibaba Cloud, to invest in the region.
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Although Oracle refrains from disclosing market share figures, recent industry data suggests Oracle has a 2% global market share, ranking eighth. Notably, Amazon Web Services leads with 32%, followed by Microsoft Azure with 22%, and Google Cloud with 11%.
As part of its commitment to fostering AI skills, Oracle has also partnered with the Dubai Business Women Council to launch the sAIdaty initiative, designed to empower women professionals and entrepreneurs. The year-long program aims to equip 500 council members with AI skills, contributing not only to their professional growth but also to the UAE’s digital economy objectives.
News
Nano Banana 2 Arrives In MENA For Google Gemini Users
Google brings its latest image model to Gemini and Search, adding 4K output and tighter text control for regional users.
Google has opened access to Nano Banana 2 across the Middle East and North Africa, pushing its newest image model into everyday tools rather than keeping it inside the exclusive (and expensive) Pro tier.
The rollout spans the Google Gemini desktop and mobile apps, and extends to Google Search through Lens and AI Mode. Developers can also test it in preview via AI Studio and the Gemini API.
Nano Banana 2 runs on Gemini Flash, Google’s fast inference layer. The focus is speed, but also control. Users can export visuals from 512px up to 4K, adjusting aspect ratios for everything from vertical social posts to widescreen displays.
The model maintains character likeness across up to five figures and preserves fidelity for as many as 14 objects within a single workflow. This enables visual continuity across scenes, iterations, or edits — supporting projects like short films, storyboards, and multi-scene narratives. Text rendering has also been improved, delivering legible typography in mockups and greeting cards, with built-in translation and localization directly within images.
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Under the hood, the system taps Gemini’s broader knowledge base and pulls in real-time information and imagery from web search to render specific subjects more accurately. Lighting and fine detail have been upgraded, without slowing output.
By embedding the model inside Gemini and Search, Google is normalizing advanced image generation for a mass audience. In MENA, where startups and marketing teams are leaning heavily on AI to scale content across languages and borders, that shift lands at a practical moment.
The move also folds creative tooling deeper into search itself, so that image generation is no longer a separate workflow. It now sits right next to the query box.
