News

QFZA Announces Qatar’s First Laptop Manufacturing Facility

Once operational, it will become Qatar’s first laptop manufacturing facility and ship out over 350,000 products every year.

Published

5 years ago

May 21, 2021

Joanna Melki

qfza announces qatar's first laptop manufacturing facility

Unsplash

The global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent swift transition toward remote work has tested the production capacity of virtually every laptop manufacturer. In the Middle East, the laptop and desktop market grew more than 12 percent during the pandemic, with shipments going up by 23 percent. Now, Qatar Free Zones Authority (QFZA) has announced its plan to establish a state-of-the-art production facility in Umm Alhoul Free Zone. Once operational, it will become Qatar’s first laptop manufacturing facility and ship out over 350,000 products every year.

The task of building the facility has been appointed to iLife Digital, a leading intelligent robotics and electronics company based in Florida, US, and Prime Technologies, a subsidiary of Ali Bin Ali Holding. The two companies will use it to produce everything from laptops to desktop computers to smartwatches.

“We are proud to host this partnership between iLife Digital and Prime Technologies at Umm Alhoul Free Zone. It is the latest example of our close collaboration with the Qatari private sector to foster growth and innovation for the country and the broader region,” said H.E. Ahmad Al-Sayed, Minister of State and Chairman of QFZA.

In addition to becoming the region’s manufacturing powerhouse, the new facility will also support logistics and R&D activities and become home to a consumer solutions center. In total, it’s expected to create 160 jobs in the region, including 144 skilled opportunities.

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“Our Group has always been known for pioneering efforts and supporting innovations to get the best for the people of Qatar. The new facility, with its state-of-the-art production and R&D facility along with a logistics and customer solutions center, is a reiteration of such efforts,” commented Vice-Chairman & EVP of Ali Bin Ali Holding Mr. Nabeel Ali Bin Ali.

The construction of Qatar’s first laptop manufacturing facility is an important step toward achieving the country’s National Vision 2030, whose goal is to create a knowledge-based economy and promote economic diversification.

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.

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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.