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UAE NFT Sector Expected To Grow By Over 45% Per Year

Consumers are increasingly interested in the technology, and businesses are taking notice.

Published

4 years ago

January 24, 2023

uae nft sector expected to grow by over 45% per year

The UAE has long been considered a desirable destination for doing business and is now becoming a global hub in the field of NFTs. The non-fungible token market in the United Arab Emirates is expected to grow by 45.5% annually, having already reached an estimated US$982.1 million by the end of last year. By 2028, the sector could reach a staggering $4.75 billion as the new technology continues to be championed by entrepreneurs, businesses, and celebrities.

arshad zaheer senior partner at yaap

“Consumers are interested in buying into stories, in buying into experiences. When you’re buying a product, you’re just buying the physical product. But when you are buying an NFT, you’re buying a whole lot of things that are linked with it,” says Arshad Zaheer, Senior Partner at YAAP.

NFTs sit on the blockchain network, meaning ownership and originality can be confirmed, making the technology ideal for artwork, but also relevant for the legal industry and other sectors where authenticity is required.

Also Read: New Tech Allows Faster Breast Cancer Detection In Middle East

The Middle East and Africa region have seen a surge in NFT-related activities. Several innovative NFT marketplaces have also emerged in MENA countries, including the UAE, making it easier for the general public to buy, sell, and trade digital assets.

“From NFT-based startups to cryptocurrency exchanges, several players are entering the UAE NFT market; the presence of several NFT marketplaces has also supported the rise in NFT trading transaction value and volume, the trend expected to gain further momentum over the next three to four years in the UAE,” says Business Wire in a recent report.

As NFTs begin to hit the mainstream, the opportunities presented by the technology are immense and could even rival the explosive rise of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Related Topics:NFTs United Arab Emirates

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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.

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.