Technology

Analysis

With China rivalry in mind, UAE's Sheikh Tahnoon hits tech reset in US visit

Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the United Arab Emirates’ national security adviser and an influential brother of the country’s president, visited Washington this month.

By Jack Dutton

In Bristol, reporting on regional business, climate change, AI, tech

US reportedly slows AI chip exports to Mideast as Saudi Arabia turns to China

Washington has further restricted imports of critical components for AI systems to certain countries, including some undisclosed ones in the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal invests in Elon Musk’s $24B AI startup

Kingdom Holding Company also holds a stake in Elon Musk’s social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

Saudi Arabia

Huawei launches Egypt public cloud service as China ties grow

Last September, Huawei announced that it would pump $430 million into North Africa to build the firm's first cloud center there as well as train thousands of developers and tech specialists.

Egypt

Turkey's fastest drone plays key role locating Iran helicopter crash site

The location of the helicopter crash site was identified by Turkey’s Akinci drone, according to Turkish officials, after Ankara sent teams to help Iran's search mission.

Turkey

Interview

AI pioneer Schmidhuber bets on Saudi Arabia for trillion-dollar breakthrough

Juergen Schmidhuber, a pioneering AI researcher told Al-Monitor that Gulf players have opportunities to take on traditional tech powerhouses in this high stakes AI race. 

Juergen Schmidhuber

AI computer scientist

Israel's Elbit clinches $53M deal to sell mortar systems to Europe

Between 2019 and 2023, Israeli weapons constituted 2.4% of the global market, massively reshaped by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and increased imports by European countries.

Israel

Chinese investors skeptical as Gulf pushes for deeper economic ties with Beijing

Gulf states are building economic ties with Beijing in non-energy fields, but Chinese investors remain skeptical of ambitious economic diversification plans in the Gulf.

By Sebastian Castelier

In Dubai, reporting on regional business

Interview

Saudi Arabia's giga-projects to offer 'testing ground' for British technology

Saudi startups and fintech firms are looking to tap into the United Kingdom's $1 trillion tech market.

Matt Jones

Saudi British Joint Business Council Project Officer

What Binance's new Dubai license means for UAE cryptocurrency sector

Binance, one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world, has experienced some legal setbacks recently and is the latest firm to receive Dubai’s coveted VASP license.

United Arab Emirates

Google fires 28 staffers after protesting Israel cloud contract

More than two dozen staff members have been fired after being arrested for protesting Google’s involvement in Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion Israeli government cloud contract that also includes e-commerce giant Amazon.

Israel

Microsoft pumps $1.5B into UAE's G42 amid US-China tech power struggle

Washington reportedly threatened to punish G42 if it did not reduce its ties with Beijing and strengthen its US commitments.

United Arab Emirates