UAE Firms Launch Homegrown AI Path, Keeping Data Secure Within Borders

Organisations across the UAE now have a faster, locally grounded path to deploying artificial intelligence, one that keeps sensitive data inside the country’s borders. e& UAE and Core42, a subsidiary of G42 specialising in sovereign cloud and AI infrastructure, have announced a joint offering called Sovereign AI Compute, combining local computing resources with secure connectivity and professional services.

The platform addresses a real and pressing gap. As AI adoption accelerates across sectors, government agencies and enterprises have struggled to access sufficient GPU infrastructure within the country. Traditional cloud environments often lack adequate local capacity. On-premises deployments, by contrast, demand substantial capital investment and extended implementation timelines. The new platform removes these barriers by providing immediate access to in-country AI infrastructure without requiring upfront capital spending.

What the offering delivers, practically, is an integration of Core42’s Sovereign AI Cloud with e& UAE’s national-scale digital infrastructure, secure connectivity, local customer relationships and implementation support. Organisations can move from AI strategy directly into production deployment. The platform supports a broad range of workloads and provides access to Core42’s heterogeneous accelerators, complemented by e& UAE’s carrier-grade, high-bandwidth connectivity linking enterprise environments to sovereign GPU infrastructure.

For the public and the institutions that serve them, the implications are concrete. The service targets sectors where sovereign infrastructure and secure connectivity are critical: government, healthcare, financial services, energy, education, retail, manufacturing, industrial operations and large enterprises. Customers benefit from faster deployment of AI applications, zero capital expenditure requirements, a competitive cost structure with no data egress fees, and full compliance with sovereignty requirements through in-country data residency.

Esam Mahmoud, Senior Vice President of SMB Sales and Marketing at e& UAE, framed the partnership in terms of national economic purpose. “AI is becoming a key part of how organisations operate,” Mahmoud said. “Through our collaboration with Core42, we are enabling UAE enterprises and government entities a simpler, faster and more secure way to access sovereign GPU infrastructure, connect their data and operationalise AI at scale. This directly supports the UAE’s vision to build an AI-native economy and advance the national agentic AI agenda by enabling organisations to deploy intelligent systems that can analyse, decide and act with greater speed and confidence.”

The platform reflects the UAE’s strategic commitment to developing an AI-native economy and system of governance in which intelligent AI agents can autonomously analyse, decide and execute tasks across public services, industry and everyday life. Building on the UAE National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence 2031, the country aims to embed agentic AI across government operations, healthcare, finance, mobility and digital infrastructure to improve efficiency, reduce bureaucracy and drive economic diversification.

Jaafar Al Hashmi, VP of Government Relations and Market Development at Core42, emphasised the infrastructure dimension. “AI deployment at scale demands infrastructure that can operate securely, compliantly, and with the resilience required for real-world execution,” Al Hashmi said. “This partnership with e& UAE extends sovereign AI from foundational infrastructure into an operational capability, integrating compute, connectivity, and implementation into a single framework built for deployment.”

Resilience is a thread running through the entire collaboration. The partnership encompasses joint approaches to safeguarding national digital continuity across the UAE, reflecting Core42’s broader work in this area, including the development of the Signature National Disaster Recovery Cloud, a fully sovereign infrastructure solution designed to help governments, regulated industries and national critical infrastructure maintain operational continuity during national-scale disruptions.

Sovereign AI Compute is the first joint offering under a broader global partnership between the two organisations. Whether the platform can meaningfully accelerate the UAE’s ambition to embed AI across public services and daily life, at the pace and scale the 2031 strategy envisions, remains the central question its rollout will have to answer.