Mubadala, Together AI to build UAE AI infrastructure

Mubadala Investment Company has signed on with San Francisco-based Together AI to hunt for artificial intelligence infrastructure investment opportunities across the UAE, a partnership that now moves from funding into on-the-ground delivery as the US firm prepares to establish a physical presence in Abu Dhabi.

Under the agreement, announced by Mubadala on Tuesday, the two organisations will jointly identify opportunities that support the development and deployment of AI in the Arab world’s second-largest economy. The practical centrepiece is Together AI’s planned Abu Dhabi footprint, which will bring its inference and research capabilities closer to developers building AI applications in the UAE and the wider region.

For Mubadala, which invests on behalf of the Abu Dhabi government, the deal sits within a wider build-out of sovereign capability across the AI value chain, an agenda aimed at strengthening the Emirates’ position as an international innovation hub and deepening technical expertise at home. Ali Al Mheiri, executive director of diversified assets at Mubadala’s UAE Investments platform, framed the tie-up in operational terms: attracting leading technology companies, deepening local capabilities and creating an environment where innovation can move from research to real-world application. The collaboration, he said, strengthens a critical part of the AI ecosystem and expands access to infrastructure.

The partnership did not emerge from a standing start. Mubadala took part in Together AI’s $100 million series C funding round in July, alongside a group of global technology and financial investors, and the new agreement extends that financial backing into a working relationship focused on deployment.

Together AI, founded in 2022 and headquartered in San Francisco, operates an AI platform for inference, model shaping and accelerated compute, with research-optimised capabilities that help developers and enterprises build and run applications on open and custom AI models. Its founder and chief executive, Vipul Ved Prakash, pointed to the infrastructure gap driving the expansion. The demand for open-source AI, he said, is outpacing the compute available to serve it, and the company is scaling its infrastructure globally, with Mubadala described as exactly the kind of partner that helps it do so at speed.

Meanwhile, the agreement lands within a decade-long push that has seen the UAE pursue its National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence 2031, which aims to make the country a global AI leader by integrating advanced technology into government, business and daily life. That drive, alongside broader economic diversification, has produced start-ups, partnerships and investments from industry leaders including Microsoft, Nvidia and OpenAI. The UAE has also teamed up with the US to develop an AI campus in Abu Dhabi designed to carry 5 gigawatts of capacity for AI data centres, a project that will test whether the country’s ambitions can be matched by delivered power and compute.

Execution capacity is the thread running through Mubadala’s wider portfolio as well. The sovereign investor, whose $385 billion portfolio spans six continents and asset classes, has been steadily expanding its global investments with a focus on renewables, mobility, advanced technology, AI and life science. The Together AI arrangement adds another implementation layer to that strategy, pairing sovereign capital with a specialist operator tasked with building out the compute infrastructure the UAE’s AI agenda depends on. Whether the planned Abu Dhabi presence and the wider pipeline of opportunities translate into functioning infrastructure will now be the measure of the partnership. Further details on the announcement can be found at https://www.thenationalnews.com/future/technology/2026/09/29/mubadala-ties-up-with-us-firm-together-ai-for-uae-investment-opportunities/