AI
Startups
+4
Jun 16, 2026
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1 min read
UAE's CNTXT AI closes $60M Series A co-led by AI71 and BlueFive Capital to scale sovereign AI infrastructure
The round is led in part by AI71, the Abu Dhabi applied-AI company that acquired founder Mohammad Abu Sheikh's previous venture and now returns as an investor, and lands weeks after CNTXT AI's acquisition of Gulf-dialect voice startup Actualize.
News
+2
Jun 9, 2026
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2 min read
Algebra AI emerges from stealth with $7M to bring managed AI operations to the GCC mid-market
Led by Anis Harb, former head of Deliveroo's Middle East business, the round was backed by Infinity Constellation, BECO Capital, Silicon Badia and Waseel Investments.
News
+4
Jun 5, 2026
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2 min read
Anthropic files for IPO after $65bn round at $965B valuation as QIA and MGX both deepen Gulf stakes
The filing makes Anthropic the third major AI company to move toward a public listing in 2026, following Cerebras, which listed on the Nasdaq in May at a $70B valuation, and ahead of rival OpenAI.
Startups
+4
Jun 5, 2026
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1 min read
CNTXT AI acquires Actualize to power Arabic voice agents across the GCC
Actualize develops Arabic voice models built natively for Gulf dialects with a research team drawn from Google, Nokia and Siemens.
Startups
+4
May 12, 2026
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2 min read
Exclusive: Egyptian grocery delivery startup Breadfast cuts 58 tech staff months after $50M raise
The cuts come 12 weeks after backing from Mubadala, the Olayan family, Y Combinator and the IFC.
Startups
+5
Apr 13, 2026
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4 min read
Golden Gate Ventures backs $2B AI infrastructure firm Invisible Technologies as it targets GCC enterprise deployments
Invisible, founded in 2015, claims to have trained data and models for more than 80% of the world's leading foundation model labs and counts Microsoft, AWS and Cohere among its enterprise clients.
Funding
+3
Apr 2, 2026
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5 min read
Abu Dhabi's MGX co-leads as OpenAI closes $122B round at $852B valuation
The co-lead position represents a deepening of a relationship that began in October 2024, when MGX participated in OpenAI's $6.6 billion Series E.
News
+3
Mar 12, 2026
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3 min read
Shorooq joins $1B seed round in Yann LeCun's AMI Labs, one of the largest AI seed financings ever, at a $3.5B pre-money valuation
The Abu Dhabi-based firm invested alongside Bezos Expeditions, Temasek, and NVIDIA, in the Paris-headquartered startup, which is building "world model" AI systems designed to reason about physical environments rather than just predict text.
Jordan
+4
Mar 12, 2026
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3 min read
Jordanian founder Amjad Masad's Replit triples valuation to $9B, as it targets $1B in ARR by year-end
The AI developer platform, founded in 2016 by Masad alongside Faris Masad and Haya Odeh, has raised a $400M Series D led by Georgian, with Qatar's QIA among the backers.
News
+2
Feb 27, 2026
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4 min read
G42 opens job applications for AI agents, joining a global race to put bots on the org chart
The Abu Dhabi technology group, which last year led a $55 million round in Applied AI and is building chip safeguards to satisfy Washington, has begun recruiting AI agents into structured enterprise roles.
News
+3
Feb 24, 2026
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5 min read
Presight-Shorooq Fund reveals first five investments from $100M AI fund, backing startups from Abu Dhabi to San Francisco
The fund, a partnership between G42's Presight and Abu Dhabi VC Shorooq, has invested in NodeShift, Candid, Hebbia, Blue, and Crunched after screening over 1,000 companies in its first 120 days.
Startups
+3
Feb 20, 2026
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2 min read
Abu Dhabi's Origen raises $50M from Bluefive Capital to deploy AI across government services, smart homes, and manufacturing
Founded in 2025, Origen is the second major investment from former Investcorp executive Hazem Ben-Gacem's Bluefive Capital, which led Mal's record $230 million MENA seed round in January.
Startups
+4
Feb 19, 2026
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3 min read
Saudi Arabia's HUMAIN invested $3B in Musk's xAI before SpaceX acquisition, now holds SpaceX shares
The PIF-owned AI company's stake converted into SpaceX equity following the merger, making HUMAIN a significant minority shareholder in Musk's space business.
News
+3
Feb 13, 2026
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3 min read
Anthropic raises $30B Series G at $380B valuation, with Abu Dhabi's MGX co-leading and Qatar's QIA participating
Abu Dhabi's MGX, absent from Anthropic's $13 billion Series F last year, enters as a co-lead. QIA, which backed the Series F, returns as a participating investor.
News
+2
Jan 23, 2026
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3 min read
OpenAI courts Middle East investors for potential $50B mega-round as Sam Altman meets Abu Dhabi-backed funds
The talks are preliminary, but OpenAI is said to be exploring a raise of $50 billion or more at a valuation in the range of $750 billion to $830 billion.
Startups
+5
Jan 22, 2026
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3 min read
Applied AI raises pre-Series B from Mubadala and Arbor Ventures to scale enterprise workflow platform
The investment comes just months after Applied AI raised a $55 million Series A at a reported $300 million pre-money valuation in February 2025.
Jordan
+4
Jan 22, 2026
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4 min read
Breez AI raises $1.3M pre-seed to build enterprise grade voice AI infrastructure
The round was led by Wamda Capital and anchored by early supporter FENA Holdings alongside DASH Ventures, with participation from a group of strategic angel investors.
Jordan
+3
Jan 21, 2026
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3 min read
Jordanian founder Mo Gharbat’s Open raises $7M co-led by Y Combinator to scale AI-native enterprise support across the GCC
The round was led by Y Combinator and X by Unifonic, with participation from Shorooq and Sadu Capital. Open is part of Y Combinator’s Winter 2024 batch and is incorporated in Delaware.
Startups
+3
Jan 15, 2026
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3 min read
Arabic.AI partners with Amjad Masad’s Replit to launch free, fully localised Arabic coding courses across MENA
The initiative marks the first full localisation of Replit’s educational content into Arabic, giving students, engineers, and aspiring developers access to hands-on, production-ready software development courses without language barriers.
