AI
News
+3
Jul 16, 2026
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1 min read
Vercel acquires Stakpak, the Egyptian-born DevOps agent startup, as it builds out agentic infrastructure
The deal takes a team that bootstrapped out of Cairo for two years, built one of the most popular open-source DevOps agents, and raised a $500K pre-seed just last year into the $9.3 billion company behind Next.js and v0.
AI
+1
Jul 13, 2026
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5 min read
Inside the AI services boom
After nearly a decade leading Deliveroo’s Middle East operation, Anis Harb left to help business make AI work at scale. We sit down with the Algebra AI founder, fresh from a $7M raise, to talk managed AI services, leaner teams and the gap between a promising demo and measurable results.
China
+4
Jul 10, 2026
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2 min read
Abu Dhabi's BlueFive co-leads $3B round for China's Kling AI, the largest raise ever for a video model company
The round values Kuaishou's spun-out video-generation unit at $18B ahead of a planned Hong Kong listing, and puts the Abu Dhabi asset manager alongside Tencent, CITIC Securities and CPE as the only Middle East-based name among the co-leads of a record Chinese AI financing.
Jordan
+4
Jul 10, 2026
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1 min read
Jordan's ISSF partners with STV to bring the Google-backed AI Fund to Jordanian founders
The tie-up marks ISSF's second fund partnership in a month after its $7 million commitment to Endeavor Catalyst V opened the Kingdom's second investment phase.
Analysis
+2
Jul 1, 2026
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14 min read
Tokenmaxxing and renting the frontier
How are founders and operators building across MENA thinking about token-spending caps, frontier versus open source model usage, and export controls?
Startups
+3
Jun 30, 2026
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3 min read
1001 raises $30M Series A led by Lux Capital to build sovereign AI for Gulf critical infrastructure
Eight months after its $9 million seed, 1001 has more than tripled its raise, backing its pitch to build AI that helps operators run critical infrastructure like airports, ports and energy grids.
Funding
+4
Jun 24, 2026
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2 min read
Abu Dhabi's MGX raises close to $50B in one of the largest AI funds ever
The firm has assembled a portfolio spanning frontier models, semiconductor infrastructure and data centres, with stakes including OpenAI and xAI.
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.
