Edgnex $2.3B Jakarta data centre; and more Middle East AI News
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In today’s newsletter: Edgnex’s new $2.3 billion investment in Indonesia’s data cenre market; Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund joins BlackRock, MGX and Microsoft in AI infrastructure fund; AI startup news; and carried over from last weekend news of HUMAIN and AMD’s 6GW data centre compute target and G42’s new Euro HQ!
Scroll down for these stories and more!
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Middle East AI News – 19-Jun-25
Data Centres
EDGNEX to build $2.3 billion Jakarta data centre
#UAE #datacentres – Dubai’s EDGNEX Data Centers will invest $2.3 billion in a 144MW AI facility in Jakarta. Scheduled for 2026, it will be one of Southeast Asia’s largest AI hubs. (Middle East AI News)
#Saudi #datacentres – The new Saudi AI champion HUMAIN and US chipmaker AMD will invest $10 billion to deliver 6GW of AI compute by 2034. The joint venture aims to slash infrastructure costs by 30% and become the world’s most cost-efficient AI hyperscaler. (Middle East AI News)
#Morocco #digitaltwins – South Korea’s Naver Corp. and US-based NVIDIA will build a 500MW AI data centre in Morocco, powered by renewable energy. The project aims to serve EMEA markets and launch operations by late 2025. Middle East AI News
Investment
#Singapore #investment – Temasek has joined Microsoft, BlackRock and Abu Dhabi’s tech fund MGX in the $100 billion AI Infrastructure Partnership. The move underscores sovereign wealth fund interest in global AI infrastructure, following Kuwait’s Investment Authority joining the consortium last week. (Reuters)
R&D
#Morocco #software – Oracle has opened a new R&D hub in Casablanca’s CasaNearshore Park, employing 800 engineers and specialists. The centre boosts Morocco’s ambition to become a digital innovation hub. (Yabiladi)
#UAE #LLMs – Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) and IBM Research have unveiled EarthDial, the world’s first vision language model for multi-spectral satellite imagery. The model outperforms existing systems by up to 32.5%, enabling natural language queries for climate, agriculture, and disaster response. (Middle East AI News)
#UAE #cybersecurity – Abu Dhabi’s Technology Innovation Institute (TII) helped patch a critical flaw in a global encryption validation tool. A collaboration with National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the fix boosts security for developers worldwide. (Middle East AI News)
Corporate
#UAE #infrastructure – Abu Dhabi’s G42 Group has launched G42 Europe & UK, headquartered in London. The subsidiary will drive sovereign AI infrastructure build-outs across Europe and develop partnerships aligned with local regulatory and compute needs. (Middle East AI News)
#UAE #LLMs – Abu Dhabi’s G42 has teamed up with Liquid AI to build private generative AI solutions. The partnership will focus on developing edge-optimised models for global deployment across strategic sectors. (Middle East AI News)
Funding
#UAE #funding – AI-powered proptech firm Prop-AI has secured $1.5 million to expand across MENA. The Dubai startup tripled revenue in Q1 2025 by automating property analysis. (Middle East AI News)
#Saudi #funding– Riyadh-based Darwinz AI has secured $325,000 in Seed funding to expand its AI-powered marketing tool, dima. The firm will hire more staff at The Garage in Riyadh and pursue international growth. (Middle East AI News)
Electric Mobility
#UAE #robotaxis – WeRide’s first robotaxi pilot in Dubai will begin before end-2025 using autonomous vehicles booked via Uber. Safety drivers will be present during trials, in preparation for a regular service in 2026. (Middle East AI News)
#UAE #aviation – Chinese eVTOL company EHang, Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) and Multi Level Group conducted a new test flight of the EH216-S autonomous air taxi. EHang plans to establish manufacturing and support operations in Abu Dhabi. (Middle East AI News)
Sentiment
#UAE #enterprise – The latest Salesforce State of IT study shows 80% of UAE firms plan to adopt AI agents by 2027, yet 86% cite compliance risks and 42% lack proper safeguards. Data and governance issues remain a challenge. (Middle East AI News)
Education
#UAE #skills – UAE-based AI startup AIREV and coding school 42 Abu Dhabi have launched a 12-week challenge to build 42 AI agents. The initiative aims to accelerate talent development in generative AI. (LinkedIn)
#UAE #education – Dubai Heights Academy and MIT Media Lab are expanding their AI and robotics curriculum. A new secondary campus will extend the hands-on programme to all year groups from 2025. (SchoolsCompared)
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[ This newsletter was AI edited & human edited ]
Service Delivery and Operations Leader (Telecom / IT) | Digital Transformation and AI strategy | Leadership and Mindset Couching
1moAI news doesn't sleep in this region! There's something big happening almost every week lately.