The UAE is building a knowledge-based economy of the future and is rapidly becoming a global hub for the development of advanced technologies. UAE stakeholders are collaborating with US companies—including Amazon, Cisco, Facebook, Google, IBM and Microsoft—to accelerate innovation and the adoption of next-generation technologies. In 2023, the Global Innovation Index (GII) ranked the UAE as the number one environment for innovation in the Arab World for the eighth consecutive year.
Minister of State for Public Education and Advanced Technology Sarah Al Amiri and Minister of State for AI, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications Omar Al Olama play leading roles in driving the UAE’s focus on technology innovation, from artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing and digitization, to life sciences, climate science and space exploration.
No partner has been more important in the UAE’s progress than the United States.
UAE-US Partnerships are driving technology innovation, growth and development in both countries.
UAE-US Tech Cooperation in Action
The UAE and the US are collaborating across multiple sectors to drive tech innovation.
Microsoft's expanded partnership and investment in Abu Dhabi's G42 will deliver advanced AI solutions to global public sector clients and ensure AI technologies and cloud capabilities are equitably shared with growing economies worldwide. Microsoft announced the expansion of its Global Engineering Development Center to the UAE, one of Microsoft’s first engineering centers to be launched in the Arab world.
Close bilateral space cooperation facilitated the launch of a UAE probe to Mars, trained Emirati astronauts for NASA-led missions, and will see the UAE construct the airlock for NASA’s Lunar Gateway space station.
Significant investments by the UAE’s Mubadala Investment Company helped reenergize US semiconductor manufacturing; New York-based GlobalFoundries is now the third largest chipmaker in the world.
Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, part of the M42 network, and Cleveland Clinic colleagues in the US conducted the UAE’s first robot-assisted kidney transplants.
IBM and Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) launched an AI Center of Excellence to develop carbon-neutral solutions to existing energy supplies and further natural language processing (NLP) for Arabic dialects.
The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) adopted Microsoft’s smart assistant program ‘Copilot’ to enhance public services and utilities.
UAE research institutions, including Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI), Khalifa University, NYU Abu Dhabi and the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, are at the forefront of critical technology innovations in the UAE, including areas like renewable energy, AI and robotics.
