The Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khaled bin Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, met with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in the UAE capital. The meeting aimed to discuss opportunities to strengthen cooperation in artificial intelligence (AI) and accelerate its implementation in vital industries.
Discussions focused on using advanced AI technologies to drive government transformation and innovation in Abu Dhabi's strategic sectors, aligning with the emirate's economic goals and development priorities. Progress in Abu Dhabi's adoption of AI in public services and key industries was also discussed, supported by investments in digital infrastructure and national talent development. The emirate aims to become the world's first fully AI-governed government.
Following the meeting, Sheikh Khaled witnessed the signing of four agreements between entities based in Abu Dhabi and OpenAI. These agreements cover the governmental, energy, and investment sectors.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated that Abu Dhabi and the UAE are setting a global standard for integrating AI in both the public and private sectors. He emphasized that OpenAI is proud of the UAE's ambitions, thanks to a shared commitment to safety, accessibility, and responsible innovation.
In the energy sector, agreements were signed between ADNOC, a subsidiary of G42 Inception42, and OpenAI. This makes ADNOC the first company in the energy industry to implement advanced OpenAI technology. This partnership will allow the integration of advanced AI capabilities across all ADNOC operations, supporting more connected decision-making in commercial, investment, and operational spheres to enhance efficiency and productivity.
The technology will run on OpenAI's GPT models using local inference infrastructure in the UAE, aligning with ADNOC's goal to become the most technologically advanced and AI-focused energy company globally.
In the public sector, the Abu Dhabi government and OpenAI launched an initiative they termed the world's first machine-readable government initiative based on AI. This is a step toward the emirate's goal of becoming the world's first fully AI-oriented government. This initiative involves transforming selected government policies and regulations into machine-readable formats, enabling AI-based systems to assist officials in assessing routine regulatory compliance, including permit and certificate applications.
Each such assessment will be traceable back to the relevant regulation, while officials retain oversight and responsibility for final decisions. An initial pilot project, led by the Department of Government Operations Abu Dhabi (DGO), has already been launched jointly with the Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority (ADAFSA) and focuses on food import. AI data processing is ensured by OpenAI's residency in the UAE, and real-time computations are performed on GPUs in UAE data centers.
Under a separate agreement, Mubadala, Inception42, and OpenAI will apply advanced AI capabilities to investment analysis, identifying opportunities and assessing risks to support informed decision-making and create long-term value. Furthermore, Inception42 and OpenAI have signed a five-year agreement to expand the adoption of advanced AI in the government, corporate, and education sectors in the UAE. This partnership will support major UAE organizations through AI-based enterprise solutions, combining OpenAI's cutting-edge models and AI engineering expertise with Inception42's applied AI capabilities and consulting services.
These four agreements demonstrate Abu Dhabi's commitment to expanding AI usage in strategic areas, boosting productivity, and strengthening its economic competitiveness in the process of building a knowledge and innovation-based economy.
