Name: UAE aims to be worlds factory of intelligence, says AI Minister
Uploaded: 2025-12-05T08:59:59.356Z
Duration: 4 min 25 s
Description: The UAE’s Minister of AI Omar Al Olama tells CNBC’s Dan Murphy the country isn’t in an AI race - it’s running an eight-year marathon. He adds that the UAE has deployed over 500 billion dirhams into AI since 2014.

The UAE’s Minister of AI Omar Al Olama tells CNBC’s Dan Murphy the country isn’t in an AI race - it’s running an eight-year marathon. He adds that the UAE has deployed over 500 billion dirhams into AI since 2014.

Abu Dhabi

The United Arab Emirates has significantly increased its investment in artificial intelligence over the past eight years, with over 500 billion dirhams directed toward AI projects and infrastructure. The country ranks first globally in AI talent retention and is among the top for AI deployment, according to international indexes.

Recent developments include approval for advanced NVIDIA chips and the planned Stargate facility, which aims to produce 60 trillion AI tokens—about 60% of the world's total. The UAE's strategy focuses on agility, credibility, and international partnerships to establish itself as a leading global hub for AI innovation and production.

UAE aims to be world's "factory of intelligence", says AI Minister

I think this has been not a race. It's possibly a marathon. We've been doing this for a long time, so the UAE has been in this race for eight years, and the pace isn't slowing down. It's just speeding up. And what we've seen over the last eight years is that countries moved from putting big ambitions in the domain of artificial intelligence, so the UAE was one of the first movers. Many other countries followed suit, but it was very big ambitions that didn't really translate into anything meaningful. When it comes to the UAE's, let's say, momentum here, the first thing is since 2014, we've invested over 500 billion dirhams in artificial intelligence, so the numbers are substantial. If you look at the kind of projects that the UAE announced, Stargate, other projects where we're supporting the development of infrastructure in the US and in other countries as well, we really are, I think, market leaders in terms of our size and our geography, but also we are one of the top players in the world. Now, there are different ways to gauge whether you are really at the forefront or you are, you know, one of the people that are trying to catch up. If you look at BCG's index on AI talent flows globally, because talent is what's going to develop this at the end of the day, the UAE ranks first globally in AI talent retention and third globally in AI talent attraction, all right, so these people can go and work anywhere in the world. They choose the UAE as one of the top three destinations where they reside. The second thing when it comes to, you know, AI deployment overall, Stanford ranks the UAE as fifth globally. There are certain rankings that rank us as third, so we are between third and fifth, I think, globally. For our size, this means that we are a pace setter, and I think the larger countries are going to come to the UAE because of its agility, its ability to deploy much faster, the diversity of the people that are here, the cutting-edge infrastructure, so I think we are going to be a main player in this race. It's been a great year for the Gulf, particularly the UAE and Saudi Arabia, off the back of President Trump's visit to the region earlier this year, and also the diplomacy that we've seen between the UAE, of course, Saudi Arabia with this White House. We have now seen NVIDIA approved to sell its most advanced chips to the region, obviously a hugely significant development when it comes to the UAE's AI ambitions. Minister, walk me through what that is going to unlock, and what do you think it says about the UAE-U.S. technology investment corridor today? So, if you look at the UAE's history, one thing that we take very, very seriously is our credibility. When we make a statement, we follow through, and with that credibility, there's a burden that sometimes, unfortunately, you would make a statement, but the control is not completely in your hands. So, we made a statement that we're going to invest to create a five gigawatt facility, which is going to be ten times the size of Monaco, called Stargate, and the chips are not produced in the UAE, so we need to work with partners to have access to the chips. Now, that puts a burden on the UAE to actually deliver, because we take our credibility very seriously. This step ensures that we are able to deliver on that, and you know, the U.S. is a great partner of the UAE, has worked with for over 50 years. Now, what does the roadmap look like? The roadmap is 100,000 H200 equivalent GPUs to be deployed by May of next year. 200 megawatts is the first phase, but over the next two, three, four years, we're going to see a huge ramping up, up to five gigawatts. Why do we want to do that? So, the currency of the future is going to be tokens. Tokens that can be used and transformed into insights or intelligence that will help you in decision making, that will improve quality of life, that will improve productivity and otherwise, and we're trying to reach the capacity of being able to produce a token factory that produces 60 trillion tokens. Just to set the context on this, 60 trillion tokens is around 60% of the whole production of the world. So, we are really trying to be the world's factory of intelligence.

The contest, whose 70th edition is scheduled for Vienna in May, pits acts from dozens of nations against one another for the continent's musical crown.

Vienna

Four countries to boycott 2026 Eurovision after Israel can take part

Honduran presidential candidate Salvador Nasralla said U.S. President Donald Trump’s last-minute support for rival Nasry Asfura hurt his chances in the country’s closely fought election.

Tegucigalpa

Honduras' Nasralla: Trump's influence damaged my election chances

The ceremony took place even as there were reports of clashes between the Congolese army and Rwanda-backed M23 rebels.

Washington

Trump praises leaders of Rwanda and DR Congo as they sign a peace deal

A northern Virginia man was arrested and accused of placing two pipe bombs outside the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee headquarters on the eve of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. Scott MacFarlane has details.

FBI arrests suspect in 2021 D.C. pipe bomb case

A grand jury has rejected the Department of Justice's attempt to re-indict New York Attorney General Letitia James. CBS News legal contributor Jessica Levinson has reaction.

Grand jury rejects DOJ's attempt to re-indict Letitia James

The New York Times has sued the U.S. Defence Department and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth in an effort to force the Pentagon to abandon its restrictive new press policy. The Times alleges that the policy, rejected by at least 30 news organizations, violates its rights to free speech and due process.

New York

New York Times sues Pentagon, Hegseth over press restrictions

President Trump weighed in on Russian President Vladimir Putin's meeting with his envoy, Steve Witkoff, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. CBS News' Ramy Inocencio has more.

Moscow

Ukraine Invasion

Trump insists Putin wants to end Ukraine war after Witkoff's trip

Democrats have released never-before-seen images in the Jeffrey Epstein case. They were taken at his private island estate. It comes as the Trump administration faces a deadline to release the full Epstein case files in two weeks.

Newly released images and videos show Epstein's private island estate

Venezuela holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves, more than five times more than the United States.

Caracas

Maduro accuses U.S. of pushing for regime change to get Venezuela’s oil

Australia starts enforcing a landmark ban requiring social media platforms to take down accounts belonging to under-16s

Canberra

Australia under-16s social media accounts to be taken down

European Union lawmakers and member states reached a deal to ban all imports of Russian gas before the end of 2027, as the bloc seeks to choke off key funds feeding Moscow's war chest. Aimed at breaking a reliance the bloc has struggled to end despite the invasion of Ukraine, the accord marks a compromise between EU capitals and the European Parliament, which wanted the ban to hit sooner.

Brussels

EU agrees deal to ban Russian gas by end of 2027

President Trump pardoned Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas and his wife on Wednesday. The couple was indicted in 2024 on more than a dozen federal charges. Cuellar has denied any wrongdoing.

Trump pardons Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar and his wife

Sources say the Pentagon watchdog found Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth could have endangered American service members when he shared military information in a Signal group chat in March. Alex Plitsas, a former Pentagon official, joins "The Daily Report" to discuss.

Watchdog found Hegseth jeopardized sensitive military information

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee Wednesday released never-before-seen images of the private island owned by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. CBS News legal reporter Katrina Kaufman has more details.

Never-before-seen images of Jeffrey Epstein's island released

The doctor who pleaded guilty to selling ketamine to Matthew Perry in the weeks before the actor's overdose death has been sentenced to 30 months in prison.

Los Angeles

Doctor who sold Matthew Perry ketamine sentenced to 30 months in prison

Google subsidiary YouTube has criticized an Australian law banning social media accounts for under-16s, arguing the legislation set to start Dec 10 makes young users of Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube less safe.

YouTube attacks Australia's underage social media ban

U.S. envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff met Putin in the Kremlin on a revised Ukraine peace plan but left without a deal. Russia insists on territorial gains, army cuts, and blocking NATO membership, while Zelenskyy calls for long-term deterrence against future aggression.

U.S. envoys Kushner, Witkoff leave Kremlin without Ukraine deal

U.S. President Donald Trump, in a televised cabinet meeting, said “I don't want them in our country” about Somali immigrants, sparking outrage from politicians and migration experts. His remarks coincided with reports of planned federal raids targeting Minneapolis’ Somali community.

Trump targets Somali immigrants amid reports of Minneapolis raids

A Russian tanker carrying sunflower oil was hit by a drone off the Turkish coast, with no casualties. The attack is part of recent strikes on Russian-flagged vessels targeting Moscow’s oil sector, while Putin warns of possible retaliatory measures.

Russian tanker attacked off Turkey, Putin warns of retaliation

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he had watched the first U.S. strike in September on an alleged drug-smuggling vessel in real time, but did not see survivors in the water or the second lethal strike that he described as being carried out in the "fog of war."

Hegseth says he didn't see survivors before second strike on boat

Republican comfortably beats Democratic challenger after polls showed candidates in a close race in US state.

Tennessee

Trump’s pick Van Epps wins special election in deep-red Tennessee

U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to expand his crackdown on drug trafficking during a cabinet meeting, suggesting he’d order land strikes on Venezuela and attacks on any country transporting illegal drugs into the U.S.

Trump threatens to expand strikes beyond Venezuela

Ahead of a meeting to discuss the U.S. proposal for peace in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed European counter-proposals as 'unacceptable' and said his country was ready for war if Europe wants one.

Putin says Russia is 'ready' if Europe wants war

OpenAI has declared a "code red" as Google threatens to unseat the AI industry's early leader, according to the Wall Street Journal. Technology journalist Jacob Ward joins CBS News to discuss.

California

OpenAI declares 'code red' as Google threatens its AI lead

Russian President Vladimir Putin met U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner in the Kremlin on Tuesday (December 2) for talks on a possible way to end the deadliest European conflict since World War Two.

Putin meets Trump envoys Witkoff, Kushner for Ukraine peace talks

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday that the deadly boat strikes in the region near Venezuela and Colombia have "only just begun." This comes as Republicans and Democrats in Congress question the legality of the military action.

Hegseth defends boat strikes near Venezuela during Cabinet meeting

President Vladimir Putin has hailed what his commanders told him was the full Russian capture of the city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine as an important victory after a prolonged campaign, saying it would help Moscow fulfil its wider war aims.

Pokrovsk

Russia claims control of Pokrovsk

Major rescue and recovery efforts are underway across Southeast Asia after a series of severe storms battered the region displacing millions and killing more than 1,100 people.

Nuwara Eliya

Severe storms batter Southeast Asia, displacing millions

Honduras’ presidential race is too close to call, with Nasry Asfura and Salvador Nasralla nearly tied at just under 40% each as technical glitches delay official results.

Asfura, Nasralla in tight battle for Honduras presidency

Airbus must inspect hundreds of its A320 jets for potential quality flaws in the plane's body as a total of 628 aircraft contain panels that may be too thick or too thin due to a manufacturing issue at a supplier.

Breakdown