President Sheikh Mohamed meets BlackRock, Microsoft and Nvidia executives in US visit

Microsoft announces establishment of new Global Engineering Development Centre in Abu Dhabi

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  President Sheikh Mohamed meets Satya Nadella, chairman and chief executive of Microsoft, during an official visit to the US. All photos: Hamad Al Kaabi / UAE Presidential Court

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  Sheikh Mohamed with Jensen Huang, chief executive of Nvidia

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  Sheikh Mohamed meets Larry Fink, chief executive of BlackRock

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  Sheikh Mohamed with Mr Fink, Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed, Deputy Ruler of Abu Dhabi and UAE National Security Adviser, and Khaldoon Al Mubarak, chairman of the Executive Affairs Authority and managing director and group chief executive of Mubadala Investment Company

UAE President Sheikh Mohamed on Tuesday held talks with the chief executives of BlackRock, Microsoft and Nvidia to discuss modern technology and artificial intelligence, state news agency Wam reported.

The talks, which focused on technological developments and the growing collaboration between the UAE and the US in the technology sector, came during Sheikh Mohamed's official visit to the US.

He noted the UAE's commitment to investing in AI and advanced technology, and underscored the importance of deepening co-operation with global partners. Sheikh Mohamed also discussed the potential for these advanced technologies to unlock progress and economic opportunity.

The chief executives – Larry Fink of BlackRock, Satya Nadella of Microsoft and Jensen Huang of Nvidia – expressed their interest to continue collaborations with the UAE on advanced technology.

The UAE earlier announced partnerships with companies involved in AI as part of the country's broader effort to position itself as a global centre for the technology.

How US partnerships are helping advance the UAE’s AI ambitions

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US-UAE AI momentum

Last week, Abu Dhabi's AI company G42 announced a partnership with Nvidia to try to improve the accuracy of global weather forecasting. The collaboration will include the establishment of a Climate Tech Lab in Abu Dhabi that will become a centre for research and development, G42 said in a statement.

The partnership builds on Nvidia's Earth-2, an open platform that makes climate and weather predictions with an interactive, AI-augmented and high-resolution simulation.

The Mubadala-backed technology investment company MGX also recently joined forces with Microsoft and BlackRock to raise up to $100 billion to enhance the future of AI.

Meanwhile, Microsoft announced the establishment of a new development centre in Abu Dhabi. The Global Engineering Development Centre will be Microsoft's first in the Arab world, the company said.

It said the centre would build on developments to strengthen the UAE's position as a global tech centre by creating “cutting-edge technologies in the region” and attracting global talent.

“Our Engineering Development Centre in Abu Dhabi will bring new talent to the region and help power innovation that will drive economic growth and job creation for both the UAE and the world,” Mr Nadella said in a statement.

Microsoft announced a $1.5 billion investment in G42 in April, which is expected to help push the Abu Dhabi-based AI company's global expansion plans.

Future plans

Sheikh Mohamed's meetings with Mr Fink, Mr Nadella and Mr Huang come a day after he held talks with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in Washington.

“The leaders charted an ambitious course for the United Arab Emirates and the United States to lead global efforts to develop and expand new fields central to the global economy, particularly in advanced technologies and the clean energy required to power Artificial Intelligence,” Sheikh Mohamed and Mr Biden said in a joint statement.

They also welcomed the Microsoft-G42 partnership.

“These initiatives mark the beginning of our partnership and investments in the responsible deployment of advanced technologies, clean energy and frontier technologies that will be the engine that powers our interconnected world,” their statement said.

Building on the countries' collaboration in the advanced technology sector, the leaders said the partnership includes protection for US and UAE national security and helps established trusted investments and entrepreneurship.

In a separate statement, they signalled their commitment to develop a UAE-US agreement on AI. They also expressed a shared vision to promote safe, secure and trustworthy AI development.