Abu Dhabi, OpenAI Sign Four Agreements to Advance AI Cooperation Across Key Sectors

Abu Dhabi, The Gulf Observer: H.H. Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council, met with Sam Altman, Chief Executive Officer of OpenAI, to explore opportunities for strengthening cooperation in artificial intelligence (AI) and accelerating its adoption across strategic sectors.

The meeting focused on harnessing advanced AI technologies to accelerate government transformation and promote innovation in Abu Dhabi’s key economic sectors, in line with the emirate’s development priorities and ambition to establish itself as a global hub for AI innovation and deployment.

Discussions also highlighted Abu Dhabi’s progress in integrating AI into government services and major economic sectors, supported by sustained investment in digital infrastructure and the development of national talent. These efforts form part of the emirate’s ambition to become the world’s first fully AI-native government.

Following the meeting, Sheikh Khaled witnessed the signing of four agreements between Abu Dhabi-based entities and OpenAI, covering the government, energy and investment sectors.

Sam Altman said Abu Dhabi and the UAE were setting a global standard for AI integration across public and private sectors to ensure that its benefits reach everyone. He expressed OpenAI’s commitment to supporting the UAE’s ambitions through a shared focus on safety, accessibility and responsible innovation.

In the energy sector, ADNOC, G42, through its subsidiary Inception42, and OpenAI signed a landmark agreement under which ADNOC will become the first company in the energy sector to deploy OpenAI’s advanced frontier AI technology.

The partnership will integrate advanced AI capabilities across ADNOC’s operations, enabling more connected operational, investment and commercial decision-making to improve efficiency and productivity.

The technology will be deployed through OpenAI’s GPT models using in-country AI inference infrastructure in the UAE. The initiative represents another step towards ADNOC’s ambition to become the world’s most technology- and AI-enabled energy company.

In the government sector, the Abu Dhabi Government and OpenAI launched the world’s first AI-native Machine-Readable Government (MRG) initiative, marking a significant step towards the emirate’s ambition of becoming the world’s first AI-native government.

The initiative involves converting selected government policies and regulations into machine-readable formats, allowing AI-powered systems to assist officials in routine regulatory compliance assessments, including procedures for issuing permits and certificates.

Each assessment will be traceable to the relevant governing regulation, while government officials will retain oversight and responsibility for final decisions.

The initiative is led and governed by the Department of Government Enablement – Abu Dhabi (DGE), with its first pilot programme already operational at the Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority (ADAFSA), focusing on food imports. AI processing is supported by OpenAI’s UAE-based inference infrastructure, with real-time model computations conducted on graphics processing units (GPUs) located in UAE data centres.

In the investment sector, Mubadala, Inception42 and OpenAI signed an agreement to apply advanced AI capabilities to investment analysis, identifying opportunities and assessing risks. The partnership aims to support more informed investment decisions and promote long-term value creation.

Additionally, Inception42 and OpenAI signed a five-year agreement to facilitate the adoption of advanced AI technologies across government institutions, businesses and educational organisations in the UAE.

Under the agreement, the two organisations will jointly support AI integration across these sectors and develop enterprise solutions for major UAE organisations by combining OpenAI’s advanced models and AI engineering expertise with Inception42’s applied AI capabilities and consultancy-led professional services.

The four agreements reflect Abu Dhabi’s commitment to moving beyond the adoption of AI towards its large-scale deployment across strategic sectors, with the objective of increasing productivity, strengthening economic competitiveness and advancing a knowledge-based, innovation-driven economy.