Tech News
Abu Dhabi to Host Ai Everything Global 2026: Accelerating the UAE’s Ambition as a Global Hub for AI Innovation and Investments

The UAE’s journey of spearheading AI progress worldwide has marked another milestone, with the announcement that Ai Everything Global Summit & Expo will be hosted in Abu Dhabi in 2026. This launch reinforces the UAE’s commitment to becoming a premier global hub for AI excellence.
Abu Dhabi aims to become the world’s first fully AI-powered government within the next two years, driven by the newly announced Abu Dhabi Government Digital Strategy 2025-2027. The UAE is already a leading global hub for AI talent, second only to the United States.
The announcement was made on the opening day of the inaugural Ai Everything Global Summit at St. Regis Saadiyat Island Resort in Abu Dhabi, the largest gathering of AI and tech leaders. The 2026 launch announcement comes amid major global AI investments, the rise of new AI models, and shifting dynamics in the global AI race. Ai Everything Global is the cross industries fully AI-focused forward-looking event of GITEX GLOBAL, the largest tech and startup show in the world. The first edition of the event opened to an oversubscribed full house audience with delegates from over 149 countries.
Organised by KAOUN International, the international events company of Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) and the organiser of GITEX GLOBAL – the world’s largest tech show taking place in the UAE, Ai Everything Global will be hosted at the ADNEC Centre Abu Dhabi, part of ADNEC Group, in strategic partnership with the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism (DCT). It will annually converge international influential brokers from private and public sectors to catalyse the development of a future economy powered by AI under the bold and visionary UAE leadership.
His Excellency Faisal Al Bannai, Adviser to the UAE President & Secretary General of the Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC), said: “In Abu Dhabi and the UAE, our commitment to AI innovation, advanced technologies, and R&D underpins a dynamic ecosystem that empowers talent and drives strategic progress. Today, we are proud to support Ai Everything Global in Abu Dhabi – an annual gathering that brings influential AI shapers and innovators to our capital to challenge conventions and explore synergies in the safe development and deployment of AI, strengthening the UAE’s role as an architect of future intelligence-driven economies.”
Humaid Matar Al Dhaheri, Managing Director and Group Chief Executive Officer of ADNEC Group, said: “Bringing Ai Everything Global to Abu Dhabi is a testament to ADNEC Group’s commitment to positioning the capital as a global hub for technological innovation and artificial intelligence. This event aligns with our vision to foster cutting-edge advancements, attract world-class expertise and drive meaningful dialogue on the future of AI. By hosting Ai Everything Global, we are creating a platform that empowers industries, governments and innovators to harness AI’s transformative potential, reinforcing Abu Dhabi’s leadership in shaping the future of technology and digital economies.”

Trixie LohMirmand, CEO of KAOUN International and EVP of Dubai World Trade Centre, said: “Ai Everything in Abu Dhabi and the UAE stands as the pivotal convergence of innovative advances in AI thinking, solutions, and global outcomes. The annual event compels stakeholders to reflect, recalibrate, and reset to respond to new challenges and paradigms, competitively yet collaboratively. Ai Everything Global Summit & Expo shall emerge as an international force in the global AI economy to influence policies, advanced tech developments, R&D, and investments; powering fast yet responsible adoption in governments, businesses, and civic societies. Building on the UAE’s already robust digital infrastructure fabric, Ai Everything Global ramps up its transition towards a human-centred AI knowledge economy.”
In partnership with all stakeholders, Ai Everything Global is committed to advance cross continental collaborations, enabling the transition of worldwide governments towards robust AI frameworks, optimising international talent development and deployment, harnessing the creation and responsible large-scale adoption of AI across industries, fostering R&D, and augmenting the power of AI for socio-economic growth.
The new home of Ai Everything Global, ADNEC Centre Abu Dhabi, is a world-class,
multi-award-winning venue, purpose-built to host major global events. Its state-of-the-art facilities, interconnected campus, and six onsite hotels make it a premier setting for high-level AI collaborations, cutting-edge technology showcases, and international policymaking forums.
This partnership with DCT Abu Dhabi underpins Abu Dhabi’s position as a thriving nexus for global AI dialogue and investment, fostering collaboration between public and private sector leaders to shape a future economy powered by AI.
UAE – The Rising AI Force
With AI projected to contribute $100 billion in national GDP contributions by 2030, Ai Everything Global 2026 will accelerate new tech infrastructure projects and sector-wide AI applications. The event aligns with the UAE National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence 2031 and the Abu Dhabi Government Digital Strategy 2025-2027, reaffirming the country’s role in shaping AI-driven economies.
Further solidifying its commitment to AI leadership, the UAE is actively engaged in global AI initiatives, including MGX’s participation in the $500 billion Stargate AI Consortium – the largest AI infrastructure, and the launch of the ADQ Growth Lab, committed $27 million to fund R&D testbed projects and accelerate AI adoption through proof-of-concepts and pilot programmes. In Dubai, a first-of-its-kind public-sector initiative has seen the appointment of several Chief AI Officers across government entities, ensuring AI integration remains at the forefront of policymaking and public service innovation.
Meanwhile, the UAE continues to drive AI talent development through its ambitious ‘One Million Arab Coders’ initiative, training and equipping the next generation with essential AI and coding skills to future-proof the region’s workforce.
Examining the winds of change in the ‘AI in Everything’ era
Inspired by GITEX GLOBAL, Ai Everything Global 2025 is taking place on 4 February in Abu Dhabi and 5 to 6 February in Dubai, opening with the Summit themed ‘Big Winds of Change: It’s AI in Everything’. As the year’s largest public-private global AI gathering, the event dives into the changing and unpredictable AI dynamics with 200+ speakers, alongside groundbreaking showcases, industry applications and use-cases from 500+ global tech enterprises and award-winning startups from over 70 countries.
World’s leading tech powerhouses will present how they are spearheading the interconnected AI revolution, with participation from ASUS, Alibaba Cloud, AWS, Dell, e&, Fortinet, G42, HP, and IBM to Intel, Lenovo, Nokia, Oracle, Palo Alto Networks, Red Hat, Technology Innovation Institute (TII), and Zoom. Over 500 Chief AI Officers (CAIOs) and Tech Executives will participate alongside 150 most-active global investors managing $70 billion in assets.
Tech News
Nothing Raises $200M Series C to Power the Next Phase of Consumer AI

Today, we’re announcing new funding––USD $200M in our Series C round at a USD $1.3B valuation. This milestone marks the start of our next phase: From being the only independent smartphone company to emerge in the last decade, towards building an AI-native platform in which hardware and software converge into a single intelligent system.

Building the foundations for the future
When we started Nothing, we had a thesis that if we could build a smartphone business at scale and own the last-mile distribution point in consumer tech, we would be well-positioned for the next technology shift. Although we didn’t know what that would look like at the time, the opportunity is now crystal clear.
From the start, we knew that the foundation had to be an end-to-end value chain
capable of delivering products at speed, scale, and quality. As we’ve seen from many others that have tried, building a hardware company is hard. There are many potential failure points and almost no room for error. For us, it required assembling a team that balanced a pragmatic approach of rapidly launching products, with an innovative mindset to deliver experiences that our community would immediately love.
Today, the foundations are firmly in place. From award-winning design, to our global manufacturing and supply chain network built for quality and cost. In four years, we have shipped millions of devices, began 2025 crossing $1B+ in total sales, while growing 150% in 2024.
Building this infrastructure has been the hardest and most valuable thing we’ve done so far. With the support of our community, we’re fortunate to have made it here. Today, we’re in a position that will be very hard to copy: The ability to launch any consumer hardware product from start to finish within months, go-to-market operations that can ship and service worldwide, a global user community that co-creates with us, all without the innovator’s dilemma or bureaucratic constraints that the incumbents face. On to chapter 2.
Operating systems, evolved
In the last 18 years, the smartphone became ubiquitous. It is the primary personal computing tool to manage the countless tasks of daily life. Beyond its distribution scale, what makes the smartphone the most powerful consumer device in the market is its unmatched access to contextual information and user knowledge. For this reason, I believe the smartphone will remain one of the most important devices in the AI era.
On the other hand, while AI has made revolutionary progress in the last three years, the smartphone experience has barely evolved. Most of the innovation has been underwhelming, limited to incremental improvements in photo editing, translations, and assistant features that barely work.
For AI to reach its full potential, consumer hardware must reinvent itself alongside it. This is the opportunity we see for Nothing. We see a future where operating systems are significantly different from the ones today. Each system will know its user deeply, and be hyper-personalised to each individual. Interfaces will adapt to our context and needs. Suggestions will surface naturally, and once we confirm an intent, agents will execute on our behalf. The system will handle the non-essential for us, allowing us to focus on what truly matters, which will be different for every person. Unlike today’s one-size-fits-all solution, a billion different operating systems will be rendered for a billion different people.
Over time, this OS will be transversal across all form factors: We’re starting with smartphones, audio products and smart watches, devices that people already use every day. In the future, our OS will carry into smart glasses, humanoid robots, EVs, and whatever comes next.
Why we are uniquely-positioned to create this future: Owning the last-mile distribution point with all its contextual and user knowledge is essential to developing an OS that will help people in their daily lives. An AI OS that doesn’t know its user and isn’t ever-present can’t deliver a hyper-personalised experience. This is the next chapter for Nothing, integrating an AI experience into our hardware devices to reinvent how technology amplifies us.
The next billion unit scale product
In the near-term, we believe that the smartphone will remain the only device shipping at billion-unit scale each year. But soon, we’ll all be carrying an additional device that will be just as important. In the coming years, we’ll learn that the more context we can feed our AI, the more useful it becomes. The smartphone, while powerful, can’t always be there for us. Sometimes it’s in our pocket, or we might be on the move with our hands full.
A new class of AI-native devices will emerge. Products that are available to the user at the moment of need, paired with intelligence that turns understanding into action. This is a very exciting time, imagining devices that capture context across modalities and generate interfaces on demand, shaped by what the user is trying to accomplish.
We have been hard at work imagining what this future could look like, and can’t wait to launch some of our first AI-native devices next year.
Our Series C capital raise
This funding round allows us to execute on this vision by accelerating our innovation roadmap and further scaling our distribution. Our round was led by Tiger Global, with significant support from existing shareholders GV, Highland Europe, EQT, Latitude, I2BF, and Tapestry, alongside new strategic backing from Nikhil Kamath and Qualcomm Ventures.
Alongside this Series C, we’re also preparing to launch our next Community round giving our supporters another opportunity to become part of Nothing’s journey. More details will be shared soon.
As we continue our journey, we do so with huge gratitude to our community, our team, and our partners. This next chapter is only possible because of you.
Carl, CEO and Co-founder of Nothing
Tech News
Innovo and Siemens Announce Strategic Partnership in Building Technologies

Innovo, an industry leader in construction and innovation, has signed a strategic partnership with Siemens, a leading technology company, to drive innovation, digital transformation, and sustainable growth across building technologies in the UAE.
Under the agreement, Innovo Technology Services has officially become a Siemens Solution Partner for Building Automation, authorised to deliver and integrate the Building X portfolio in the UAE. Building X is Siemens’ open, cloud-based platform for smart building management.
Innovo will provide full sales, integration, and support across modules including Lifecycle Twin, Energy Manager, Operations Manager, Comfort AI, Security Manager, Fire Manager, and API Manager.
This milestone strengthens Innovo’s commitment to digital adoption and sustainability in the built environment, while extending Siemens’ global leadership into one of the world’s fastest-growing construction markets.
The strategic partnership was formalised at a signing ceremony attended by Bishoy Azmy, CEO, Innovo, and Hakan Ozdemir, CEO, Smart Infrastructure, Siemens Middle East.
Bishoy Azmy, CEO, Innovo, said: “Our partnership with Siemens reflects our shared vision, to create smarter, safer, and more sustainable digital ecosystems. By combining Siemens’ advanced solutions with Innovo’s digital innovation, we are delivering intelligent solutions that will transform building performance and enhance quality delivery across the UAE.”
Hakan Ozdemir, CEO, Smart Infrastructure, Siemens Middle East, said: “Innovo is a trusted partner with a proven record in digital solutions. Their appointment as a Siemens Solution Partner will accelerate the deployment of our Building X portfolio in the UAE, supporting more efficient, resilient, and connected communities.”
Innovo continues to operate at the forefront of innovation. This strategic partnership supports the company’s vision to be part of the future of intelligent, sustainable building solutions that transform communities across its global markets.
Tech News
Lexar MEA expansion: 5,000+ retail stores

Lexar MEA expansion has hit a major milestone: the brand’s products are now available in over 5,000 retail stores across the Middle East and Africa. Moreover, the footprint reflects a fivefold increase in outlets carrying Lexar-branded solutions. With GITEX Global 2025 approaching, Lexar will showcase its latest memory and storage innovations for photographers, gamers, and content creators.
Lexar MEA expansion: momentum built with partners
At the core, growth comes from “The Lexar Way.” Specifically, the company co-builds the channel through training, consumer engagement, and incentive programs—so partners can move faster and serve customers better. Consequently, retailers gain the resources and product knowledge to match users with the right cards, readers, SSDs, and DRAM. In turn, this partner-first model has underpinned demand over the past three years.

“For nearly 30 years, Lexar has been empowering the world with memory innovations,” said Fissal Oubida, General Manager – Middle East, Africa & India. “Ultimately, our rapid growth in the region reflects rising demand for reliable memory solutions and the strength of our retail partnerships. Therefore, expanding our footprint demonstrates a long-term commitment to a market that’s become a hub for imaging innovation and creativity.”
Lexar MEA expansion at GITEX: what creators and gamers will see
At GITEX Global 2025 (Hall 1, Stand H1-25), Lexar plans to spotlight professional-grade memory cards, high-speed card readers, portable SSDs, and performance DRAM—solutions tuned for regional workflows. For creators, that means faster offloads, smoother edits, and simpler backup routines. For gamers, it means quicker load times and more responsive systems with NVMe upgrades and reliable storage tiers. Additionally, visitors can expect hands-on demos and guidance on selecting media for mirrorless bodies, cinema cameras, and gaming rigs. Notably, the team will translate specs into practical choices for real-world use.
Partner enablement that scales across MEA
To keep pace with demand, Lexar runs channel seminars and roadshows across the region. During these sessions, product details become clear use cases—from 4K/8K capture on CFexpress to hybrid creator–gamer setups. Furthermore, the company invests in localized education so floor staff can explain speed classes, endurance ratings, thermal behavior, and backup best practices. As a result, customers leave with the right media for their device and workload.
“Going forward, Lexar will continue to consolidate its regional presence,” added Oubida. “In fact, GITEX is an ideal platform to extend collaborations, strengthen local partnerships, and introduce new offerings tailored to MEA consumers.”
Why the Lexar MEA expansion footprint matters for end users
Availability matters. Because the retail network is broader, buyers can compare products in person, ask questions, and walk out with the right kit the same day. Moreover, consistent access improves creator and gamer confidence—especially when tight deadlines depend on fast cards and dependable SSDs. In practical terms, the 5,000-store milestone shortens the path from idea to delivery. Likewise, it supports regional growth in content creation, esports, and professional imaging.
Looking ahead
Expect continued product rollouts and deeper collaboration with resellers. Next, the roadmap includes more education-first initiatives, clearer in-store guidance, and expanded after-sales support. Ultimately, photographers, videographers, streamers, and gamers will gain a simpler, more reliable way to upgrade daily tools. In summary, Lexar’s partner model and retail reach position the brand to scale with MEA’s demand.
Bottom line
The Lexar MEA expansion is about reach, relevance, and reliability. With 5,000+ stores and a strong showing planned for GITEX Global 2025, the company is doubling down on creators and gamers across the Middle East and Africa—therefore bringing pro-grade memory and storage closer to where people work and play.
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