Magna AI, Inc., the global integrated‑value‑chain sovereign AI transformation leader established through a partnership between Trend Micro and Wistron Digital Technology Holding Company (WDH), powered by NVIDIA, today announced a strategic collaboration with Saudi Xerox, official representation of Xerox Trading Company in Saudi Arabia that is redefining the workplace experience by providing solutions to improve business processes, automation, and printing technology. The initiative was formalized during the Global AI Show 2026 in Riyadh by Dr. Moataz BinAli, Chief Executive Officer of Magna AI, and Mehmet Sezer, General Manager of Saudi Xerox.

The strategic framework will enable both companies to advance AI data centres, sovereign AI Factory capabilities, secure AI platforms and large-scale AI adoption for both government-led national initiatives and enterprise customers. The collaboration is aligned with Saudi Arabia’s digital transformation agenda and Vision 2030 objectives, with a focus on enabling secure, scalable, and locally relevant AI adoption across the public and private sectors.

The collaboration comes amid rapid expansion of the Kingdom’s AI infrastructure sector. Saudi Arabia’s AI data center market is forecast to grow from USD 0.63 billion in 2025 to USD 1.74 billion by 2030, representing a compound annual growth rate of over 22%, according to Mordor Intelligence. This growth is driven by Vision 2030 digital investment, government data-sovereignty mandates, and rising demand for locally hosted AI workloads.

“Saudi Arabia is building one of the most ambitious national AI agendas in the world, and that requires infrastructure with governance and security built in, shaped around the organization’s own requirements rather than a vendor’s defaults which creates the conditions for genuine long-term control,” said Dr. Moataz BinAli, Chief Executive Officer, Magna AI. “By combining Magna’s full value-chain AI Factory capabilities with Saudi Xerox deep on-ground presence in the Kingdom, we can help government and enterprise organizations move from AI ambition to AI at scale on infrastructure they own and control. This alliance also reflects our commitment to working with local partners to build the AI capacity, resilience, and ecosystem required to support long-term national transformation.”

Under the agreement, Magna AI will drive AI Factory architecture, platform development, AI security, and governance frameworks, while Saudi Xerox will support local infrastructure integration, security operations, compliance alignment and on-ground execution across the Kingdom.

The two companies intend to collaborate across several areas, including sovereign AI Factory development for large-scale model training, fine-tuning, inference, agentic AI operations, and data pipelines; secure AI operations aligned with Saudi data-residency and cybersecurity requirements; sector-specific AI applications for government and enterprise; and AI skills development and capacity building.

“Saudi Xerox is committed to supporting the Kingdom’s digital transformation through advanced IT, cloud, managed services, and cybersecurity capabilities,” said Mehmet Sezer, General Manager, Saudi Xerox. “This joint effort brings together Magna’s AI platform and security expertise with our established services and execution capabilities in Saudi Arabia, enabling national institutions and enterprises to adopt advanced AI with confidence and in line with local regulatory requirements. Our aim is to help organizations to adopt AI in a secure, compliant, and practical way that supports measurable business and national outcomes.”

Magna AI is the Title Sponsor of the Global AI Show 2026. Throughout the two-day event, Magna AI is showcasing is its sovereign AI infrastructure and enterprise AI platforms, as well as it’s security and industry-focused solutions. Magna AI leaders are also offering perspectives to organizations across industries looking to build production-ready AI that delivers measurable business outcomes. 

Magna AI, Inc., the global integrated-value-chain sovereign AI transformation leader established through a partnership between Trend Micro and Wistron Digital Technology Holding Company (WDH), powered by NVIDIA, today launched MagnaVERSE™ at Global AI Show 2026 in Riyadh.

MagnaVERSE™ is Magna AI’s unified AI software platform, bringing together models, agents, applications, infrastructure, and governance within a single operating environment. It serves as the intelligence layer where organizations can design, deploy, operate, and scale AI capabilities across the full lifecycle while maintaining operational control, visibility, compliance, and security.

“AI is rapidly becoming a foundational layer for economic growth, national competitiveness, and enterprise transformation. The challenge today is execution,” said Dr. Moataz BinAli, Chief Executive Officer of Magna AI. “Most organizations understand the potential of AI. The harder challenge is deploying it securely, governing it effectively, and operating it at scale. MagnaVERSE™ was built to provide the capabilities required to move from AI ambition to AI execution.”

The launch comes as organizations increasingly look to move agentic AI from experimentation into real-world operations. According to Gartner, more than 40% of agentic AI projects will be cancelled by the end of 2027 due to escalating costs, unclear business value, and inadequate risk controls. MagnaVERSE™ is engineered to address these challenges by orchestrating agents, models, and workflows within a governed, production-grade environment.

The AI software platform aims to provide a sovereign-ready AI stack with data residency, access control, security, and compliance embedded into the architecture. Magna AI’s forward-deployed engineering model connects AI directly to enterprise workloads, regulatory requirements, and national priorities, supporting transformation across sectors including government, financial services, healthcare, energy, manufacturing, and smart cities.

As Saudi Arabia advances its AI ambitions under Vision 2030, the focus is increasingly shifting from access to technology toward the capability required to deploy, govern, secure, and scale AI effectively. Magna AI’s role as Title Sponsor of Global AI Show 2026 reflects its commitment to helping governments and enterprises operationalize AI securely, responsibly, and at scale. Attendees at Global AI Show 2026 can experience MagnaVERSE™ first-hand at the Magna AI booth, while others can explore it online at https://magnaai.com/demo/magnaverse

Assets under management (AuM[1]) in the GCC grew by 10% in 2025, reaching $2.7 trillion and marking one of the strongest annual performances in over a decade, according to a new report from Boston Consulting Group (BCG). The findings, released as part of BCG’s Global Asset Management Report 2026: An Imperative for Growth, reveal that the GCC retail segment demonstrated particularly strong performance, recording growth of 14% while institutional assets increased by 9%. While institutional assets continue to dominate the regional market, retail assets are growing at a faster pace, with retail representing 7% and institutional assets accounting for 93% of total regional AuM.

Saudi Arabia continues to anchor regional growth, commanding the highest share of retail mutual funds and ETFs across both the broader Middle East and the GCC, followed by the UAE and Kuwait. The Kingdom’s General Organization for Social Insurance Public Pension Agency (GOSI-PPA) remains the largest pension fund in the region, with Kuwait’s WAFRA maintaining its position as the second largest. Among sovereign wealth funds, the Kuwait Investment Authority recorded the largest externally managed AuM, followed by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

“The GCC asset management industry is at an inflection point that demands a fundamentally different approach to competition,” said Lukasz Rey, Managing Director & Partner and Middle East Head of Financial Institutions at BCG. “While near-term dynamics will depend on the broader market environment, the region’s structural fundamentals remain compelling, and many asset managers continue to view the GCC as a strategic priority. Firms that invest in distribution capabilities and technological transformation will be best positioned to navigate uncertainty and capture the opportunities ahead.”

In addition to regional dynamics, BCG’s Global Asset Management Report 2026 identifies key structural forces transforming the industry on a global scale, from the growing centrality of distribution to the adoption of AI-driven operating models and the emergence of tokenization.

Globally, BCG’s report finds that growth is becoming more concentrated among leading firms with scale and distribution access. Revenue growth is decoupling from asset growth as fees decline, while traditional economies of scale are being offset by rising technology investment and fee pressure. Together, these trends point to a more competitive environment in which only a subset of firms is positioned to capture disproportionate growth.

Distribution Becomes the Key Competitive Differentiator

The report emphasizes that the basis of competition in asset management is undergoing a structural shift globally, with distribution emerging as the primary battleground for growth. As product manufacturing becomes increasingly commoditized, control of distribution channels, including platforms, advisors, and institutional relationships, is becoming the key determinant of success.

AI is accelerating these shifts by compressing traditional differentiation and enabling new forms of scale. Globally, BCG estimates asset managers could reduce costs by 25–35% over the next three to five years, while increasing research coverage two- to five-fold and client coverage per relationship manager three to five-fold, all with faster, more scalable personalization. AI allows firms to scale without proportional headcount increases, fundamentally changing the economics of growth. However, most firms remain in early adoption stages, focused on pilots rather than full transformation. Those that fail to redesign their operating models risk falling behind AI-native competitors that can scale faster and operate more efficiently.

“Middle East asset managers have an opportunity to leapfrog traditional operating models by embedding AI and digital capabilities into their core operations,” said Mohammad Khan, Managing Director & Partner at BCG. “While the path forward will require navigating evolving market conditions, firms that move strategically to build scalable distribution networks and technology-enabled platforms will be well positioned to shape the next era of regional asset management.”

Tokenization as a Catalyst for Disruption

Alongside AI, BCG’s global report identifies tokenization and digital assets as emerging forces that could reshape market structure. The value of tokenized real-world assets is projected to reach $14 trillion by 2030 and $55 trillion by 2035, creating new channels for distribution, ownership, and product design. These developments could alter how assets are accessed, transferred, and managed, potentially weakening traditional advantages tied to scale and distribution while enabling new entrants to compete.

“The convergence of tokenization, AI, and evolving investor expectations is reshaping the competitive landscape in ways that favor agility over incumbency,” said Nabil Saadallah, Managing Director & Partner at BCG. “For asset managers in the GCC, success will increasingly hinge on their ability to deliver personalized solutions at scale, those who embrace this shift stand to unlock significant value in a rapidly transforming market.”

As market-driven growth gives way to competition-driven growth, asset managers face a more complex and less forgiving landscape. Capturing net inflows, building scalable distribution, and embedding technology into core operations will determine which firms succeed.