United Arab Emirates Minister of Economy and Tourism, Abdulla Bin Touq (pictured), said AI must become a core pillar of government spending, on par with defence and cybersecurity, for nations to truly embrace the digital age.
Speaking at GITEX Global in Dubai, Bin Touq noted that while governments typically “spend budgets on defence and cyber [security],” they must also “spend on AI” by building the infrastructure required to secure data sovereignty. He added that the UAE has spent the past decade investing in data centres and energy infrastructure to prepare for the AI era.
Bin Touq argued that nations are not competing against one another in AI, but rather in an internal race to build the infrastructure and cultivate the talent needed to drive enterprise growth across sectors. He claimed the UAE ranks second only to the United States in AI infrastructure and talent development.
The minister said the UAE’s push to champion AI has been supported by key policy reforms - a challenging task before the technology’s mainstream rise through companies such as Nvidia and OpenAI. Among these initiatives was the introduction of the Golden Visa programme in 2018, aimed at attracting top global talent by offering long-term residency and family sponsorship benefits. Bin Touq said this policy was designed to keep the UAE competitive with Silicon Valley and other technology hubs.
Another example of the UAE’s AI-focused agenda include the establishment of the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, created to attract and train specialised talent.
Bin Touq also highlighted the growing strength of the UAE’s non-oil economy, which contributed 77% of GDP in Q1 2025, meeting the government’s target to reduce oil dependency. He said the goal is to lift the non-oil contribution to 80% of GDP, driven by industries such as finance, manufacturing and construction - with AI expected to play a pivotal role, already accounting for around 12% of national output.
