Signed in the presence of the UAE Cyber Security Council and backed by a CSC-certified national cloud platform, the partnership signals a significant step in the UAE's push to govern its own AI infrastructure at a moment when sovereign AI has become a board-level priority across the region.
du, the UAE telecom and digital services provider, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Open Innovation AI, a UAE-based AI infrastructure and workload orchestration provider, to develop sovereign agentic AI capabilities for government entities and enterprises across the country. The agreement was signed at the Digital Readiness Retreat 2026 in Dubai in the presence of H.E. Dr Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, Head of the UAE Cyber Security Council, a detail that underscores the national security dimension of what is being built.
The partnership integrates du Tech’s National Hypercloud, which recently received formal certification from the UAE Cyber Security Council, with Open Innovation AI’s GPU orchestration platform, enabling public and private organisations to deploy and scale autonomous agentic AI workloads within UAE jurisdiction. The explicit objective: AI infrastructure that keeps data, models, and compute firmly inside the country’s borders.
Building Sovereign AI Infrastructure in the UAE
“True digital sovereignty requires an infrastructure capable of powering tomorrow’s cognitive workloads today,” said Jasim Al Awadi, Chief ICT Officer at du. “We are building the secure, compliant, and high-performance backbone that will allow UAE government entities and enterprises to deploy autonomous AI workforces with absolute confidence,” he added.
“By bringing Open Innovation’s Sovereign AI Fabric together with du Tech’s National Hypercloud, we aim to give government entities and enterprises secure, in-country access to the compute that AI workloads demand, while keeping data, models, and infrastructure firmly within UAE jurisdiction,” said Dr. Abed Benaichouche, Co-Founder and CEO of Open Innovation AI.
“Sovereign AI is a critical national security priority. Following our recent certification of du Tech’s National Hypercloud, this homegrown collaboration represents the secure in-country AI infrastructure orchestration the UAE requires to protect its data and digital future,” said H.E. Dr Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, Head of the UAE Cyber Security Council.
The Wider Industry Signal
The du–Open Innovation AI partnership arrives at a moment when sovereign AI infrastructure has moved from a policy ambition to a commercial imperative across the Middle East. According to Omdia chief analyst Trevor Clarke, the Middle East’s technology agenda in 2026 will be defined not just by how fast it adopts AI, but by how securely, sustainably, and strategically it builds the foundations beneath it.
The UAE’s Charter for AI development exemplifies the region’s commitment to ethical AI use, privacy, and compliance, with sovereign wealth funds evolving from passive investors to strategic architects of the AI economy. A recent Help AG State of the Market Report 2026 identified sovereign cloud infrastructure as an increasingly important component of broader operational resilience strategies across the region, as organisations reassess cyber risks in a machine-speed threat environment.
The race is no longer simply about compute capacity. Organisations and governments across the GCC are asking a harder question: who controls the infrastructure, and where does the data sit? The du and Open Innovation AI partnership is one of the clearest answers to that question to emerge from the UAE in 2026, and its CSC certification gives it a credibility that purely commercial AI partnerships do not yet carry.
For enterprise decision-makers evaluating AI deployment strategies, the signal is clear: in-country, sovereign AI infrastructure is no longer a regulatory preference; it is becoming the baseline expectation.
Sources
Sources: du and Open Innovation AI official press release; statements from Jasim Al Awadi, Chief ICT Officer, du; Dr. Abed Benaichouche, Co-Founder and CEO, Open Innovation AI; H.E. Dr Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, Head of the UAE Cyber Security Council; Omdia via Computer Weekly; Deloitte Middle East AI Predictions 2026; Help AG State of the Market Report 2026.
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