Agreements involving ADNOC, Mubadala and Inception42 aim to accelerate AI deployment, strengthen digital sovereignty and advance Abu Dhabi’s ambition to become the world’s first AI-native government
Abu Dhabi has expanded its strategic collaboration with OpenAI through four agreements covering government transformation, energy, investment and enterprise AI adoption, marking a significant step towards deploying advanced artificial intelligence across the emirate’s strategic sectors.
The agreements were signed following a meeting between His Highness Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council, and Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI.
Discussions focused on leveraging advanced AI technologies to accelerate government transformation, strengthen economic competitiveness and support innovation across key industries. Sheikh Khaled subsequently witnessed the signing of the four agreements involving Abu Dhabi-based entities and OpenAI.
The partnerships reflect Abu Dhabi’s ambition to become the world’s first fully AI-native government while establishing the emirate as a global centre for AI innovation, infrastructure and deployment.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said: “Abu Dhabi and the UAE are setting a bold, global standard for AI integration across both the public and private sectors to make sure the benefits of AI reach everyone.
“We are proud to support the UAE’s ambition, anchored in a shared commitment to safety, accessibility and responsible innovation.”
Abu Dhabi launches machine-readable government initiative
A central development is the launch of Machine-Readable Government (MRG), an initiative between Abu Dhabi Government and OpenAI designed to translate a defined set of government policies and regulations into machine-readable formats.
The initiative enables AI-powered systems to assist government officials in conducting routine regulatory compliance assessments, including those associated with permits, certificates and licensing applications.
MRG allows written policies to be interpreted by AI systems, enabling applications to be checked against relevant regulations and producing decisions directly linked to the governing clauses.
Routine cases can be processed autonomously, around the clock, potentially reducing assessment times from days to minutes while maintaining consistency, transparency and accountability.
The initiative does not alter existing legislation but changes how defined policies and regulations are interpreted and applied.
Human oversight remains central to the framework, with government officials retaining responsibility for final decisions. The system is not intended to make autonomous determinations in high-stakes situations affecting individuals’ rights, eligibility or access to essential services.
His Excellency Ahmed Tamim Hisham Al Kuttab, Chairman of the Department of Government Enablement – Abu Dhabi (DGE), said: “When we set out to build the world’s first AI-native government, we knew that applying AI to old processes would only take us so far.
“The harder task was making policy itself intelligent, and that is what a Machine-Readable Government does.”
He added that making regulations machine-readable would connect Abu Dhabi’s AI ambitions with the practical delivery of government services.
Led and governed by DGE, the initiative has already entered production through its first pilot with the Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority (ADAFSA), focusing on food imports.
Developed in collaboration with Inception42, a G42 company, the pilot validated a reusable Policy Adoption Engine capable of converting written regulations into automated compliance checks, with decisions traceable to their originating rules.
Future applications are planned across construction permitting, business and freelance licensing, data access governance, human resources compliance and procurement.
The initiative also enables policymakers to identify overlapping or conflicting regulations and assess the potential impact of proposed policy changes before implementation.
UAE infrastructure supports sovereign AI deployment
AI processing for MRG is powered by OpenAI’s UAE inference residency, enabling real-time model computation on graphics processing units located within UAE data centres.
The infrastructure operates under a fail-closed security architecture governed by UAE cybersecurity standards and subject to Abu Dhabi law.
The arrangement is designed to maintain data sovereignty while allowing government entities to deploy advanced AI capabilities securely.
Abu Dhabi Government retains full ownership of data generated through the initiative, with safeguards governing its storage, processing and deletion. The data is not used to train AI models.
MRG forms part of the AED 13 billion Abu Dhabi Government Digital Strategy 2025–2027 and will integrate with TAMM, the emirate’s unified digital services platform, which consolidates more than 1,200 public and private services.
“AI use cases are already active across 40 Abu Dhabi Government entities, while all government civil servants have received AI training.”
ADNOC becomes first energy company to deploy OpenAI frontier technology
Beyond government transformation, ADNOC, G42 through its subsidiary Inception42, and OpenAI signed an agreement to integrate advanced AI capabilities across ADNOC’s operations.
The partnership positions ADNOC as the first company in the energy sector to deploy OpenAI’s frontier technology.
The deployment will support connected operational, investment and commercial decision-making, with the objective of improving efficiency, productivity and organisational performance.
The agreement will use OpenAI’s GPT models supported by in-country inference infrastructure in the UAE, reinforcing ADNOC’s ambition to become the world’s most technology- and AI-enabled energy company.
The partnership also highlights the growing role of sovereign AI infrastructure in supporting critical industries where data security, operational resilience and regulatory requirements remain priorities.
Mubadala expands AI adoption in investment decision-making
A separate agreement involving Mubadala, Inception42 and OpenAI will explore the application of advanced AI capabilities across investment activities.
The collaboration will focus on investment analysis, opportunity identification and risk assessment, supporting more informed decisions and long-term value creation.
The initiative extends the application of frontier AI into investment management, where organisations increasingly rely on advanced analytics to assess opportunities, manage risks and support strategic planning.
Inception42 and OpenAI establish five-year AI partnership
The fourth agreement establishes a five-year collaboration between Inception42 and OpenAI to accelerate the adoption of frontier AI across government, enterprise and education in the UAE.
The partnership will combine OpenAI’s advanced models and AI engineering expertise with Inception42’s applied AI capabilities and consultancy-led professional services.
Both organisations will work together to develop enterprise AI solutions for large UAE organisations and support the deployment of AI technologies across multiple sectors.
The agreement is intended to help organisations move beyond experimentation towards practical implementation, enabling AI systems to contribute to operational efficiency, productivity and service delivery.
Collectively, the four agreements demonstrate Abu Dhabi’s broader strategy of scaling AI across government and major economic sectors while maintaining control over critical digital infrastructure and data.
The partnerships also reinforce the emirate’s efforts to establish an innovation-driven economy through investment in advanced technologies, digital infrastructure, and national talent development.
Source: Tahawul Tech