Microsoft invests $1.5 billion in AI firm G42, overseen by UAE’s national security adviser

REDMOND, Wash. — Microsoft is investing $1.5 billion in a technology company based in the United Arab Emirates and overseen by the country’s powerful national security adviser.

Microsoft and technology holding company G42 announced the deal on Tuesday. As part of the agreement, Microsoft President Brad Smith will join G42’s board of directors.

The deal “was developed in close consultation with both the UAE and US governments,” Microsoft said.

Abu Dhabi-based G42 operates data centers in the Middle East and elsewhere and has increasingly identified itself as an AI company. It has built what is considered the world’s leading Arabic-language AI model, known as Jais.

Microsoft said G42 will run its AI applications and services on the US tech giant’s cloud computing platform, and the two companies will work to bring digital infrastructure to countries where G42 has a presence in the Middle East, Central -Asia and Africa.

G42 has previously said it would cut ties with Chinese hardware suppliers due to U.S. concerns that it was too close to the Chinese government.

The company has faced espionage accusations over its ties to a mobile phone app identified as spyware. The country also faced claims that it could have secretly collected genetic material from Americans for the Chinese government.

Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s national security adviser, is chairman of the company’s board of directors.

The US Commerce Department on Tuesday described the UAE as a “global player in advanced technology” and said it was working with the United Arab Emirates and other countries on “verifiable commitments” for the safe development and deployment of such technologies.

“If managed responsibly, investments like those announced today have the potential to drive innovation in digital technologies around the world,” spokesperson Brittany Caplin said in a written statement.