The closing session of the 7th Milken Institute Middle East and Africa Summit in Abu Dhabi featured a high-level exchange between H.E. Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, Managing Director and Group CEO of Mubadala Investment Company, and Michael Milken, Chairman of the Milken Institute, centered on the role of artificial intelligence in enabling national transformation at scale.

“The key is about AI enablement. Building the infrastructure and partnerships, investing in this space is important, but the next point is the enablement of the entire population — a smooth, population-wide transition to using the latest technologies and digital services,” H.E. Al Mubarak said.

“One example is how our UAE government moved from a traditional human-to-human interaction to online government platforms and apps for its services — from your title ID, to your health records, to your children’s grades, you can check them all on your phone. So, our work in this area is not aspirational anymore, but operational.”

Speaking about the UAE’s support for AI development and growth, H.E. Al Mubarak said, “We in the UAE have been consistent in our efforts to identify trends early and make educated investment decisions early on. In the AI field, we were relatively early — in 2017, we were the first to appoint the first Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications, and in 2019, the first launch an AI university – Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI).

“That investment strategy in AI, including its education and human-capital aspects, has since resulted in a national AI champion, G42 [Group 42(G42) is Abu Dhabi’s national artificial intelligence and cloud computing company], and a national investment vehicle, MGX Fund Management Limited (MGX) [an Abu Dhabi–based platform dedicated to AI investments].”

In May 2025, the UAE and the US announced the US–UAE AI Acceleration Partnership to deepen joint work on AI infrastructure, data-centers and responsible deployment. It will result in building the largest AI infrastructure project outside the US in Abu Dhabi.

“In the UAE, we try to do the legwork early and to hit the ground running. Over the last six months, since we signed that agreement, the foundations to build an entire city block have already been put in place,” H.E. Al Mubarak said.

H.E. Al Mubarak added that another recent milestone was marked by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s approval of the export of advanced AI chips to the UAE. The approval covers up to 35,000 AI chips and reflects the deepening cooperation between the US and the UAE in advanced technology and artificial intelligence.

“This reflects the speed at which we are moving and executing on this project. It will have significant ramifications for our economy, and it is a symbol of how the UAE approaches its strategic decisions,” H.E. Al Mubarak said.

In line with Mubadala’s vision to transform from a traditional sovereign wealth investor into a global, diversified, future-tech investor anchored in long-term value creation, H.E. Al Mubarak explained how the company has been executing this shift by embedding artificial intelligence into its investment processes. From 2025, an “AI member” has been serving on Mubadala’s investment committee as a consultative “co-pilot,” supporting due diligence, analysis, and decision-making.

“We also have MAIA, our proprietary, AI-enabled platform engineered to elevate investment intelligence and operational efficiency. On the investment committee, we have also created our digital twins, which mimic our thinking processes and the questions we would personally ask. In addition, we are now creating our own contrarian AI agent — because in investing, there is great power in having a contrarian perspective,” H.E. Al Mubarak said.