Abu Dhabi officials meet with OpenAI CEO

On November 2, 2026, Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohammed bin Zayed of Abu Dhabi met with Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, to sign four agreements between the American company and local entities in government, energy, and investment sectors.

Agreements focus on energy and compliance

One agreement involves ADNOC, the national oil company, and G42, a UAE-based tech firm, in a partnership with OpenAI to integrate artificial intelligence into ADNOC’s operations. The initiative will use OpenAI’s GPT models, hosted on infrastructure within the UAE.

Government initiative for AI compliance

A separate agreement between the Abu Dhabi government and OpenAI aims to create a "Machine-Readable Government" initiative. This involves translating policies and regulations into a format AI can use to assist public officials in compliance tasks, such as issuing permits and certificates.

Investment and education agreements

Another agreement involves Mubadala, the UAE’s sovereign investment fund, and OpenAI in using AI to analyze investment opportunities and assess risks. A fourth agreement between Inception42, a G42 subsidiary, and OpenAI covers a five-year deployment of advanced AI in administration, business, and education in the UAE.

Previous AI collaborations with ADNOC

ADNOC had already been using OpenAI models before this agreement. In 2024, the company and AIQ, a joint venture with G42, announced ENERGYai, a system integrating OpenAI models for oil operations. A $340 million contract for this system was signed in 2025.

Saudi Arabia’s AI investment

Separately, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Aramco finalized a deal in November 2026, giving Aramco a 49% stake in HUMAIN, the country’s national AI company. Aramco also contributed cash and AI assets to support the development of AI data centers in the country.

OpenAI presence in Europe and UAE

OpenAI has a growing presence in Europe and the UAE. In 2025, SAP Abu Dhabi launched Stargate UAE, an international expansion of its AI infrastructure. In Germany, SAP and OpenAI announced a 2026 initiative for government and research institutions, using Azure-based technology and 4,000 GPUs.

Abu Dhabi’s regulatory focus

The Abu Dhabi initiative is notable for being a direct agreement between the government and OpenAI. It emphasizes transparency, linking AI evaluations to specific regulations and ensuring human oversight in decision-making. However, details about the data center handling these tasks and the number of processed files remain unclear.