DUBAI: US software firm Palantir launched a joint venture with the Dubai government’s investment arm on Tuesday, as the United Arab Emirates continues its push into AI.
The joint venture, named Aither, was unveiled a day after Microsoft announced $15.2 billion in AI and cloud computing investments in the UAE, which seeks to become a global leader in artificial intelligence.
Palantir and Dubai Holding will extend their existing cooperation since early 2024 with Aither, which will “serve as a national platform to accelerate AI adoption across Dubai’s priority industries”, a statement said.
“Aither will help accelerate the nation’s ambition to establish global leadership in applied AI,” it added.
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Few details and no timeline were given for the venture.
Palantir, a data analysis and artificial intelligence company, has a reach that spans the global economy, with banks, hospitals, the US government and the Israeli military among its ever-expanding client roster.
It has stirred controversy for its work in defence as well as over its conservative co-founder Peter Thiel, who has close ties to the Trump administration.
Thiel, who has played a major role in Silicon Valley’s rightward shift, co-founded the company with others in 2003, with CIA backing.
In August, the firm won a contract to run US army software and data worth up to $10 billion.
The same month, Amnesty International accused US authorities of using AI tools from Palantir and Babel Street to monitor immigrants and target non-citizens at demonstrations supporting Palestinians.
In May, US President Donald Trump came to the UAE as part of his first foreign tour abroad in the Gulf, inking AI agreements that will see the UAE invest in US data centres.
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