New AI Centre opens at DMCC

Artificial intelligence ecosystem in Dubai hopes to attract top companies and talent

DMCC's AI Centre is located in Dubai's Uptown Tower, a 79-floor skyscraper. Photo: DMCC

An AI Centre has been launched at the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre, the free zone focused on commodities and trade.

Announced in May, DMCC's AI Centre officially opened its doors at an event in Dubai’s Uptown Tower, the 79-floor high-rise developed by DMCC, where the AI Centre is also located.

According to DMCC, the AI Centre will provide access to capital and accelerator programmes, networking, education and training.

“We're not running an AI company, we're supporting an AI community,” said Ahmed bin Sulayem, executive chairman and chief executive of DMCC, at an inauguration ceremony for the AI Centre.

“This will create a multiplier effect on all of DMCC's entities,” he added.

Mr bin Sulayem said that DMCC hopes to attract the best AI companies and investors to create real-life, pragmatic AI use cases as AI adoption reaches a crescendo.

“Since AI is going to be part of your life and work, it's going to be important to keep the industry close by,” he explained.

Also in attendance at the AI Centre inauguration was Sachin Dev Duggal, chief executive of Builder.ai, an artificial intelligence-powered composable software platform, one of several partners of the centre.

“With this centre, we're helping to unveil a portal to global commerce,” he said, reflecting on why Builder.ai chose DMCC as an ecosystem partner.

“We didn't want to be a software company just surrounded by other software companies, we wanted to be surrounded by potential customers and peers,” Mr Duggal said, referring to DMCC's reach and partnerships with gold, diamond, tea, coffee, crypto and gaming entities, to name a few.

This is not DMCC’s first venture into technology-focused areas. Back in 2021, DMCC established Crypto Centre, a new space that to house companies developing crypto and blockchain technology.

The Crypto Centre was the result of a partnership with Switzerland’s CV Labs, the organisation behind the Swiss government-backed Crypto Valley.

It is part of the free zone’s own Crypto Valley – an ecosystem for cryptographic, blockchain and distributed ledger technology entities in the UAE.

Also in attendance at the inaugural event was Dubai Future Foundation chief executive Khalfan Belhoul, who spoke about the importance of continuing to harness the potential promise of artificial intelligence.

“How can you disregard this sector that is creating, potentially, $15 billion to the global economy by 2030?” he said.

“Fifty years ago, this was a desert behind us,” he added, pointing out the window of Uptown Tower to Dubai's skyline. “But we embraced new ideas and new economies, which is what we're doing with the AI Centre.”

Established in 2002, DMCC was created to bolster Dubai's aspirations to become a commodity trading and enterprise presence in the Middle East.

More than 24,000 companies are registered with it, says DMCC.