The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has unveiled a new Arabic-language artificial intelligence model, “Falcon Arabic,” amid growing competition in the Gulf region to lead in AI innovation.
Developed by the Abu Dhabi Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC)—the body overseeing the country’s technology and innovation strategy—the model is built on a high-quality, original (non-translated) Arabic dataset that captures the full spectrum of the Arabic language's dialects and linguistic diversity.
ATRC Secretary General Faisal Al Bannai stated that the model can compete with others up to ten times its size and is designed to require significantly less computing power and technical expertise, making advanced AI more accessible to broader audiences:
“Today, leadership in AI is not about size for the sake of size. It's about making powerful tools useful, usable, and universally accessible.”
Alongside Falcon Arabic, ATRC also introduced Falcon H1, a model optimized to outperform AI systems developed by global tech giants such as Meta and Alibaba. Falcon H1 is engineered to efficiently run high-performance models with reduced computational demands.
These developments underline the UAE’s ambition to become a global player in AI. Leveraging its strong ties with the United States, the country is positioning itself to gain access to cutting-edge U.S.-made AI semiconductors in the coming months.
AI was also a central topic during U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia, where the kingdom is similarly striving to establish itself as a regional AI hub outside of the U.S. As part of its efforts, Saudi Arabia recently launched a new state-owned company tasked with developing and managing AI technologies and infrastructure, with plans to introduce one of the world’s most powerful multimodal Arabic large language models.
These moves signal a new phase of strategic competition in the Gulf as nations race to secure their place in the global AI landscape.
