Since the 1960s, the story of technology has followed a familiar pattern. Innovation has emerged in Silicon Valley garages, Boston labs or European cafes and has gradually spread around the world. Today, this pattern is changing. In Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Bangalore and Jakarta, the future of technology is developing equally. Innovation is in infrastructure and investment, and is also dispersed through culture, religion and sovereignty. This new center of gravity is changing, and its value will define the tools the world will use tomorrow.
The Bay’s ambitious technology drive
The United Arab Emirates quickly became one of the most confident new players. In May, during President Trump’s visit, Abu Dhabi Announcement of the UAE Stargate,,,,, A 10-square-mile AI campus led by G42. Once fully operational, it will be one of the world’s largest AI-centric campuses, with its planned capacity of the five-Jiangsu province and the initial 200 MW stage in 2026.
Stargate will accommodate hundreds of thousands of high-end chips and is strategically located within two thousand miles of nearly half of the global population. The agreement, as a partnership between the United States, can relax previous export restrictions and provide avenues for safe deployment. Cisco, SoftBank and U.S. chipmakers have pledged support, demonstrating that the UAE’s ambitions are not only technology consumers, but also global authority in the AI ecosystem. This is clear: Abu Dhabi positions itself as a standard setter and consumer.
The UAE is driving beyond hardware. It has Invested billions of dollars In AI-driven government services, systems designed to make public administration more predictive and efficient, including systems that help civil servants quickly modify regulations. Language is also the core of this strategy. The open model, Falcon Arabic, fits the nuances of Arabic, is a technical and cultural manifesto. In the UAE, innovation is no longer a catching up. It’s about authorship, rooted in identity and expanded through global collaboration.
Saudi Arabia is making the same bold statement. The Public Investment Fund (PIF) will launch Humain this year, a sovereign AI that develops the entire data center, cloud infrastructure, language models and consumer applications. Locally produced Allam-based Humain chat has served millions of Arabic and English-speaking users and has customized guardrails to reflect local value. This is not only a chatbot, but also a claim of cultural and linguistic sovereignty.
The Kingdom supports this vision through funds and equipment. At LEAP in 2025, Groq, a U.S. chip maker specializing in ultra-fast reasoning, announced $1.5 billion expansion in Saudi Arabiasupported by PIF. Riyadh and Dammam’s initial large-scale Lumain data centers will launch 100 MW of capacity in 2026. Announced concurrently with other AI investments announced, these steps suggest that Saudi Arabia’s goal is to become a powerful player, not a passive player. Once talent can leverage local infrastructure in their own language, you can start at home.
India integrates technology and culture
India has proposed a complementary but distinct vision. Digital products have changed everyday life across the country. The unified payment interface (UPI) currently processes more than 20 billion transactions per month, enabling small ideas to rapidly expand in a country with a population of 1.4 billion. During the 2025 Mahakumbh pilgrimage, AI tools manage the mobility of millions of people, and multilingual assistants help navigate complex rituals. These examples illustrate how India integrates technology with cultural and religious life, making it less like an import but more like a facilitator of tradition. Indiaai Mission is a $1.2 billion initiative that supports shared computing and multilingual models that reduce barriers to startups and researchers across the country. The ultimate ecosystem combines scale, meaning and diversity, showing how technology can be adapted to in a local environment while still fostering innovation.
Africa and the broader global south
Decentralization exceeds South Asia and the Gulf. Konza Technopolis of Kenya in Nairobi is becoming a smart city that supports startups, academia and research. However, the most radical innovation in some regions is rural: AI tools help farmers predict weather and crops in volatile climates.
In Nigeria, the hub of Lagos and Ilorin-backed startups have designed voice systems for African accents. These systems help provide medical services or financial tools to farmers in local dialects. While these initiatives may appear modest compared to the five gigawatt AI campuses, they share a common DNA: locally relevant innovations designed to solve real-world problems.
In these areas, there is a common thread. Decentralization is not only a geographical communication of technology. This is a reshaping of technology itself. Mecca’s Chaoj provides key courses in crowd management that are applicable in global emergency systems. India’s street market payment railways have become the benchmark for emerging economies. African voice tools expand inclusion. Influence spread, because these innovations are practical and culturally adjusted.
Challenge and the way forward
The barrier remains. The infrastructure must be built, maintained and operated effectively. Laws must protect privacy and rights without stifling development. The talent pipeline takes years to mature. However, the trajectory is obvious: projects like Stargeate and Humain are not isolated experiments. They claim a new technical gravity center has arrived. India, Kenya and Nigeria show that cultural contexts – faith, language, community – are not inhibitors of innovation, but guides.
Innovative decentralization marks a paradigm shift. Global technology will no longer come from just the power of a long history. Instead, it will reflect various cultural and social priorities, integrating meaning and relevance into the tools that shape our future.
Yousef Khalili Is the global chief transformation officer and CEO of MEA quantumwhich develops cutting-edge digital employee technology.
