Research · Live board · Status as of
The Sovereign AI Tracker: GCC and Lebanon
A live status board of the region's AI institutions, instruments, and build-out. Updated monthly from the public record. This tracker documents; it does not rank.
The board
| State | Newest instrument on the record | What the tracker records as it is published |
|---|---|---|
| UAE | Federal Authority for Artificial Intelligence and Data approved (announced June 14, 2026, WAM); Country Group A:5 placement, with advanced-chip access for approved entities under the published rule (July 2026) | The Authority’s inaugural acts in its own name (appointments, decisions, publications), as announced; Stargate UAE’s first 200 MW, as reported operational by the operator or a UAE government primary |
| Saudi Arabia | SDAIA published the National AI Risk Management Framework (SDAIA-P145, April 2026; announced via SPA July 14, 2026); HUMAIN, PIF’s sovereign AI vehicle (May 2025), holds a US Commerce authorization for the equivalent of up to 35,000 Nvidia GB300-class chips (November 2025) and received its first shipment of NVIDIA’s latest AI chips (reported December 2025); PDPL enforcement active: SPA reported 48 decisions issued with penalties during 2025 (January 2026) | Further shipments and commissioned compute under HUMAIN’s authorization, as published by the companies or Saudi primaries; further SDAIA instruments, as published on sdaia.gov.sa or SPA |
| Qatar | Qai launched as a QIA subsidiary (December 8, 2025), with a $20 billion AI-infrastructure partnership with Brookfield announced the following day | Qai’s capacity commitments, as published by Qai or QIA; programme launches and completions published under the Digital Agenda’s AI programme (MCIT) |
| Bahrain | National AI Policy published (July 2025) | Official publications under the National AI Policy (iGA); Tamkeen’s published enrollment and completion numbers for its AI training programme |
| Oman | AI Special Zone established by Royal Decree 50/2026 (issued April 30, 2026, published May 3); national programme runs through end-2026 | The successor programme, as published by MTCIT; the Special Zone’s licensed entities, as announced by Omani government primaries or Oman News Agency |
| Kuwait | National AI Strategy 2025-2028, a CAIT-published draft | The adopted strategy, as published by CAIT, Kuwait News Agency, or the official gazette Kuwait Al-Youm |
| Lebanon | Draft law elevating the AI portfolio to a full ministry: Cabinet-approved September 2025, under study in the joint committees following the July 15, 2026 plenary referral (Parliament’s record) | Parliamentary enactment, as recorded by Parliament’s own record; commencement of training cohorts under the Oracle MoU (50,000-person commitment), as published by the ministry or Oracle |
The corridor
The region’s compute build-out also moves through published US licensing instruments and project milestones. The tracker records each as it is published: licensing changes, agreements, financings, construction starts, shipments, and operations, attributed to their primary sources in the state rows above.
Changelog
August 2026 (baseline edition). Tracker launched. Recorded at baseline, covering events of December 2025 through July 2026: HUMAIN’s first reported shipment of NVIDIA’s latest AI chips (December 2025); SPA’s report of 48 PDPL decisions issued during 2025 (January 2026); the UAE’s Country Group A:5 placement (July 2026); SDAIA’s National AI Risk Management Framework (SDAIA-P145, April 2026; announced July 14).
Method
A registry of verified signals across institutions, strategy, regulation, compute, capital, deployment, and talent, each re-verified monthly against government primaries and dated reporting, framed with Aperture and adversarially reviewed with Crucible; public editions of both methods are open-source at github.com/ScipioP. Status descriptions follow the most recent published source. Scenario analysis behind the corridor section treats scenarios as decision-stress instruments, not forecasts. A scored-forecast section (public, Brier-tracked calls on non-government milestones) is in preparation.
Companion reference: the full institutional record, 2016-2026, is documented in Sovereign AI in the GCC and Lebanon: The 2026 Institutional Landscape.