Adnoc-backed AIQ to deploy 1 mn AI cameras across an Indian oil major’s network in its biggest overseas push yet

AIQ is heading to India: UAE’s sovereign-backed firm AIQ will deploy 1 mn AI-powered cameras across refineries, gas stations, and digital stores of an unnamed Indian oil and gas conglomerate, the company’s CEO Dennis Jol told reporters last week. The cameras will read license plates and provide restocking intelligence. The deal marks another major expansion outside the MENA region for the energy-focused AI company. Non-UAE customers currently account for just 5% of its business almost a year after it started exports, and the company aims to expand. It currently operates in Kazakhstan, Egypt, Colombia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Kuwait.

Baghdad says yes

Huawei locks in MoU for Iraq’s sovereign cloud buildout: Iraq’s Communications Ministry signed an MoU with Huawei on Friday to build enterprise data centers across the country, the Iraqi News Agency reports. The agreement — signed at the ITEX 2026 ICT exhibition in Baghdad — is aimed at expanding Iraq’s sovereign cloud hosting for the government and corporate clients.

Huawei has a big presence in Iraq: The firm runs four regional branches in Baghdad, Basra, Erbil, and Sulaymaniyah, and supports a workforce of more than 10k. Its clients include 240 Iraqi corporates, as well as the ministries of oil, transport, interior, and defense.

ICYMI- Egypt just shunned Huawei’s bid for sovereign inference cluster: In August, we reported that Huawei had bid to supply Cairo with roughly 1.4k of its newest Ascend 950-series chips for a government AI training cloud, plus around 600 more for two inference clusters serving military, security, and surveillance functions, prompting the US State Department to approach Nvidia, AMD, and Microsoft about a rival American consortium.

Bookends

The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) signed cooperation MoUs with the central banks of Syria and Morocco days apart this week, extending its regional banking footprint on both ends of the Arab world.

With Damascus: The CBUAE and the Central Bank of Syria signed an agreement on Friday covering payment systems, monetary policy, cash management, fintech, credit information, licensing, compliance, and consumer protection, as well as climate risk and financial inclusion, according to a joint statement (pdf).

With Rabat: The CBUAE and Bank Al Maghrib signed two MoUs a day later that could eventually let Emirati and Moroccan payment cards work across both markets, the CBUAE said in a statement. The first covers supervisory information-sharing and cross-border Shariah-compliant trade and infrastructure finance. The second commits the two central banks to exploring links between their instant payment platforms, national card switches, and financial messaging systems, plus cooperation on central bank digital currencies, stablecoins, and virtual-asset supervision.

Neither package includes a swap line or a dated deliverable, leaving both Damascus and Rabat a step behind Egypt, whose AED 5 bn CBUAE facility was renewed on 29 September, and Bahrain, which secured an AED 20 bn line in April.

Keeping the H2 dream alive?

Despite global industry headwinds, Europe-North Africa green hydrogen corridor gets a diplomatic push: Energy ministers from Algeria, Tunisia, Italy, Austria, and Germany signed the Algiers Ministerial Declaration on the SoutH2 Corridor project on Thursday, establishing a dedicated, UNIDO-backed technical secretariat to advance the project. The corridor aims to transport 4 million tons of green hydrogen annually from Algeria to the three European nations via a 3.3k-km pipeline, meeting an estimated 10% of Europe’s projected clean fuel demand by 2040.

BACKGROUND- The SoutH2 Corridor is a 3.3k km hydrogen pipeline connecting North Africa with Europe. Last week’s signing marks the second ministerial meeting on the project, following a January 2025 declaration of intent in Rome. It’s not clear whether feasibility studies for the project have wrapped up yet — this October marks two years since Algeria’s Sonatrach and Sonelgaz, Germany’s VNG, Italy’s Snam and Sea Corridor, and Austria’s Verbund Green Hydrogen signed an MoU to roll out feasibility and profitability studies.

Opening the house

Iraq is mulling easing ownership rules that had kept its property market hard to access for foreign buyers. The National Investment Commission (NIC) is planning to push amendments to a 1961 property law that had long limited foreign ownership by requiring reciprocity with the buyer’s home country, at least seven years of legal residence, and security approvals, AGBI reports. No details on the amendments have been shared yet by the NIC.

IN CONTEXT- The new Iraqi government wants to address its housing supply crisis, while attracting foreign investors on both the developer and buyer levels. The Cabinet recently earmarked 25 sqkm of land in Baghdad and 25 sqkm in Babylon for eligible foreign developers, with similar carve-outs planned in other governorates, NIC official Adel Al Yasiri recently said. This comes in parallel to a plan announced in August to distribute 1 mn residential plots to Iraqi citizens. The Planning Ministry puts Iraq’s housing shortfall at up to 3 mn units.

Baghdad is reaching for a playbook its neighbors have spent the past few years refining. Oman has built what we think is the GCC’s most accessible foreign-buyer market on the back of Sultan Haitham City's residency-on-30%-payment model, and Jordan has drawn record foreign transaction values into its real estate market while separately discounting its passport to pull in high-net-worth capital. Iraqis have been active buyers of residences and property across both countries, an asymmetry Baghdad is now trying to reverse by inviting the inflow in the opposite direction.