CBUAE plans to roll out the digital AED soon. Here’s what you need to know

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WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TODAY

THIS MORNING: CloudKitchens shelves plans for dual KSA, UAE listing + Alterra invests in Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners’ fund

Good morning, wonderful people. It’s a little early to say this, but we’re getting the sense that many of you have already checked out ahead of holiday season, judging by the slower pace of news these days.

Today’s issue has a mix of everything, but the big story we think you need to have on your radar before the end of the year is the expected rollout of the digital AED — the Central Bank of the UAE’s digital currency. We have everything you need to know about how the digital currency works and what it means for tourists, residents, the government, and even the banking sector.

Plus: Emirates NBD is tapping Asian investors for a USD 700 mn loan, while Emirates Global Aluminium is raising capital for its USD 5-6 bn US smelter project.

AND- Masdar is making headway on a pledge to develop battery storage projects in the UK, while Amea Power commissioned a solar plant in Tunisia.

Watch this space

IPO: US ghost kitchen operator CloudKitchens is reportedly revisiting plans for a Middle East IPO in 2026, shelving a potential dual-listing in Abu Dhabi and Riyadh as the region’s IPO bubble deflates, while keeping the door open for a future listing, Bloomberg reports, citing people it says are familiar with the matter. The PIF-backed company is now weighing options such as a private placement, the people said, without specifying a timeline or venue.

Background: The firm, headed by Uber’s co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick — who was recently granted Saudi citizenship — runs KitchenPark facilities across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, and was eyeing a USD 2 bn valuation. First Abu Dhabi Bank, JP Morgan, SNB Capital, and Goldman Sachs were reportedly quarterbacking the potential IPO which was first announced in May.

2025 has been an uncharacteristically lackluster year for Gulf IPOs, with proceeds down to USD 6 bn from USD 13 bn last year. Investor caution drove players like Dubizzle to delay their IPOs particularly after big names like Alec Holdings, Talabat, and Lulu Retail logged underwhelming debuts.

RENEWABLES: Alterra, the UAE’s USD 30 bn climate fund, is committing an undisclosed amount to Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners’ Growth Markets Fund II — a vehicle targeting large-scale greenfield renewable projects in Asia, Latin America, and EMEA, according to a press release.

This year has seen Alterra get over a hump after struggling to deploy capital for a bit, with the fund’s CEO Majid Al Suwaidi blaming it on a lack of bankable energy transition projects. This year, though, it made a USD 2 bn commitment to Brookfield and has co-invested in platforms like India’s Evren, Italy’s Absolute Energy, and France’s Neoen.

PORTS: AD Ports Group has entered Tajikistan through a 51% stake in a new joint venture set to manage freight and logistics operations alongside Avesto Group, which owns the remaining 49%, according to a statement. The JV will start operations as an asset-light freight forwarder — holding the exclusive right to manage all freight and logistics operations for subsidiaries under Avesto Group’s umbrella. The JV will also serve third-party clients in the market.

The move will give AD Ports a new base in the landlocked Central Asian country, which is set to be a key bridge in the planned Middle Corridor — a 7k km multimodal logistics corridor linking China and the West, while bypassing Iran and Russia.

AI: Abu Dhabi AI firm G42 is expanding its AI product portfolio with the launch of a Hindi-English LLM, Nanda 87B, trained on a curated dataset of 65 bn Hindi language tokens, according to a press release. The model is trained for real work use with fluency in formal and spoken Hindi as well as Hinglish (a blend of Hindi dialects with English), delivering what it claims is “strong performance” in translation, summarization, and transliteration commands.

Our take: G42 joins global AI giants ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity, who are aggressively competing for India’s 1 bn internet users. Nanda 87B could offer Indian startups a cheaper foundation model to build upon, lowering the barrier to entry for local AI innovation.

Background: G42 has been building a suite of LLMs and AI tools beyond Nanda 87B. Its Inception unit has released the Jais family of Arabic-centric LLMs, a suite of 20 models in August 2024 tailored for Arabic natural-language processing, as well as mobile chatbot applications like Jais Chat, designed for Arabic speakers.

Beyond the region, in May 2025, G42 signed a strategic partnership with Paris-based Mistral AI to co-develop next-generation AI models and infrastructure. The partnership is set to span the full AI value chain — from model training and agent development to infrastructure and sector-specific applications.

AUTOMOTIVE: JBM Electric Vehicles has begun putting its buses through a Gulf stress test. The Indian EV manufacturer, part of the Indian conglomerate JBM Group, has deployed its initial batch of electric staff buses in Dubai, operating on high-traffic corridors like Dubai Airport and Dubai Investment Park, chairman Nishant Arya told EnterpriseAM.

“Summer performance will be the real filter,” Arya said. The Gulf rollout will gauge demand, performance, and supply chain resilience as a test whether JBM’s Indian-built platforms can replicate operational reliability under extreme heat, ahead of a wider international expansion. Vehicles deployed in the UAE use liquid-cooled battery packs, active thermal management, and enhanced AC systems.

Background: JBM’s UAE entry comes after its strategic partnership announcement in September with Dubai-based Al Habtoor Motors, which was appointed as the exclusive importer and distributor of JBM Electric Vehicles’ buses in the country. After-sales support, depots, and charging infrastructure will be handled by Al Habtoor’s local network.

What’s next? While vehicles are currently shipped from JBM’s Indian manufacturing base to ensure speed-to-market, Arya signaled that market growth would determine if and when local manufacturing and component sourcing is shifted to the UAE.

PSA-

🌧️WEATHER- Strong winds and rainfall are expected today and tomorrow, with temperatures cooling down to a high of just 27°C in Dubai, and a low of 19°C, while Abu Dhabi will see a high of 28°C and a low of 19°C. Expect light intermittent rain throughout the day, and potentially stronger thunderstorms later in the night.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD-

All eyes are keenly watching the latest escalation between the US and Venezuela (and potentially the most dangerous yet). US President Trump ordered a naval blockade on the country’s oil industry, prompting the Venezuelan Navy to gear up and hit the seas to escort shipments from port — bringing the two forces too close to the prospect of a naval skirmish.

Oil prices rallied by more than 1% on the news, rising from their near-five-year lows from earlier this week.

ALSO- Warner Bros Discovery’s board rebuked Paramount Skydance’s Gulf-backed offer for all Warner’s properties, calling it “inferior” and “inadequate” and urging shareholders to accept Netflix’s bid. The board argues that while Netflix’s bid is lower, it relies less heavily on borrowed money and refuted Paramount’s claims that either of the bids has a better chance clearing regulatory checks.

AND- BP’s Murray Auchincloss is leaving his CEO post after less than two years, to be succeeded by outsider Meg O’Neill who’s coming in from Australia’s Woodside Energy. That’s the third CEO that BP burns through in five years.

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***

The digital AED, explained

The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) is preparing to roll out the digital AED before year’s end, a government official said earlier this year at a summit. It recently completed the first government financial transaction using the CBUAE-regulated digital currency.

(** Tap or click the headline above to read this story with all of the links to our background and outside sources.)

Uh, Enterprise, what’s a digital AED? The central bank digital currency (CBDC), first revealed (pdf) in March 2023, is a digital form of the AED that is issued and backed by the CBUAE, but operates on blockchain technology, allowing it to be exchanged without intermediaries like banks. This means users can settle payments instantly and at a lower cost, while the currency maintains a peg to the AED and remains state-controlled and stable.

The UAE is among over 100 countries exploring CBDCs but is moving ahead of most. The CBUAE’s rollout plan includes three phases, beginning with international trade settlements:

In January 2024, a pilot cross-border transaction using the digital AED saw AED 50 mn sent to China via mBridge, a blockchain-powered platform facilitating real-time transfers between central banks in China, Hong Kong, and Thailand;
The UAE also conducted proof-of-concept trials with countries like India;
The final phase — which we’re about to enter — focuses on domestic usage, expanding the digital AED’s use in retail and wholesale transactions.

The CBUAE says it has already tested the full cycle of issuance, redemption, payments, and transfers across several retail use cases, including:

Food subsidies distributed by the Community Development Ministry, which could be programmed to control where and how the funds are spent;
Tourist wallets that offer VAT refunds and programmable incentives;
Parent-child wallets with programmable spending rules for children;
Fractional ownership of tokenized assets, including real estate.

How is it different from a stablecoin? While stablecoins — which are also regulated and can be backed by the AED, among other fiat currencies — can be used like a currency, they are not legal tender. The key difference is a digital AED is the digital equivalent of physical banknotes — it’s money in its purest form. A stablecoin, on the other hand, is issued by private companies, and only reflects the fact that you have private money held in a bank account somewhere.

It will also not carry interest and will likely be subject to holding limits, which the CBUAE says in a policy paper (pdf) will be “essential for managing [bank] deposit withdrawals during stress periods.” This is meant to discourage hoarding and reduce risks of bank disintermediation, particularly during times of stress.

It’s not yet clear what the limits will be, but the paper mentions some literature identifying an optimal holding limit for the Eurozone of around EUR 1.5-2.5k.

Worried about privacy issues onchain? Wallet balances will be pseudonymous and encrypted, with no personal data stored on the ledger, while wallet providers will manage user data, and KYC/AML compliance will be built into the system to meet regulatory requirements.

Why this matters

For the government, the currency aims to address pain points in both domestic and cross-border payments, and looks to reduce dependence on banknotes and boost financial inclusion. It also helps upgrade payment infrastructure to prepare for the future tokenization of both financial and non-financial activities.

On the other hand, the UAE’s large expat population will benefit from lower fees and faster remittance transfers, as well as real-time tracking and enhanced transparency, industry expert and marketing manager at Bitget Exchange Raghda Abutair told EnterpriseAM UAE.

Tourists will also have an easier time getting money in and out. “We will enable tourists that come to the UAE to top up their CBDC [Central bank digital currency] wallet with any account or any wallet they may have, convert any currency to digital, spend the Digital [AED] in the UAE, and then on the way back, convert it to whichever currency they want by the click of a button,” Paul Kayrouz, chief fintech officer at the CBUAE, was quoted as saying at Abu Dhabi Finance Week.

Crucially, the goal of the digital AED is for it to become a transactional currency, as opposed to a substitute for savings, the CBUAE explained.

Our take

The main concern has been how the digital AED will impact the banking sector, and whether it will erode profitability and trigger outflows and bank runs.

The CBUAE has already crunched the numbers, and it knows what money supply could look like. In a high-adoption scenario, the CBUAE said the digital AED is expected to make up around 5% of the UAE’s broad money supply — largely substituting bank deposits rather than physical banknotes.

But it’s not worried. The CBUAE says the presence of structural excess reserves in the UAE banking sector “mitigates the risk of disintermediation.”

Plus: A big portion of adoption will be accounted for by segments like migrant workers and tourists, a lot of whom have no formal bank accounts in the UAE, meaning their adoption won’t trigger significant deposit outflows or banking system stress.

Generally speaking, adoption itself will not come easy, Abutair said. It will depend on overcoming key hurdles, including user education.

Cybersecurity concerns are also a risk. Programmable money features — while useful for compliance and financial control — raise concerns about privacy, as they allow for real-time monitoring of transactions and potential restrictions on fund usage, Deniz Erhan, currently the director for Turkey and the Middle East at Ripple, wrote previously.

What to look out for next

How do we get our hands on it? Look for wallet-based apps linked to banks and exchange houses, including an app developed by the CBUAE (which allows users to choose between wallet providers, top-up or redeem balances, and complete payments) sometime before the end of the year.

The CBUAE also plans to launch a national financial literacy campaign to make for a smoother transition and ensure accessibility, according to the policy paper. The central bank has already begun surveying households, SMEs, financial institutions, and tourists to better understand what would drive or hinder real-world adoption.

Emirates NBD taps Asian investors for USD 700 mn loan

Emirates NBD is tapping Asian investors to lock in a USD 700 mn loan on very attractive terms, including a “bullet” structure with a seven-year tenor and an interest margin of 100 basis points over SOFR, Zawya reports.

(** Tap or click the headline above to read this story with all of the links to our background and outside sources.)

Uh, Enterprise, what’s a bullet term loan? A bullet structure allows Emirates NBD to repay the full raised amount in a single shot on the final day before maturity expires, only paying interest on a monthly basis, as opposed to other amortizing structures where principal and interest are paid regularly over time.

It’s not clear where the proceeds will go, but the 30-day availability period makes it likely that this is a refinancing, rather than proceeds for expansion, as is usually the case when a bank looks to draw down capital fast.

ADVISORS- Mizuho Bank is the coordinator, mandated lead arranger, bookrunner, underwriter and facility agent on the transaction, IFR reported.

Our take

This loan is the latest in a broader pivot from ENBD to Asian debt. The bank returned to the Dim Sum market the first time in over a decade earlier this year for a CNY 1 bn issuance, and sold USD 700 mn in five-year senior Formosa unsecured notes listed on the Taipei Exchange. In June it also tested appetite for a 10-year AUD kangaroo bond under its AUD 4 bn program.

It’s not just ENBD: Gulf issuers have been loving Asian debt markets recently, and vice versa. Borrowers in the Middle East secured USD 16 bn in syndicated loans from lenders in the Asia-Pacific so far this year, more than triple the USD 5 bn raised last year, as investors reprice US recession risks and brace for prolonged tariff volatility, we reported last week. Asian allocations to Gulf debt, on the other hand, have also jumped from 5-7% to 15-20% in the last 18 months.

Masdar plans to develop 450 MWh battery storage projects in the UK

Masdar will develop two new battery energy storage system (BESS) projects in the UK’s Cardiff and Chesterfield, with a combined capacity of 150 MW and 300 MWh, according to a press release. Commercial operations have also started at its 20 MW Stockport battery storage facility — the first project delivered under its GBP 1 bn 3 GWh battery storage pipeline for the UK.

(** Tap or click the headline above to read this story with all of the links to our background and outside sources.)

Masdar is no stranger to the UK: The Abu Dhabi renewables company made the pledge for battery storage projects in the country shortly after acquiring UK-based BESS outfit Arlington Energy in 2022. It also has a GBP 5.2 bn co-investment with Iberdrola in the 1.4 GW East Anglia Three offshore wind facility, and is developing the 3 GW Dogger Bank South offshore wind farm in partnership with RWE.

In other renewables news-

Amea Power has commissioned a 120 MW solar plant in Tunisia’s Kairouan, the country’s largest to date according to a statement. The project, financed by the IFC and African Development Bank, will deliver some 222 GWh of clean electricity annually. The company broke ground on the project in May last year.

EGA looks abroad for bauxite and capital

Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) is making several moves abroad as it looks to secure bauxite supply from a Guinean state-owned firm and raise capital for its push in the US, according to media reports.

(** Tap or click the headline above to read this story with all of the links to our background and outside sources.)

In the US, the aluminum producer is in early talks with potential investors for its planned smelter in Oklahoma, Bloomberg reported. The project is expected to require USD 5-6 bn in capital and produce around 750k tons of primary aluminum a year, doubling the US’ aluminum production capacity. Mitsubishi Corp. is among the prospective partners, though discussions are still preliminary.

Construction is slated for late 2026, with first production expected by the end of the decade, according to investor documents. EGA has said the project hinges on securing a competitive long-term power agreement.

Background

EGA’s planned US smelter sits within the UAE’s broader push to deepen economic ties with the US, following Abu Dhabi’s pledge to invest up to USD 1.4 tn over the coming decade. The pledge had included plans for the aluminum smelter, along with another USD 4 bn gallium smelter project targeting support for semiconductors.

The timing of the news also comes on the heels of the UAE’s participation in the US-led, critical minerals-focused Pax Silica summit as the UAE and the US’ critical minerals partnership seems to grow.

Over in Guinea…

The firm is said to be in talks with the government over a potential bauxite supply agreement that would see the company source feedstock from state-owned Nimba Mining, which had taken over EGA’s bauxite mining lease and concession in Guinea earlier, Reuters quotes unnamed sources as saying.

The talks follow July’s revocation of the license of EGA subsidiary Guinea Alumina Corporation (GAC) after a dispute over a delayed alumina refinery. One government source said the discussions aim to avert action threatened by EGA over the seizure.

Why it matters

Supply security is central to EGA’s overseas strategy. EGA invested more than USD 1 bn in GAC, which exported up to 14 mn metric tons of bauxite annually before the license was withdrawn. Its UAE refinery was engineered for GAC’s ore, sources told the newswire, pushing the company to seek alternative supply routes after the shutdown. Nimba Mining has begun exporting stockpiled bauxite and plans to ramp up production to 10 mn tons in 2026.

2PointZero takes full control of Egyptian fintech Maseera as former CEO steps down

2PointZero subsidiary takes full control of Maseera: 2PointZero Group’s subsidiary EPointZero Holding increased its stake in Cairo-born fintech Maseera Holding to 100%, acquiring the remaining 5% from founder and former CEO Amro Abouesh, who has stepped down, according to a press release (pdf).

(** Tap or click the headline above to read this story with all of the links to our background and outside sources.)

Background: 2PointZero acquired 95% of the Egyptian fintech in February 2025, investing USD 1 bn into the company to help it expand its AI-powered digital financial services to low- and middle-income individuals and MSMEs. The company was planning to set up an Abu Dhabi-based entity at the time, while aiming to scale the platform across emerging markets in Asia and Africa.

Adia doubles down on India’s ICICI Prudential, while Mubadala acquires a US building automation firm

Mubadala + Bain take over US building automation services platform

Mubadala Investment and investment firm Bain Capital have acquired North Carolina-based HVAC and building automation firm Service Logic from US private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners, according to a press release.

Service Logic? The North Carolina-headquartered firm provides commercial HVAC and building automation services to thousands of clients, operating in over 140 locations across North America with more than 5k technicians.

ADVISORS- Barclays and Jefferies acted as joint lead financial advisors on the transaction. Harris Williams and Goldman Sachs served as joint lead financial advisors to Service Logic, and JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley also acted as financial advisors. Ropes & Gray provided legal counsel to Bain Capital, while Latham and Watkins served as legal advisor to Leonard Green.

Adia doubles down on ICICI Prudential IPO

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (Adia) returned to India this week to pick up additional shares worth USD 5.5 mn in ICICI Prudential Asset Management's USD 1.2 bn anchor round ahead of its IPO, according to a regulatory filing. The IPO — which closed yesterday with USD 33 bn (INR 3 tn) in bids — was oversubscribed nearly 39x overall, making it India’s fourth most subscribed listing, Reuters reported.

(** Tap or click the headline above to read this story with all of the links to our background and outside sources.)

Adia joined global heavyweights like Singapore’s SWF GIC, Fidelity, Temasek, and BlackRock in the anchor book, which saw it raise some USD 359 mn.

It’s not Adia’s first: Adia joined a separate pre-IPO sale from British insurer Prudential alongside the marquee family offices of b’naires Azim Premji and the late Rakesh Jhunjhunwala.

Wonder why markets are edgy about the “circular nature” of AI investing? We’ve got the rundown.

The global financial press wants the AI bubble to pop so hard you can practically feel it in the air this morning after jitters rattled Wall Street on Wednesday.

What happened? Oracle’s stock tumbled more than 5% yesterday after Blue Owl Capital — its primary data center financing partner — pulled out of a USD 10 bn project, triggering a broader tech selloff that sent the Nasdaq down 1.8% to a three-week low. The Dow and S&P followed suit.

What’s really spooking traders: It’s not one deal, but the structure of the entire AI buildout. Investors are growing uneasy about what’s become common to call the “circular nature” of AI spending. (A bit confused about what this “circular nature” thing is? More on that below.)

That’s brought the dotcom question back on the op-ed pages and on business TV. By nearly every valuation metric, US equities are at their most expensive since 2000. The WSJ’s James Mackintosh goes deep into the structural parallels: heavy infrastructure spending financed by debt (fiber optic cables then, data centers now), a single-minded market focus on one theme, and “picks and shovels” suppliers being the ones who really rake-in the profits (Cisco then, Nvidia now).

That backdrop has traders spooked about today’s US consumer price data. The figure for November is due out this morning (US East coast time). Economists expect headline inflation at 3.1% year-on-year — a cooler print could calm nerves, and a hotter one could accelerate the selloff.

Enterprise Explains

Confused about the “circular nature” of AI investment? We’ve got the rundown for you, because it’s going to be in the headlines more and more heading into 2026. It’s a lot, but it’s not rocket science — just follow the money:

It starts with the data centers Big Tech is building. Oracle, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon are collectively committing hundreds of bns to AI infrastructure. Oracle alone has USD 248 bn in data center lease commitments — up nearly 150% in just three months.

Those data centers are serving AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, who need massive “compute” to train and run their models. The Oracle project that Blue Owl pulled out of? It’s being built for OpenAI.

But Big Tech is also funding the AI companies… Microsoft has poured bns into OpenAI, and Amazon (as of yesterday) looks like it’s following suit. Google and Amazon are investors in Anthropic. Oracle and SoftBank are partners in OpenAI’s massive USD 500 bn (yes, half-a-tn) Stargate infrastructure project. (That’s *far* from an exhaustive list…)

And the AI companies are losing money hand-over-fist. Generative AI is, as the WSJ put it, is “priced well below what it costs to produce.” OpenAI, Anthropic, and others are burning cash, subsidizing usage to build market share. Google and Microsoft are the only players using their own cash to grow.

That’s the circle: Tech giants invest in AI startups. The AI startups pay tech giants for cloud compute. Tech giants book revenue and justify more infrastructure spending. The spending is financed by debt — and the debt is repaid by lease income from … the very same AI startups that are burning investor cash.

The worry: What if someone breaks the circle? If investors stop writing tickets because, say, corporate buyers slow their AI rollouts on the back of slow-to-materialize returns on expensive AI pilot projects? Then it all grinds to a stop: The data centers are still there. AI companies, Big Tech, and others building for them are still saddled with the debt they took on to build-out data centers. And the tenants can’t pay.

JP Morgan is (gently) urging caution, Bloomberg has a data-packed rundown if you want more, and pieces by both The Atlantic and the New York Times highlighting a once-obscure company named CoreWeave are must-reads.

MARKETS THIS MORNING-

Asian markets tracked Wall Street losses amid the AI-fueled sell-off, with Japan’s Nikkei leading losses, and South Korea’s Kospi following closely behind. Over on Wall Street, futures are hovering near the flatline as investors await inflation data out later today.

ADX	9,953	-0.3% (YTD: +5.7%)
DFM	6,109	-0.0% (YTD: +18.4%)
Nasdaq Dubai UAE20	4,866	-0.5% (YTD: +16.9%)
USD : AED CBUAE	Buy 3.67	Sell 3.67
EIBOR	3.6% o/n	3.7% 1 yr
TASI	10,414	-0.4% (YTD: -13.5%)
EGX30	41,504	-1.2% (YTD: +39.6%)
S&P 500	6,721	-1.2% (YTD: +14.3%)
FTSE 100	9,774	+0.9% (YTD: +19.6%)
Euro Stoxx 50	5,682	-0.6% (YTD: +16.1%)
Brent crude	USD 60.62	+1.6%
Natural gas (Nymex)	USD 4.12	+2.3%
Gold	USD 4,359.3	-0.3%
BTC	USD 87,484	-1.7% (YTD: -8.9%)
Chimera JP Morgan UAE Bond UCITS ETF	USD 3.82	+1.3% (YTD: +9.7%)
S&P MENA Bond & Sukuk	151.72	-0.0% (YTD: +8.4%)
VIX (Volatility Index)	17.62	+6.9% (YTD: +1.6%)

THE CLOSING BELL-

The ADX fell 0.3% yesterday on turnover of AED 862 mn. The index is up 5.7% YTD.

In the green: Orascom Construction (+4.8%), National Bank of Umm Al Qaiwain (+4.2%) and Bank of Sharjah (+3.2%).

In the red: GFH Financial Group (-6.3%), Hayah Ins. (-2.8%) and Adnoc Drilling (-2.4%).

Over on the DFM, the index remained flat on turnover of AED 459.5 mn. Meanwhile, Nasdaq Dubai was down 0.5%.

CALENDAR

DECEMBER

18-23 December (Thursday-Tuesday): Games of the Future, Adnec, Abu Dhabi.

26 December (Friday): Tender period for Emirates NBD’s offer for RBL Bank’s public shares ends.

29-30 December (Monday-Tuesday): World Sports Summit, Dubai.

Signposted to happen sometime in 2025:

e& will complete Adnoc’s private 5G network.

2026

JANUARY

1 January: Client asset regime changes in Dubai International Financial Center take effect.

1 January: Amendments to the Tax Procedures Law and the UAE VAT Law come into effect.

9-11 January (Friday-Sunday): 1 Bn Followers Summit, UAE.

13-15 January (Tuesday-Thursday): FESPA Middle East, Dubai Exhibition Center, Dubai.

12-15 January (Monday-Thursday): Dubai International Project Management Forum, Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai.

28-29 January (Wednesday-Thursday): IBA Arbitration Day Conference, Abu Dhabi.

28-30 January (Wednesday-Friday): World Customs Organization Technology Conference, Adnec Center, Abu Dhabi.

31 January - 7 February (Saturday-Saturday): Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open, International Tennis Center, Zayed Sports City.

FEBRUARY

3-5 February (Tuesday-Thursday): The World Governments Summit.

4-6 February (Wednesday-Friday): Arab Actuarial Conference, Millennium Plaza Downtown Hotel, Dubai.

12-15 February (Thursday-Sunday): The Society for Incentive Travel Excellence Global Conference, Abu Dhabi.

9-13 February (Monday-Friday): The World Health Expo (WHX), Dubai.

10-11 February (Tuesday-Wednesday): Top Advisors and Investors Summit, Abu Dhabi.

MARCH

31 March - 2 April (Tuesday-Thursday): Arab Media Summit, Dubai.

26-28 March (Thursday-Saturday): Social Capital Conference, Dubai.

28-29 March (Saturday-Sunday): Emirates Congress on AI & Visionary leadership in Transforming Healthcare, Adnec Center Abu Dhabi.

30 March - 2 April (Monday-Thursday): IAAPA Middle East Exhibition and Conference, Adnec Center, Abu Dhabi.

APRIL

7-9 April (Tuesday-Thursday): Future Health Summit, Adnec Center Abu Dhabi.

13-15 April (Monday-Wednesday): AIM Congress, Dubai World Trade Center.

13-15 April (Monday-Wednesday): The International Glass Manufacturing Show, Dubai.

14-16 April: (Tuesday-Thursday): the International Property Show, Sheikh Zayed Rd, Dubai.

21-23 April (Tuesday-Thursday): UITP Public Transport Summit, Dubai.

MAY

11-15 May (Monday-Friday): Dubai Future Finance Week, Dubai.

11-13 May (Monday-Wednesday): AI Everything Global, Adnec Center.

19-20 May (Tuesday-Wednesday): Capital Market Summit, Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai.

19-22 May (Tuesday-Friday): Abu Dhabi Water and Energy Week, Adnec Abu Dhabi Center, Abu Dhabi.

JUNE

15 June-15 September (Monday-Thursday): Dubai Mallathon, Dubai.

JULY

31 July (Friday): Large businesses achieving annual revenues equal to or above AED 50 mn must appoint an accredited service provider for e-invoicing implementation.

Signposted to happen sometime in October 2026:

Abu Dhabi Space Week, Abu Dhabi.

DECEMBER

2-4 December (Wednesday-Friday): UN Water Conference, UAE.

Signposted to happen in 2026:

The UAE to host the Arab Competition Forum;
Investopia Global Talks, Tashkent.

Signposted to happen sometime in 2027:

1 January: Deadline for large businesses to implement e-invoicing;
1Q 2027: Completion of the first phase of Hassyan seawater desalination project;
31 March: Small businesses with annual revenues of less than AED 50 mn are obliged to contract with an accredited service provider for e-invoicing implementation;
31 March: Government entities are required to appoint an accredited service provider for e-invoicing implementation;
1 July: Deadline for small businesses to implement e-invoicing;
1 October: Deadline for governments to implement e-invoicing;
Abu Dhabi’s solar and battery energy facility, combining 5.2 GW of solar capacity and 19 GWh of battery storage, is set for commissioning.

Signposted to happen sometime in 2029:

Sibos 2029 organized by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), Dubai;
The commissioning of the seventh phase of Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park.

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