In-principle approval from the central bank positions regulated banks—not crypto firms—at the centre of the UAE’s emerging digital payments infrastructure.

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company has secured one of the largest private funding rounds in the sector, but faces mounting scrutiny over safety, energy use and governance as it scales.

At CES in Las Vegas, Jensen Huang didn’t just unveil “Rubin.” He reframed Nvidia as the company selling rack-scale AI factories — chips, networking, security and software bundled into one system — because the next fight is about inference cost, power, and control of the full stack.

As global fintech faced tighter regulations and capital discipline in 2025, markets with regulatory clarity outperformed. The consequences are reshaping where finance gets built.

The UAE-based AI firm and hybrid cloud provider say the new platform will let governments and large enterprises deploy “sovereign” generative AI inside their own infrastructure, keeping sensitive data on-premise.

Nvidia’s biggest investments last year were not about faster chips or higher growth. They were about preventing loss of power as AI inference overtook training and infrastructure economics began to shift.

For decades, economists have debated why technology does not deliver the productivity gains it promises. The answer today is clearer: efficiency is captured by systems and expectations, not shared with workers.

The next phase of the startup economy will be shaped less by technology and more by constraint. This article looks at how capital concentration, enterprise procurement, AI operating costs, and regulation are reshaping startup survival across the US, India, and the Middle East.

Industry leaders across AI, cloud, cybersecurity, and digital platforms outline how increasing autonomy, regulatory pressure, and energy limits are influencing technology decisions for 2026.

Meta’s acquisition of Manus, an AI agent startup with more than $120m in annual revenue, signals a shift in the AI race away from models and toward execution and monetisation.

The challenges organisations faced in 2025 were not caused by lack of innovation, but by weak foundations. AI, cybersecurity, and cloud infrastructure all exposed the same underlying problem.

Article by - Ramki Jayaraman, Managing Partner - Synarchy Consulting

It wasn’t just layoffs or funding cuts. In 2025, AI changed the cost of building tech, and everything else — hiring, investment, risk — followed.

As the UAE’s retail market expands, small retailers face rising costs, intense competition, and limited structural support. The Small Retailer Network was built to address that gap, quietly and deliberately.

The acquisition will expand ServiceNow’s security workflow offerings and advance AI-native, proactive cybersecurity and vulnerability response across all connected devices.

The new Kee Project will support up to 50 local entrepreneurs in building technology solutions for Kuwait’s crowded food delivery market, as platforms face rising costs, tighter margins, and fierce competition.

Bahrain’s National Cyber Security Center will deploy SandboxAQ’s AQtive Guard across more than 60 ministry environments to strengthen cryptographic visibility and readiness for emerging quantum-era risks.

Today’s deals tell a consistent story: AI is moving from demos to deployment, biotech is buying geography, and private equity is still writing big cheques for infrastructure-like fintech.

India’s rise to the world’s fourth-largest economy, TikTok’s sovereign restructuring in the US, and the Middle East’s race to own AI infrastructure point to a deeper shift: growth now follows control, not speed.

The year slows down, but judgement speeds up. Why the last week of December triggers anxiety for individuals, shapes customer behaviour, and quietly alters how companies make decisions.