Inception42 and NXT Holding sign MoU to accelerate sovereign AI adoption across the UAE

Inception42 and NXT Holding have signed a Memorandum of Understanding that establishes a strategic collaboration framework spanning five areas: AI consulting, training and upskilling, enterprise AI solutions, product distribution, and joint business development. The agreement was signed by Ashish Koshy, CEO of Inception42, and Sara AlAhbabi, Director of SPVs and Portfolio Relations at NXT Holding.

The partnership brings together Inception42's sovereign, enterprise-grade AI capabilities and NXT Holding's expanding ecosystem of operating companies, drawing on complementary strengths to build long-term value for governments and enterprises across regional and international markets.

The collaboration is designed to run the full length of the AI adoption cycle, from strategic advisory and initial engagement through to deployment and operational integration.

The commercial logic of the tie-up rests on a problem that has slowed AI adoption across the region: enterprises and government entities that run pilots but stall before production. Koshy has spoken publicly about the risk of what the industry terms "death by pilot," where organisations accumulate proof-of-concept deployments without ever reaching operational scale. NXT Holding's network of operating companies offers Inception42 a route to organisations that have already committed to moving from trials to deployment, while its investment expertise adds a layer of market access that a product company does not typically hold on its own.

"Inception is built to deliver sovereign, enterprise-grade AI at scale," Koshy said. "Partnering with NXT Holding expands our ability to reach organisations that are ready to move from AI exploration to AI execution. This MoU enables us to combine our product and platform capabilities with NXT Holding's market access and investment expertise, creating a powerful channel to drive measurable AI impact across the UAE and beyond."

Both organisations have tied the agreement directly to the UAE's national AI ambitions, a framing that reflects how sovereign AI has become central to the country's economic strategy. The UAE has set a target for AI agents to support half of federal government operations within two years, a goal that requires deployment partners capable of operating inside regulated environments where data sovereignty and compliance are non-negotiable. Inception42, which rebranded from Inception earlier this year to signal its shift towards sovereign agentic AI, sits at the centre of that effort as part of the G42 ecosystem.

H.H. Fatma Tahnoon bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, Founder and Chairwoman of Sahm Holding, said: "The UAE has placed artificial intelligence at the centre of its national vision, and partnership of this nature are how that vision becomes capability. This agreement reflects the strength of our institutions, the alignment of their purpose, and the nation's determination to lead in technologies that will define the future."

For NXT Holding, the agreement extends a delivery mandate built around the structural change AI represents for how economies and institutions function. Fahmi Abubakar, Managing Director of Sahm Holding, said: "NXT holding was built for the structural shift that artificial intelligence represents in how economies and institutions operate. Our responsibility is to help governments and enterprises navigate that shift. The agreement with Inception expands on our delivery commitment, and we look forward to the value it will create."

The MoU reflects a shared commitment to accelerating responsible and impactful AI adoption within the UAE and across international markets, an emphasis that has become a defining feature of how G42 companies position their work against a global backdrop of intensifying scrutiny over AI sovereignty, security and control of data.