Saal.ai and Nutanix partner on SovereignGPT for on-premise generative AI in the UAE
At a private gathering at The Ritz-Carlton Abu Dhabi, Grand Canal, attended by senior government representatives and private-sector leaders, Saal.ai and Nutanix announced a strategic collaboration to develop SovereignGPT, an agentic AI platform aimed at security-sensitive organisations in the region.
The companies said the platform is engineered in the UAE by Saal.ai and will run on Nutanix’s hybrid multicloud infrastructure, enabling on-premise generative AI deployments designed to keep customer data within an organisation’s own environment across hyperconverged, hybrid, or cloud-connected setups.
The announcement comes as governments and regulated industries across the Middle East accelerate AI adoption while tightening requirements around data residency, compliance, and control. Many organisations have been cautious about generative AI deployments that rely on external cloud services, particularly where sensitive datasets, critical infrastructure, or citizen information is involved.
By positioning SovereignGPT as “sovereign” and on-premise, Saal.ai and Nutanix are targeting that barrier directly: the need for AI systems that can operate inside an organisation’s own security perimeter, under local governance, and with clearer accountability for where data is processed and stored.
According to the companies, SovereignGPT is intended to help governments and large enterprises convert different types of internal data into “actionable insights” while remaining within their infrastructure. They said its agentic AI capabilities are designed to reason and act across enterprise systems to support faster decision-making. Built on Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure, the platform is presented as meeting government-grade security requirements, alongside resilience, scalability, and high availability for mission-critical environments.
Vikraman Poduval, CEO of Saal.ai, said: “SovereignGPT embodies our vision of building AI that empowers nations and enterprises to unlock the full value of their data without compromising sovereignty or security. Together with Nutanix, we are delivering an intelligent, autonomous platform built in the UAE, for the region, enabling organizations to make faster decisions, break down data silos, and accelerate digital transformation with complete trust.”
Raif Abou Diab, Sales Director, South Gulf and Sub-Saharan Africa, at Nutanix, said: “Our collaboration with Saal.ai brings together world-class hybrid cloud infrastructure and advanced regional AI expertise to deliver secure, on-premise Generative AI at scale. With SovereignGPT, organizations across the Middle East can deploy high-performance AI directly where their data resides—ensuring resilience, compliance, and the freedom to innovate without constraints.”
The companies described SovereignGPT as one of the region’s first fully integrated “AI-in-a-Box” certified architectures, combining compute, storage, security and AI capabilities in a single platform. They said the goal is to simplify deployment for large organisations and reduce the operational friction that can slow AI rollouts in regulated environments.
Saal.ai and Nutanix said the platform is designed to support digital transformation efforts by reducing data silos, improving operational and supply chain performance, and enabling “AI-ready” data foundations without moving sensitive information outside an organisation’s infrastructure.
The companies did not disclose commercial terms, a rollout timeline, or named early customers. They said the collaboration is intended to set a benchmark for scalable sovereign AI deployments across the Middle East.