“It’s not just about the figures; it’s about the breadth and scope of what we are accomplishing. We’re seeing deals across aerospace, energy, manufacturing, services, and frontier technologies like artificial intelligence. We should celebrate both the breadth and the depth of this collaboration.” – H.E. Waleed Al Muhairi on U.S.-U.A.E. commercial ties. 

The U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council convened its 2025 Board of Directors Meeting on 18 November 2025 in Dubai, bringing together senior U.S. and Emirati business leaders alongside high-level government officials to discuss the future of the bilateral commercial relationship.

This year’s meeting, chaired by His Excellency Waleed Al Muhairi, Deputy Group CEO of Mubadala Investment Company, and Dr. Tomislav Mihaljevic, CEO, President, and Morton L. Mandel CEO Chair of Cleveland Clinic, highlighted the U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council’s increased growth and prominent role at the center of the bilateral trade and investment relationship.  

Key Highlights:

• His Excellency Waleed Al Muhairi emphasized the United States as a core strategic market for Mubadala’s global investment strategy and underscored the critical role of digital infrastructure in the current AI-driven era. 
• Dr. Mihaljevic framed Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi as a game-changing model for healthcare collaboration, emphasizing its transformative impact on regional healthcare standards. 
• Senior policymakers, including Dr. Anwar Gargash and U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Eric Gaudiosi, emphasized that economic cooperation now sits at the heart of U.S.-U.A.E. relations. Diplomacy is now powered by technology, investment, and economic cooperation. 
• H.E. Dr. Anwar Gargash, Senior Diplomatic Advisor to HH Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, highlighted theU.A.E.’s strategic shift toward a “geoeconomic” focus fueled by reliance on new technologies.
• Chargé d’Affaires Eric Gaudiosi emphasized that the U.S.-U.A.E. relationship is in a “moment of accelerating opportunity,” driven largely by shared ambitions in technology, energy, defense, and trade.
• Speakers explored ways the U.A.E.–U.S. partnership has evolved far beyond its traditional foundations of energy and defense, expanding into a diverse and dynamic range of sectors, focusing on frontier technologies like artificial intelligence.
• Danny Sebright, President of the U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council, reflected on the impressive growth of the U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council and year of dynamic activity across its core sectors of focus – artificial intelligence, healthcare and life sciences, energy, and financial services – and commended members for their continued engagement. 

Panel Discussions:

• Panelists emphasized the transformative impact of artificial intelligence on energy demand, infrastructure, and industry competitiveness.The U.S.-U.A.E. partnership is entering a new phase driven by AI, investment, and innovation.
• Panelists highlighted the scale, scope, and strategic importance of ongoing and planned investments, emphasizing the U.A.E.’s role as a global investor and technology hub. 
• U.A.E. investors are making transformative commitments in the U.S., including $25 billion in energy projects (ADQ with Energy Capital Partners), $1.8 billion in rare minerals (ADQ with Orion Resource Partners), $4 billion in aluminum production (EGA), and up to $440 billion through LNG and energy infrastructure (XRG/ADNOC). 
• MGX has already deployed$12 billion in capital, primarily in the U.S. market, investing across the full AI tech stack, including semiconductors (Altera), major data center projects (Aligned Data Centers), AI labs (OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, SSI), and enterprise AI tools (Databricks).
• G42’s concept of the “intelligence grid” underscores the U.A.E.’s ambition to become a global hub for AI infrastructure, with responsible technology diffusion and partnerships with U.S. companies.
• Partnerships between firms like G42, MGX, XRG and global investors show how industry is aligning capital, technology, and policy to drive transformation across sectors
• FAB highlighted the U.A.E.’s rapid growth in capital markets and financial services, now encompassing $5 trillion in assets under management, robust capital market activity, and emerging sectors like virtual assets and stablecoins. ADGM highlighted the emergence of Abu Dhabi as the “capital of capital.” Bain Capital was profiled as an example of numerous leading asset managers that have decided or are in the process of making a decision to set up in Abu Dhabi. 

For more information about the U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council’s programming and this event, please contact David Greenhalgh at dgreenhalgh@usuaebusiness.org.