The agreement with 22/x covers:
- A strategic equity investment made by 22/x in Context Labs
- Establishment of a regional headquarters of Context Labs in Abu Dhabi to serve customers and partners in the GCC countries and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region
- Regional deployment of Context Labs’ AI-powered data infrastructure, including the Context Labs AI Distillery™ solution for sovereign AI
- Development and implementation of industrial applications for priority sectors, such as energy, utilities and critical infrastructures
- Collaboration for deployment and integration into existing assets and ecosystem in the Middle East and North Africa
Context Labs develops a data infrastructure for AI—the trusted data layer that enterprise AI depends on —and delivers the Context Engine for sovereign, secure, and trustworthy AI. Its platform ingests fragmented operational, technical, and business data—both structured and unstructured—cryptographically verifies it at its source, and maintains a tamper-proof data structure, with a complete record of its lineage and provenance, so that every AI model, agent, and decision can be traced back to the verified data.
A library of industry-specific ontologies gives data context using language unique to each domain—from energy, chemicals, and mining to commodity trading, logistics, utilities, pharmaceuticals, and financial services—allowing the platform to scale across industries and easily extend to new ones. A variety of practical applications are developed on this common foundation, ranging from operations to regulatory compliance. Context Labs AI Distillery™ extends this infrastructure to the enterprise environment, enabling organizations to run cutting-edge AI models (including open-weight models) and semantic context agents within their own data centers, using their own verified data and ensuring full traceability of the origin of each decision.
In the energy and critical infrastructure space, this provides a trusted foundation for connecting operational performance, emissions insights and AI-assisted decision-making. By integrating fragmented data into a verified and auditable environment, the platform helps operators demonstrate the integrity of their energy, respond to evolving market and regulatory requirements, and support more resilient operations.
22/x will collaborate with Context Labs to scale this infrastructure and its applications across the MENA region, providing organizations making significant investments in enterprise AI with a verified database that builds trust and delivers a measurable return on investment (ROI). The alliance will leverage 22/x’s experience in incubating advanced technologies and AI applied to critical infrastructure operations, as well as its strong relationships with entities linked to the states of the region that manage computing resources, data and distribution channels. The goal is not only to introduce technology to the region, but to establish tangible capacities, long-term partnerships, and sustainable results.
“AI is only as good as the data that underpins it; therefore, companies must be able to verify such data before they can trust AI to act on it,” said Dan Harple, Founder, President and CEO of Context Labs. “Our cross-industry ontologies, built on a unified AI data infrastructure, allow us to collaborate with the region’s leading companies across all the industries in which they operate. Through 22/x, we provide them with the infrastructure to own their intellectual property and their own AI, as well as enabling them to demonstrate the integrity of their data to partners, regulators and markets around the world.”
“Through Arab Development, we have primarily served the oil and gas sector, bringing global expertise and technology to the UAE, as well as forging long-lasting local partnerships and building industrial capabilities. Given the transformation that automation, robotics and artificial intelligence are driving in these sectors – and in the economy in general – we identified the need for a specialized and future-oriented entity that supports the new digital economy. That’s why we built 22/x on that foundation, to help local industries adopt these technologies, modernize their operations, and build the capabilities needed to compete in an increasingly digital world,” said Yousif Al Nowais, President and CEO of 22/x.
“Our collaboration with Context Labs provides a critical foundation for that ambition: trusted data that enables companies to apply AI with confidence, while maintaining control over their information. For us, this transition must also create opportunities for Emiratis to develop specialist skills, contribute to implementation and lead the industries of the future. Our ambition is not simply to bring technology to the UAE, but to build the knowledge, capacity and long-term value that will remain here,” commented Mohammed Yousif Al Nowais, Director and Board Member of 22/x.
“Our family has forged a deep trust in the Emirates and the entire region; That trust is the pillar on which 22/X is based. Our goal is to take action: it’s not just about introducing just another AI platform, it’s about making AI work in real operating environments,” said Ahmed Nasser Al Nowais, CEO and member of the board of directors of 22/x. “From Abu Dhabi, 22/x will establish Context Labs’ regional headquarters, connect it with the sovereign partners – in the fields of computing, data and industry – that define this market, and bring Emirati talent into the project from the outset. We will work together with our customers on clearly defined use cases, establishing a replicable roadmap that will enable the move from initial deployments in the UAE to expansion across the GCC and the MENA region. Success will be measured by actionable outcomes: greater operational visibility, more auditable decisions, and stronger control over enterprise data; all this, while staying true to our national values: build here, build to endure and build in the service of the nation.”
