His Highness Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy
Ruler of Abu Dhabi, UAE National Security Adviser, and Chairman of G42, has
been named among the world’s 100 most influential people in artificial
intelligence by TIME magazine.
Sheikh Tahnoon was recognised in the Shapers category of the
TIME100 AI 2025 list, unveiled on Thursday, which highlights global leaders,
innovators, thinkers, and pioneers driving the future of AI.
TIME praised Sheikh Tahnoon for his role in spearheading the
UAE’s artificial intelligence and cloud computing agenda.
“G42, the UAE’s leading tech company, has already built a
global portfolio of AI supercomputers via partnerships with organisations like
Microsoft and Cerebras Systems,” the magazine noted in its citation.
The publication also highlighted Sheikh Tahnoon’s role in
forging international collaborations.
“In March, after His Highness Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed met
with US President Donald Trump, the White House unveiled that the UAE would
make a $1.4 trillion investment in American AI infrastructure and related tech
over the next decade—and in May the Trump Administration announced the
president would lift key trade restrictions to the Middle East,” TIME recalled.
Among his recent initiatives is the development of a 5 GW
data centre campus in Abu Dhabi, which TIME said is expected to become the
largest AI infrastructure project outside the United States.
Now in its third year, the TIME100 AI list has become one of
the most closely watched rankings in the technology sector.
This year’s honourees include some of the biggest names in
the industry: Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Jensen Huang, Matthew Prince, and Fidji
Simo.
The Innovators category featured Natasha Lyonne, Refik
Anadol, Alex Blania, Mike Krieger, and Mati Staniszewski, while the Thinkers
list included Yoshua Bengio, Jeffrey Dean, Jared Kaplan, Regina Barzilay, and
Pope Leo XIV.
Alongside Sheikh Tahnoon in the Shapers category were Stuart Russell, Fei-Fei Li, David Sacks, Henna Virkkunen, and Bosun Tijani.
TIME said its editors and reporters spent months researching
candidates, consulting industry leaders, and reviewing expert recommendations
before finalising the 2025 list.
Sheikh Tahnoon’s inclusion reflects the UAE’s growing role in global technology and artificial intelligence development, particularly through G42, which has become one of the region’s most prominent AI firms.
