Databricks sets sights on Abu Dhabi as Middle East growth takes off 

Welcome to this week’s Fortune Gulf Brief. We’ll be covering:  

Databricks to open Abu Dhabi office in regional push  

Space42 looks to scale growth and footprint  

Abu Dhabi Department of Energy chair on the importance of integrated infrastructure in the AI age 

Saudi events beat a hasty retreat  

And, the three we enjoyed reading this week  

Hello from Abu Dhabi. It’s good to be back in the region, especially given I’ve spent the past two days attending the Frontier Summit, which has been hosted by U.S. investment firm Goanna Capital.

The event has brought together around 200 founders, investors, sovereign wealth representatives and government leaders to discuss developments across AI, robotics and space. Representatives from Mubadala, Space42, Majid Al Futtaim Group, ADNOC Group, Databricks, and Snowflake were all present, among many other global heavyweights.

Given the region’s geopolitical backdrop today, it was both reassuring and refreshing to hear from a range of attendees that I spoke to that their appetite for doing business, both in and with Abu Dhabi, remains strong.  

For its part, Goanna Capital took the opportunity to announce that it has opened its first international office in Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) as it looks to connect regional investors with some of the world’s leading private technology firms. 

Databricks followed hot on its heels as per this week’s big story below. 

Melissa HancockAnd as ever, thanks for reading, and do keep in touch with your thoughts and ideas.melissa.hancock@fortune.com 

Databricks bets on the region’s growth

The U.S. cloud computing and data company, Databricks, has revealed that it will open an office in Abu Dhabi in February next year to tap into future growth in the region.  

“We’re very excited to be opening an office here in Abu Dhabi,” Richard Wylie, its regional vice president for the Middle East and Africa (MEA), told me on the sidelines of the Frontier Summit held in Abu Dhabi this week.  

“We view it as a strategic center to serve our UAE business and a key global market. We are investing heavily in the Middle East and hiring many people here next year to support our rapidly growing business across the region. Being close to our customers is also a key priority.”  

The planned Abu Dhabi office will be formally announced in December, according to Wylie.   

Databricks currently has a team of over 60 people covering the MEA region from across Europe who will relocate to Abu Dhabi, with Wylie saying it plans to more than double that headcount over the next 12 months in order to “tap into the strong talent pool here.”  

Wylie wouldn’t disclose Databricks’ exact number of customers across the region but referred to “hundreds”, noting that, in addition to its strong presence in the UAE, the firm is also growing rapidly in Qatar and Saudi Arabia. 

“We’re currently supporting regional customers across a wide range of industries, whether it's retail, financial services, telecoms and media, energy, aviation, automotive, as well as the government and public sectors, which are an important growth area for us.”  

Databricks helps organizations collect, process, and analyze large amounts........

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