Abu Dhabi’s G42 to open office in Israel, work on COVID-19 solutions

Abu Dhabi: The AI and cloud computing company Group 42 from Abu Dhabi is establishing a wholly-owned subsidiary in Israel. The office will serve as a gateway for Israeli companies seeking to expand their operations in the UAE.

This is the first time a UAE company is setting up an office in Israel. Operations will be led by experts from both countries with a focus on healthcare and COVID-19 diagnostic solutions, advanced AI research, agritech and water supply solutions.

Israel is today home to more than 6,000 hi-tech companies and startups for the highest concentration of such companies after Silicon Valley. It leads the world in the number of scientists and technicians, with 145 per 10,000, as opposed to 85 in the US, over 70 in Japan, and less than 60 in Germany.

Peng Xiao, CEO of Group 42, commented, “The establishment of the new Israeli office give us access to one of the most vibrant and mature tech ecosystems in the world.” G42 has announced a series of deals with Israeli companies: on July 2, it signed two MoUs with Rafael and Israel Aerospace Industries to explore the sharing of knowledge, personnel, technology and resources to conceptualize, develop and optimize breakthrough solutions to combat COVID-19.

On 19th August, it announced a partnership with the Nanoscent, an Israeli startup specialized in scent reading technologies, to explore collaborations in the development, validation, distribution and manufacturing of Scent Check, a solution capable of detecting suspected cases of COVID-19 from a sample of exhaled nasal air.

After establishing a massive throughput testing laboratory in Abu Dhabi in 14 days, G42 is working on Phase III clinical trials for the COVID-19 inactivated vaccine.