--- title: Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan: The 100 Most Influential People in AI 2025 description: Find out why Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan made TIME’s list of the most influential people in artificial intelligence. canonical: https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2025/7305849/tahnoun-bin-zayed-al-nahyan-ai/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-08-27T19:45:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T11:54:43.376Z article:section: Business og:title: TIME100 AI 2025: Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan og:description: Find out why Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan made TIME’s list of the most influential people in artificial intelligence og:url: https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2025/7305849/tahnoun-bin-zayed-al-nahyan-ai/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt957bf3093828c1d8/6998c92f1f67093207f56a8c/Tahnoun-bin-Zayed-Al-Nahyan.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME100 AI 2025: Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: TIME100 AI 2025: Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan twitter:description: Find out why Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan made TIME’s list of the most influential people in artificial intelligence twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt957bf3093828c1d8/6998c92f1f67093207f56a8c/Tahnoun-bin-Zayed-Al-Nahyan.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Aug 27, 2025 # Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan National security adviser, UAE; chair, G42 by [Harry Booth](https://time.com/author/harry-booth/) ## Harry Booth Booth is a reporter at TIME.  Photo-Illustration by TIME (Source Photo: Turkish Presidency/AP) UAE national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed al-Nahyan is chairman of the country’s multibillion-dollar AI engine, G42\. The privately-owned firm has already built a global portfolio of AI supercomputers via partnerships with organizations like Microsoft and [Cerebras Systems](https://time.com/6979980/cerebras-systems/), but achieving the UAE’s ambition of becoming an AI superpower by 2031 will take more than building data centers abroad. In March, after al-Nahyan met with U.S. President Donald Trump, the White House [unveiled](https://ae.usembassy.gov/thanks-to-president-trump-uae-announces-significant-investments-in-u-s-economy/?utm%5Fsource=semafor) 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. That set the stage for a 5GW data center campus in Abu Dhabi, jointly unveiled by al-Nahyan and Trump later that month, in what will become the world’s largest AI infrastructure project outside of the U.S. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2025/7305849/tahnoun-bin-zayed-al-nahyan-ai/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2025/7305849/tahnoun-bin-zayed-al-nahyan-ai/"},"headline":"Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan","datePublished":"2025-08-27T19:45:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T11:54:43.376Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2025/7305849/tahnoun-bin-zayed-al-nahyan-ai/","keywords":["Tech","list","franchise","Magazine","Special Project","sponsorshipblock","Accolades","TIME100 AI 2025"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt957bf3093828c1d8/6998c92f1f67093207f56a8c/Tahnoun-bin-Zayed-Al-Nahyan.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Harry Booth","jobTitle":"Booth is a reporter at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/harry-booth/"}],"creator":"Harry Booth","articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt957bf3093828c1d8/6998c92f1f67093207f56a8c/Tahnoun-bin-Zayed-Al-Nahyan.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2025/7305849/tahnoun-bin-zayed-al-nahyan-ai/","name":"Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan"}}]}] ```