Group 42 (also known as G42) is an artificial intelligence and cloud computing company that was founded in

Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi (, ; ar, أَبُو ظَبْيٍ ' ) is the capital and second-most populous city (after Dubai) of the United Arab Emirates. It is also the capital of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and the centre of the Abu Dhabi Metropolitan Area. ...

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

(UAE) in 2018. The organization is oriented to development of AI industries in the government sector,

healthcare Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profe ...

finance Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fina ...

, oil and gas,

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot air ...

and

hospitality Hospitality is the relationship between a guest and a host, wherein the host receives the guest with some amount of goodwill, including the reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers. Louis de Jaucourt, Louis, chevalier de J ...

Corporate History

Group 42 was founded in 2017. and is based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. It comprises a multidisciplinary and diverse team of

data scientists Data science is an interdisciplinary field that uses scientific methods, processes, algorithms and systems to extract or extrapolate knowledge and insights from noisy, structured and unstructured data, and apply knowledge from data across a bro ...

and

engineers Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...

. The company performs fundamental AI research and development process on

big data Though used sometimes loosely partly because of a lack of formal definition, the interpretation that seems to best describe Big data is the one associated with large body of information that we could not comprehend when used only in smaller am ...

, AI, and machine learning via its subsidiary the Inception Institute of Artificial Intelligence (IIAI).

Partnership

G42 works in partnerships including joint ventures, strategic teaming agreements, and direct investment made by G42.

Acquisition

*Bayanat: On 14 January 2020, G42 announced the acquisition of Bayanat for Mapping and Surveying Services LLC, an end-to-end and custom provider of geospatial data products and services. The acquisition was said to complement G42's suite of satellite-based solutions, leveraging its proficiency in

data analytics Analytics is the systematic computational analysis of data or statistics. It is used for the discovery, interpretation, and communication of meaningful patterns in data. It also entails applying data patterns toward effective decision-making. It ...

and

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...

methods.

Partnership

Alibaba Cloud Alibaba Cloud, also known as Aliyun (), is a cloud computing company, a subsidiary of Alibaba Group. Alibaba Cloud provides cloud computing services to online businesses and Alibaba's own e-commerce ecosystem. Its international operations are re ...

: Alibaba Cloud in partnership with G42, hosted the first MEA Internet Summit. The event was held with the aim of drawing the participation of technology experts and executives from the top 100 Internet companies in the region. The summit took place at the time of the Ghyma Conference 2019. *Adalytyx: On 23 December 2019, Group 42 announced signing an agreement of strategic partnership with Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding Company (ADDH) for the establishment of a joint venture called Adalytyx.

Investment

ToTok Totok is an Indonesian term of Javanese origin, used in Indonesia to refer to recent migrants of Arab, Chinese or European origins. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it was popularised among colonists in Batavia, who initially coined ...

: Group 42 was reportedly the sole registered shareholder of the free messaging, video, and voice calling mobile application,

. The application was downloaded by users in the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

, and

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, within several months. The application was accused of being "used by the government of the United Arab Emirates to try to track every conversation, movement, relationship, appointment, sound and image of those who install it," in a

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

exposé in December 2019. Following the allegations, the application was removed by

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

and

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

from their application stores. Reportedly, the CEO of G42 has also been running

Pegasus Pegasus ( grc-gre, Πήγασος, Pḗgasos; la, Pegasus, Pegasos) is one of the best known creatures in Greek mythology. He is a winged divine stallion usually depicted as pure white in color. He was sired by Poseidon, in his role as hor ...

– a subsidiary of an Emirati security firm,

DarkMatter DarkMatter was an art and activist collaboration between Janani Balasubramanian and Alok Vaid-Menon, known for their spoken word performances and queer/trans South Asian themes. Background Balasubramanian and Vaid-Menon, both Indian American, m ...

, which received scrutiny over the hiring of former

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

and

NSA The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collecti ...

officials to

spy Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangib ...

Americans Americans are the Citizenship of the United States, citizens and United States nationality law, nationals of the United States, United States of America.; ; Although direct citizens and nationals make up the majority of Americans, many Multi ...

dissidents A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established political or religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and in the political sense since the 20th ...

, and political rivals. The company, however, denies having any connection with DarkMatter.

Collaboration

Rafael Rafael may refer to: * Rafael (given name) or Raphael, a name of Hebrew origin * Rafael, California * Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Israeli manufacturer of weapons and military technology * Hurricane Rafael, a 2012 hurricane Fiction * ''R ...

and IAI: On 2 July 2020, G42 announced the signing a memorandum of understanding with two Israeli defense groups – Rafael and Israel Aerospace Industries – to research and develop methods to combat the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. The Israeli defense firms’ subsidiary Elta confirmed the agreement. *NanoScent: The healthcare subsidiary of G42 signed a preliminary agreement with NanoScent, Israel, on 19 August 2020, for the development of a test capable of detecting COVID-19 from the air exhaled ScentCheck,.. The Emirati News Agency claimed the device could deliver results in 30 to 60 seconds. G42 was said to undergo several tests for the device in the forthcoming weeks. *

BGI Group BGI Group, formerly Beijing Genomics Institute, is a Chinese genomics company with headquarters in Yantian District, Shenzhen. The company was originally formed in 1999 as a genetics research center to participate in the Human Genome Project. It ...

: Tahnoun bin Zayed-linked Group 42 was reported to have donated Chinese-made Covid testing kits to

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

. These testing kits were objected to by the US intelligence and security officials, who raised concerns over privacy risks, citing that the gene-sequencing machines of the BGI Group could misuse the patients’ DNA. G42 is also reportedly working with BGI on a project for collecting genetic data of the UAE citizens to “generate the highest quality, most comprehensive genome data”.

References

{{Reflist Companies based in Abu Dhabi Information technology companies of the United Arab Emirates Technology companies established in 2018 Emirati companies established in 2018