Red Hat announced on May 11 a new collaboration with Core42 to deliver sovereign cloud and artificial intelligence services for the public sector, defense, and regulated industries across the United Arab Emirates. The announcement was made during the Red Hat Summit in Atlanta.
The partnership is intended to help organizations manage experimental AI pilots at scale while maintaining compliance, operational resilience, and jurisdictional control. This is significant as more organizations seek to balance rapid technological innovation with strict regulatory requirements.
According to Red Hat, its open hybrid cloud technologies provide a robust foundation for various types of sovereign cloud deployments. “Red Hat believes that the only credible path to digital sovereignty is a foundation built on open source. Our collaboration with Core42 reinforces this belief, giving UAE organizations greater choice and control over their AI strategies without compromising innovation. Open, transparent and scalable platforms like Red Hat AI and Red Hat OpenShift form the backbone of sovereign IT. With Core42, we are creating a blueprint for the industry that proves mission-critical AI can be both high-performing and tightly governed,” said Ashesh Badani, senior vice president and chief product officer at Red Hat.
Raghu Chakravarthi, executive vice president: engineering and general manager: Americas at Core42 said, “Red Hat’s work on open hybrid cloud technologies has provided a genuinely robust foundation for the full spectrum of sovereign cloud deployments, from fully air-gapped environments through to partially restricted and connected models. That breadth, combined with the stability and maturity of Red Hat’s technologies, is why we see Red Hat as the premier partner for sovereign infrastructure. This collaboration reflects how national-scale AI must be built: with sovereignty, resilience, and long-term control engineered into its foundation.”
The companies outlined four key pillars for their approach: optimized GPU usage; greater workload consistency through automation; unified service models; and standardized governance aligned with operational regulations.
While initially focused on strengthening digital infrastructure in the UAE, Core42 intends to expand this offering globally in order to support resilient infrastructure aligned with regional requirements.
