- Smashi Business
- Posts
- New York Crime is Gulf's Ad Template & UAE-Born Arabic.AI Rated Best
New York Crime is Gulf's Ad Template & UAE-Born Arabic.AI Rated Best
In partnership with
Saturday, July 4, 2026
Happy Saturday everyone!
A felony proposal atop the Empire State Building became a Gulf marketing template overnight. Sony's move to kill physical PlayStation discs by 2028 has Kuwait debating the future of its legendary Rihab Complex. And in a milestone for regional tech, UAE-born Arabic.AI is reportedly topping Stanford's HELM Arabic benchmark, outranking GPT, Gemini, and Claude, according to its founder.
Markets
EGX30 | 50,532.58 | Closed |
DFMGI | 6,010.07 | 0.915% |
ADX | 9,809.64 | 0.216% |
Tadawul | 10,826.98 | 0.28% |
UAE-born Arabic.AI Tops Stanford HELM Arabic Benchmark Ahead Of Global AI Models
What Is It About
Arabic.AI has been ranked the world’s top-performing Arabic language model in the latest Stanford HELM Arabic benchmark, outperforming leading global systems including GPT, Gemini and Claude, according to its founder Nour Al Hassan. The platform is part of Tarjama, the UAE-based language technology company, and focuses on building Arabic-first large language models and enterprise AI tools for governments and businesses across the region.
Why It Matters
The ranking marks a major milestone for Arabic-language AI, a space that has historically lagged behind English-centric models. Arabic.AI is trained on proprietary Arabic datasets and dialects developed over years through Tarjama’s language operations, positioning it as a regionally built alternative designed specifically for Arabic linguistic complexity, enterprise use cases, and government-scale applications across the Middle East and beyond.
What’s Next
The achievement comes as Arabic.AI continues scaling its enterprise offerings following its 2025 launch under Tarjama. The company is expected to expand its model ecosystem, deepen partnerships across public and private sectors, and further develop its Arabic-first AI infrastructure as demand grows for localized, high-performance language models tailored to regional markets.
Scale AI support on AWS, see how July 9
Customer expectations keep rising. Support budgets don't. On July 9, Fin and AWS are hosting a live executive session on how leading enterprises close that gap: scaling AI-powered support while simplifying how they buy it.
You'll see how to resolve an average 76% of conversations with Fin on AWS enterprise-grade infrastructure, procure through AWS Marketplace to put committed cloud spend to work, and turn the Fin and AWS collaboration into lower support costs. Register for the live session to see how.
It's a Crime in New York! It's a Campaign in the Gulf…
Russian rooftoppers Angela Nikolau and Ivan Kuznetsov free-climbed the Empire State Building's spire on July 1, got engaged 1,250 feet up, then got arrested. Gulf brands turned it into a marketing format overnight.
The playbook: Swap the couple's original banner text for branded copy, keep the masked climbers and skyline shot, add local hashtags.
Who we saw jump in:
Allo Beirut — shawarma over proposals, multi-city delivery pins
Boutiqaat — "This is your sign to order"
Stake — fractional real estate pitch, Dubai skyline
Squatwolf — gym gear tie-in, Skywards Miles offer
Fadie Cakes — "Life's too short, buy the cake"
Majid Al Futtaim — "We found summer. It's here."
Visit Abu Dhabi — actually restaged the proposal at St. Regis
Why it works: Instantly recognizable image, zero production cost, meme-speed turnaround, real-time relevance beats polish.
The irony: The stunt is a felony case in Manhattan; in the Gulf, it's officially a template.
Sony's Digital Shift Has Kuwait's Gamers Debating Rihab Complex's Future
For over five decades, Rihab Complex has been the beating heart of Kuwait's gaming scene. Established in 1973, it began as one of the only places in the country selling floppy disks for the Commodore Amiga, later evolving into the go-to hub for PlayStation and Sega CDs — and today, PS5 titles.
Now, Sony's announcement that it will end physical disc releases by January 2028 has Kuwait's gamers reflecting on what an all-digital future means for this Gulf institution.
Ali Hussain, 48, who remembers Rihab's earliest days, told Kuwait Times he is skeptical of online-dependent gaming: "In the end, you don't truly own the product."
Talal Al-Fadhli, 37, welcomes the shift, pointing to shady sales tactics at some stores: "There is a lot of greed there."
Mariam Essa, 45, believes younger gamers have already moved on: "Nothing is difficult anymore."Mohammed Al-Omar rejects the idea Rihab could vanish: "Rihab never dies."
Bader Suleiman, 42, credits the complex with building an entire community around gaming in Kuwait. Fadi Sultan, 39, is banking on nostalgia to keep it alive: "People love vintage and classic things."
Rihab's next chapter, it seems, is still being written.
Smashi Business Exclusive: Al Haboob Racing Founders On Turning Camel Racing Into A Global Franchise Model
Ahmed Al Haboob and Safwan Modir, founders of Al Haboob Racing, spoke on Smashi Business about building the world’s first professional camel racing team in Saudi Arabia. They explained how they are transforming a traditional, individual sport into a structured, franchise-style model inspired by Formula 1, with teams, sponsorships and long-term commercial value.
The founders discussed leaving corporate careers during the pandemic to pursue entrepreneurship in a “virgin” sports market, despite high operational risks tied to livestock performance. They also highlighted media ventures like their Netflix series Camel Quest, partnerships including Paul Pogba, and their vision to modernize the sport using data and technology.
👨💻From Smashi Business’ Desk
Dreamers: Meet Qatar’s Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, President and CEO of French Giants Paris Saint-Germain.
Oil prices erased most of their early gains after the US and Iran agreed to pause attacks and resume talks over the Strait of Hormuz.
Tabby has apologised after mistakenly telling UAE customers they had won an Emirates flight voucher before later admitting the email "was sent in error."
Ben & Jerry Israel has launched what it calls its “most Israeli flavor ever.”
Go from AI overwhelmed to AI savvy professional
AI will eliminate 300 million jobs in the next 5 years.
Yours doesn't have to be one of them.
Here's how to future-proof your career:
Join the Superhuman AI newsletter - read by 1M+ professionals
Learn AI skills in 3 mins a day
Become the AI expert on your team
🔍In other news…
🦄 World of Startups
Rentify Raises USD 2 Million Seed Round to Launch Earn AI
CNTXT AI Closes $60M Series A to Deploy Sovereign AI Globally
Blnk Raises $37 Million to Expand Consumer Finance Services in Egypt
Saudi-based Pickappo Closes SAR 2 Million Pre-Seed Funding Round
Three Dubai entrepreneurs have raised AED 10 million for DRBY, a startup seeking to modernise education payments across the UAE through a unified digital platform.
Dubai-based Algebra AI nets $7 million funding to serve mid-market
Moroccan Proptech Startup Agenz Raises $5M to Build Property Data Infrastructure and Transaction Tools Tailored for Local Market
Calo, Bahrain-based meal subscription platform, expanded operations and full suite of services to Oman
