Wired Middle East

Culture

Marhaba, World!

WIRED Middle East’s Head of Editorial Content Carla Sertin explains what the brand’s relaunch means for the region – and what we’re here to question.

Logistics and Transportation

Saudi Arabia’s Giga Projects Are Entering Their Reality Check

With construction falling behind schedule, funding squeezed and expectations being recalibrated, the future of Saudi Arabia’s giga projects is increasingly uncertain.

Artificial Intelligence

People Are Turning to AI Chatbots for Religious Guidance

People turn to AI for spiritual and emotional support, prompting new debates about how far technology should go

Big Tech

The Middle East’s AI Spending Is Becoming a Two-Horse Race

As Saudi Arabia and the UAE race to turn energy into compute, their different strategies could shape the region’s role in the global AI economy.

Biotech

Camel Beauty Queens Are Worth Millions – Here's How A Dubai Lab Clones Them

In a high-security facility in Dubai, scientists are cloning elite camels for racing, beauty and milk production

Security

Security News

Chatbots Feel Intimate. Their Data Trails Aren’t

Conversational AI can create a sense of intimacy and trust, but behind the scenes, every word feeds a data trail that is far from private.

Privacy

Inside the Digital Systems Behind Undocumented Migration in North Africa

Across North Africa, irregular migration has become a digital system shaped by phones, data and surveillance.

Artificial Intelligence

Journalists Are Training AI And Disappearing From View

As AI companies hire journalists to train machines behind the scenes, editorial judgment is shifting from a public-facing practice into invisible infrastructure.

Security Advice

7 Useful Tips for Anyone Connecting to Public Wi-Fi

Our public spaces are now awash with wireless internet. Make sure you’re getting the most out of every connection.

The Big Story

Biotech

The Gulf’s Genome Revolution Is Underway

The UAE and Qatar are developing national genome programmes to improve disease prevention, enable early diagnosis, and deliver personalised treatment plans.

Artificial Intelligence

Arab Women Are Quietly Using Tech To Escape Domestic Violence

Cyberattacks and Hacks

When AI Becomes the Infrastructure of Extremist Recruitment

Environment

This Startup Rearranges Atoms To Make Clean Air and Water

Atoco, a startup built on Nobel Prize-winning work, aims to prove that atomically engineered materials can address water scarcity and climate change at scale.

Fintech

Egypt Didn’t Choose Digital Payments. The Crisis Made It Inevitable

As cash vanished and banks tightened limits, QR codes and instant transfers became survival tools. Egypt’s fintech shift is now a blueprint for what happens when a country is forced to rebuild money in real time.

Computers and Software

How Starlink Broke Iran’s Internet Blackout

During Iran’s most comprehensive shutdown yet, thousands of illegal satellite terminals kept footage flowing — and exposed how fragile the regime’s “national internet” really is.

Computers and Software

Crypto in the Grey Zones of North Africa

Under strict financial controls and unclear regulation, Tunisians are using stablecoins to build a shadow financial system that works, even when the official one doesn’t.

CHOOSE YOUR CHARACTER

Logistics and Transportation
Inside Morocco's Push for Digital Sovereignty
Three startups are rewiring the structures that govern how things are done
Startups
Inside the Startups Rebuilding Everyday Systems in Yemen
In the absence of stable infrastructure, Yemeni entrepreneurs are inventing new ways to power homes, move goods and reconnect global markets.
Startups
Clean Tech Is Quietly Taking Shape in Kuwait
Kuwait’s start-up ecosystem is growing, and some founders are building climate-adjacent businesses designed to fix structural gaps in energy, logistics and food.
Startups
Tunisia’s Start-Up Boom Started With One Exit
BioNTech’s acquisition of InstaDeep was a signal moment – Tunisia’s founders are trying to turn it into a repeatable model.
Startups
Inside Oman’s Quietly Evolving Startup Landscape
In a market shaped by energy, infrastructure and tradition, Omani founders are building companies designed for local realities rather than imported tech models.
Startups
Three Startups Rise Above Crisis to Transform Lebanon’s Economy
Financial independence, energy efficiency and affordable digital security are offering avenues of safety and self-reliance to the people of Lebanon.
Computers and Software
Iraq’s Startups Aren’t Disrupting. They’re Rebuilding
From Mosul’s agritech experiments to Baghdad’s digital health records, founders are stitching together the basic systems Iraq’s economy has long been missing — one clinic and farm at a time.
Environment
Bahrain’s Tech Boom Is Built on Water, Waste and Words
Estedara, Lalaplast and DOO are tackling the Kingdom’s everyday realities — producing water from air, compostable packaging, and AI trained to speak the region’s language.
Computers and Software
How Jordan Is Reworking Water From the Inside
In one of the driest countries on Earth, local startups are building tools that work inside pipes, fields and everyday systems to change how water flows through daily life.
Artificial Intelligence
Palestinian Startups Are Rebuilding an Economy Under Siege
In fraught circumstances beyond their control, three Palestinian startups are leveraging technology to empower their people.
Artificial Intelligence
The UAE’s Start-Ups Are Moving Beyond Hype – and Into Hard Tech
A smart contact lens, AI-powered ecosystem restoration and biotech that turns food waste into fuel—these UAE start-ups show how innovation is shifting from apps to infrastructure.
Startups
Saudi Arabia’s Next Start-Up Wave Is Split Between Compute and Circularity
From a PIF-backed AI platform to KAUST-born climate start-ups, these companies show how the Kingdom is trying to turn innovation into infrastructure.
Startups
Egypt’s AI Boom Is Being Built for Museums, Dialects, and Data Centres
From translating hieroglyphics to building Arabic voice agents and AI chips, Egypt’s start-ups are shaping tools that only make sense at home — and that’s exactly why they might scale.
Startups
Qatar’s Startup Playbook: Fix the System, Then Scale
From data-backed sports consultancy to sustainable packaging and patient coordination, Qatar’s start-ups are turning digital transformation into practical systems people can feel.

Business

Digital Culture

The Future of Palestinian Embroidery Lives on a Grid

Tatreez is being rebuilt as digital infrastructure — one motif, one grid, and one stitch at a time.

Retail and Ecommerce

Frankincense Was Once Wrapped in Myth. Now It Comes With a QR Code

Amouage is turning a UNESCO-listed Omani valley into a test site for the fragrance industry’s hardest problem: proving provenance across a supply chain designed to stay opaque.

Logistics and Transportation

Fancy Airplane Seats Have Nowhere Left to Go – So What Now?

Upper- and business-class cabins have expanded to the point where the top tier resembles hotel suites more than passenger pods. But what happens now airlines have no more room to offer?

Artificial Intelligence