Middle East·Group: TRUNK
How to read these numbers: A purposive, publicly sourced case library, not a probability sample: counts describe the library, not market share. Monetary figures mix investment, revenue and user metrics — treat them as magnitude markers and defer to the verbatim description and source link.
Under the UAE's NextGen FDI initiative, Beijing autonomous-trucking firm TRUNK will set up a UAE regional HQ (targeted 2026) for sales, operations and autonomous-truck manufacturing, aiming to deliver 2,000 self-driving trucks to Middle East & Africa customers over five years (100–150 jobs).
UAE Ministry of Investment
2,000 autonomous trucks over 5 yrs; 100-150 jobs
Record note: Announced 2025; facility not yet built; Chinese company name to double-check against registry.
Compiled from public reporting and company disclosures. Not legal or investment advice — cite the source link alongside any quotation.
Other records in the same host country or AI segment, ranked by source reliability and year.
United Arab Emirates·Middle East
Pony.ai and Dubai's RTA signed a strategic partnership (May 2025); Pony secured a Dubai testing permit (Sep 2025) and began driverless robotaxi trials (Apr 2026), targeting commercial service in 2026.
United Arab Emirates·Middle East
Baidu's Apollo Go signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Dubai's RTA (28 Mar 2025) to deploy 100 RT6 robotaxis by end-2025 scaling to ≥1,000 by 2028 — Apollo Go's first fleet outside mainland China/Hong Kong.
United Arab Emirates·Middle East
Abu Dhabi's CYVN Holdings took ~20.1% of NIO via US$2.2B (Dec 2023) plus earlier US$738.5M and a US$350M secondary purchase (~US$3.3B total), becoming NIO's largest shareholder; NIO cites its proprietary autonomous-driving / ADaaS technology.
United Arab Emirates·Middle East
DiDi Autonomous Driving joined Abu Dhabi's SAVI cluster and signed a strategic partnership with the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (Nov 2025), covering AV deployment, AI talent and ecosystem building; robotaxi testing planned to begin in 2026 using its R2 model (co-developed with GAC AION).
United Arab Emirates·Middle East
Abu Dhabi's Mubadala Investment Company (via Aerospace Holding Company LLC) subscribed US$100M of XPeng's ~US$400M Aug 2020 pre-IPO round, alongside existing investor the Qatar Investment Authority; at the time XPeng's autonomous-driving stack was XPILOT.
United Arab Emirates·Middle East
WeRide runs commercial robotaxi service in Abu Dhabi with Uber and Tawasul Transport under an ITC permit; commercial service began Dec 2024 and reached L4 fully driverless operation on Yas Island in Nov 2025, expanding to downtown Abu Dhabi in Feb 2026 with a safety operator still on board in the downtown zone. WeRide states a fleet of 200+ robotaxis and a target of ≥1,200 across the Middle East by 2027 (company figures). Also live in Dubai.