UAE launches an AI model to take on DeepSeek, OpenAI
What's the story
The Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) in the United Arab Emirates has launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) model called K2 Think. The low-cost reasoning model is aimed at taking on industry giants such as OpenAI and DeepSeek. Unlike DeepSeek's R1 model with a whopping 671 billion parameters, K2 Think is much smaller at just 32 billion parameters.
Performance comparison
K2 Think developed using Alibaba's Qwen 2.5 model
Despite its smaller size, MBZUAI claims that K2 Think matches the performance of flagship models from US and Chinese companies. The model was developed using Alibaba's Qwen 2.5 open-source model and tested on hardware from AI chipmaker Cerebras. It was created in collaboration with G42, a UAE-based AI firm backed by Microsoft.
Development strategy
It shows competitive scores across major benchmarks
K2 Think has shown competitive scores across major benchmarks such as AIME24, OMNI-Math-HARD, AIME25, HMMT25, LiveCodeBenchv5 for coding, and GPQA-Diamond for science reasoning. Hector Liu from MBZUAI's Institute of Foundation Models revealed that the team used a combination of techniques, including chain-of-thought supervised fine-tuning for step-by-step reasoning, and test-time scaling to enhance performance during inferencing.
Strategic positioning
UAE aims to strengthen its geopolitical influence
The launch of K2 Think marks a significant step in the UAE's strategy to diversify its economy and strengthen its geopolitical influence beyond oil. The country is betting big on AI, with G42 as its flagship company. However, competition is heating up as Saudi Arabia develops its own full-stack AI capabilities through Humain, a new venture under the Public Investment Fund.