In the open workstations of the Muscat Entrepreneurship Park, laptop screens with AI algorithms written on them are lit up until late at night. As of the end of August 2026, the number of startups on the artificial intelligence track in Oman has jumped from 22 in 2025 to 42, with an annual growth rate of 91%. This land, which has traditionally relied on the energy industry as its advantage, is rapidly growing a new digital economy root system.

The industrial shift behind the 91% growth rate

This round of almost doubled growth in the number of enterprises is not a result of the idle registration numbers on paper. Public data from the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology of Oman shows that the total investment in the local AI track has exceeded 65 million riyals, and a large amount of resources are shifting from traditional oil and gas related fields to the digital technology sector.

Local enterprises are no longer stuck in the conceptual prototype stage, but are beginning to output practical commercial solutions to the government and private sector, covering multiple practical scenarios such as process automation, data decision assistance, and service efficiency optimization. Oman officially positions it as a core force in digital transformation, promoting the rapid shift of AI from cutting-edge concepts to industrial implementation.

From introducing technology to local accumulation

The smart factory upgrade plan launched in 2024 originally planned to complete digital evaluations of only 20 factories. As of the end of June 2026, the actual number of factories that have completed evaluations has reached 45, with local AI service providers taking on nearly 60% of technical service orders.

The construction of an AI exclusive economic zone launched simultaneously in the local area has attracted three international chip companies to land, with a total investment of 14.63 million riyals. The synergy effect between overseas technology resources and local start-up ecology has begun to form. The promotion of the Oman Digital Triangle Plan has also provided AI companies with green data centers and cross-border computing power networks, connecting the underlying support for industrial development.

A new track for young talents

The rapid expansion of the AI industry has directly opened up new employment channels for local young technical talents in Oman. In the past, many technical practitioners needed to travel overseas to find cutting-edge positions. Nowadays, they can participate in the full process AI project development in local startups and accumulate first-hand practical experience.

The officially launched local AI evaluator training program has provided dozens of certified technical personnel to the industrial field, forming a positive cycle between talent cultivation and industrial development. This AI ecosystem, with local enterprises as the main body and practical applications as the guide, is gradually transforming the knowledge driven economic goals in Oman's 2040 vision into a daily operational industrial reality.

In the regional competition landscape of the global AI industry, Oman has completed a crucial leap from policy layout to industry implementation in less than two years. Unlike some oil producing countries in the Gulf that rely on large foreign investment to quickly build up their industrial scale, it chooses to focus on local start-ups as the core, deeply linking technological capabilities, talent localization, and energy transformation goals. This more endogenous growth path is providing a new observation sample for the digital economic transformation of small and medium-sized resource-based countries, which is different from the mainstream path.Editor/Cheng Liting