Community
Build Arabic AI together: leaderboards for every dialect, open data drives, funding, guides and a weekly newsletter.
Dialect leaderboards
Links to real public leaderboards — no invented scores.
Open Arabic LLM Leaderboard (opens in a new tab on huggingface.co)
HELM Arabic (Stanford) (opens in a new tab on crfm.stanford.edu)
Our dialect leaderboard — coming soon
The same test sentences for every model, in Gulf, Egyptian, Levantine and Maghrebi Arabic, scored openly.
Top builders this month
Opens when the first 50 builders join.
Give your voice to Arabic AI
Record sentences in your dialect so models learn to understand it.
Mozilla Common Voice (opens in a new tab on commonvoice.mozilla.org)Record 10 sentences in your dialect — coming soon
Pick your dialect and we'll tell you when our drive opens.
Programmes & funding
GAIA accelerator
Saudi Arabia
Generative AI startup accelerator backed by $1 billion in Saudi funding, announced at LEAP 2024.
AI Arabia Center of Excellence
Saudi HR Ministry · Microsoft
Helps Saudi workers adopt AI and build future skills, with working papers and expert sessions.
Monsha’at AI track
Monsha’at · Saudi Arabia
AI track in Monsha’at’s virtual lab to help Saudi startups and SMEs adopt AI.
STV Emerging Tech & AI Fund
Saudi Arabia
Saudi fund dedicated to AI and emerging tech; backs Arabic voice-agent startup Sawt and others.
Shorooq Partners
UAE
Abu Dhabi VC with several MENA AI deals; a partner of the Presight AI accelerator.
Wa’ed Ventures
Saudi Arabia
Aramco’s venture arm; led Lucidya’s $30M round.
Prosperity7 Ventures
Saudi Arabia
Aramco Ventures’ growth fund for deep tech and AI.
Raed Ventures
Saudi Arabia
Riyadh early-stage VC with AI investments.
Impact46
Saudi Arabia
Saudi VC firm with AI companies in its portfolio.
Presight AI-Startup Accelerator
Abu Dhabi · UAE
Abu Dhabi accelerator for AI startups, backed by Presight with Microsoft, NVIDIA and MBZUAI.
Google for Startups Accelerator: MENA-T
Regional (MENA & Türkiye)
Ten-week, equity-free Google programme for startups across the Middle East, North Africa and Türkiye, pairing founders with Google AI and Cloud experts. The 2026 cohort runs October–December; applications closed 31 August 2026.
The Catalyst by SDAIA
Saudi Arabia
Current SDAIA initiative supporting data and AI startups with expertise, resources, strategic partnerships and investment connections. Follows SDAIA's earlier Generative AI Accelerator and AIM-X programmes.
CDL-Doha Artificial Intelligence
Qatar
Creative Destruction Lab's nine-month AI stream in Doha for ventures deploying secure, scalable AI in real-world settings, with mentor sessions every eight weeks. Applications are open for the 2026/27 programme year.
Sila for Startups
Regional (Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia)
Part of Sila, the France-Mediterranean initiative for AI: selects a cohort of 10 high-potential AI startups from Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia and supports them to scale.
Open-source pick
Cohere Transcribe Arabic
2B speech-to-text for MSA, Gulf, Egyptian, Levantine and Maghrebi, with code-switching.
Learn
- Coming soon
Your first Arabic chatbot in 10 minutes
- Coming soon
Choosing a model for your dialect
- Coming soon
Keeping Saudi customer data in-country (PDPL basics)
- Coming soon
Transcribing Egyptian Arabic with open models
Ask the community
Questions and answers open once the community is big enough. The kind of questions we expect:
Stay in the loop
This week in Arabic AI
New tools and the top news, once a week.
© 2026 Souq. Original text and design: all rights reserved. Third-party trademarks and source material belong to their respective owners.
This week in Arabic AI
New tools and the top news, once a week.