AI investment boom leaves social impact behind

New York: Artificial intelligence attracted nearly two-thirds of global venture capital last year, but less than 1 per cent of AI investment is going toward social impact, a funding imbalance that global leaders say could leave developing countries as consumers rather than creators of the technology.

More than 60 leaders from government, business, philanthropy and technology gathered at the UAE Mission to the United Nations in New York to discuss how countries across the Global South can build the skills, infrastructure and institutions needed to shape AI around their own priorities.

The private roundtable, held during the 81st session of the UN General Assembly, was co-hosted by Emirates Foundation and Badr Jafar, Special Envoy of the UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs for Business and Philanthropy.

It also marked the launch of a white paper, “From Access to Agency: How philanthropy can support AI development in the Global South,” developed with Oliver Wyman.

According to figures cited in the paper, AI attracted $258.7 billion in venture capital in 2025, accounting for 61 per cent of global venture investment. Yet less than 1 per cent of AI investment is directed towards social impact.

The Gates Foundation’s Goalkeepers 2026 report also highlighted disparities in AI development. More than 90 per cent of data used to train early large language models came from English-language sources, while leading speech-recognition systems recorded error rates of less than 6 per cent in English compared with more than 60 per cent in Yoruba.

The white paper argues that philanthropy can finance areas that may be too early-stage, local or long-term for commercial investors and governments.

These include local-language datasets, independent evaluation, shared infrastructure, technical skills and local companies capable of sustaining AI systems after pilot projects end.

“Philanthropy’s job is to fund what others will not: local-language data, independent evaluation, the missing middle of people who keep a system working after the pilot ends, and the institutions that take a decade to build,” Jafar said.

“An AI model can cross a border in seconds. Trust, skills and institutions cannot. They are built with people, over years, on terms communities can sustain.”

Participants included Bill Gates, Chair of the Gates Foundation; Omran Sharaf, UAE Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for Advanced Science and Technology; Dr Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, Head of the UAE Cybersecurity Council; and senior representatives from Microsoft, G42, Mubadala, S&P Global and several philanthropic organisations.

Ahmed Talib Al Shamsi, Secretary General of Emirates Foundation, said technology creates meaningful social impact when it strengthens the capabilities of people and institutions serving their communities.

Discussions also examined how the UAE’s computing capacity, research institutions and capital could support locally led AI development, including through the UAE’s AI for Development initiative for Africa and its AIM for Scale partnership with the Gates Foundation.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Emirates Foundation signed an agreement with the Responsible AI Future Foundation to explore ways of helping communities and institutions responsibly adopt, shape and sustain AI solutions across the Middle East and Global South.