Vice Media Group set to open regional HQ in Riyadh
The company’s new base in the region, located in the Jax cultural district, will offer clients a full range of production facilities, including a podcast studio, soundstage and editing suites
‘Our enhanced operations in the Kingdom are truly a testament to our continued drive and focus to contribute and be a part of the country’s dynamic youth culture,’ said Vice’s regional chief
Updated 05 January 2023
Arab News
RIYADH: Vice Media Group is preparing to open its new regional headquarters in Riyadh’s Jax cultural district next month.
The new headquarters will offer clients a full range of production facilities, including a podcast studio, soundstage and editing suites.
The company said it aims to expand its presence in the region and bolster its relationships with key partners in the Kingdom, including the Ministry of Culture, Saudi Research and Media Group, the NEOM smart city development, media conglomerate MBC, and the Royal Commission for Riyadh City.
Tarek Khalil, managing director of Vice in the Middle East and Africa, said the company will hire local talent to join its new operations.
“Our enhanced operations in the Kingdom are truly a testament to our continued drive and focus to contribute to and be a part of the country’s dynamic youth culture,” he added.
Young Saudis — defined as those between the ages of 15 and 34 years old — represented 36.7 percent of the Kingdom’s total population in 2020, according to the General Authority for Statistics. This growing youth population, combined with Saudi Arabia’s investments in arts and entertainment in recent years, represents a potentially lucrative market for global brands that cater to such audiences.
According to Vice, the group brought its unique brand of journalism to the Middle East in 2017 and delivers content covering sectors such as culture, lifestyle and entertainment in multiple languages including Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and English.
With the opening of its new regional headquarters, the company, which also owns a creative agency, Virtue, seems to be positioning itself to play a role in the ongoing cultural and societal transformation of Saudi Arabia.
“Our unique storytelling capabilities and presence in the Kingdom will allow us to grow our business and support new and existing partners who are looking to tap into younger audiences and be part of the Kingdom’s cultural movement,” said Khalil.
MenaML hosts 2026 Winter School in Saudi Arabia to boost AI education, collaboration in region
Second edition of Winter School will be hosted in partnership with KAUST
Updated 16 January 2026
Zaira Lakhpatwala
DUBAI: The Middle East and North Africa Machine Learning Winter School will host its second edition in Saudi Arabia this year, in partnership with the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology.
The non-profit held its inaugural edition in Doha last year in partnership with the Qatar Computing Research Institute.
The initiative began when like-minded individuals from Google DeepMind and QCRI came together to launch a platform connecting a “community of top-tier AI practitioners with a shared interest in shaping the future of the MENA region,” Sami Alabed, a research scientist at Google DeepMind and one of the co-founders of MenaML, told Arab News.
Along with Alabed, the core team includes Maria Abi Raad and Amal Rannen-Triki from Google DeepMind, as well as Safa Messaoud and Yazan Boshmaf from QCRI.
Maria Abi Raad
Messaoud said that the school has three goals: building local talent in artificial intelligence, enhancing employability and connection, and reversing brain drain while fostering regional opportunity.
AI has dominated boardrooms and courtrooms alike globally, but “AI research and education in MENA are currently in a nascent, yet booming, stage,” she added.
Launched at a pivotal moment for the region, the initiative was timed to ensure “regional representation in the global AI story while cultivating AI models that are culturally aligned,” said Rannen-Triki.
The school’s vision is to cultivate researchers capable of developing “sophisticated, culturally aligned AI models” that reflect the region’s values and linguistic and cultural diversity, said Messaoud.
This approach, she added, enables the region to contribute meaningfully to the global AI ecosystem while ensuring that AI technologies remain locally relevant and ethically grounded.
MenaML aims to host its annual program in a different city each year, partnering with reputable institutions in each host location.
“Innovation does not happen in silos; breakthroughs are born from collaboration that extends beyond borders and lab lines,” said Alabed.
“Bringing together frontier labs to share their knowledge echoes this message, where each partner brings a unique viewpoint,” he added.
This year, MenaML has partnered with KAUST, which “offers deep dives into specialized areas critical to the region, blending collaborative spaces with self-learning and placement programs,” said Abi Raad.
The program, developed in partnership with KAUST, brings together speakers from 16 institutions and focuses on four key areas: AI and society, AI and sciences, AI development, and regional initiatives.
“These themes align with the scientific priorities and research excellence pillars of KAUST as well as the needs of regional industries seeking to deploy AI safely and effectively,” said Bernard Ghanem, professor of electrical and computer engineering and computer science at KAUST and director of the Center of Excellence in Generative AI.
The program will also highlight efficiency in AI systems, with the overall goal of equipping “participants with the conceptual and practical understanding needed to contribute meaningfully to next-generation AI research and development,” he told Arab News.
For KAUST, hosting the MenaML Winter School aligns with Saudi Arabia’s ambition to become a global hub for AI research under Vision 2030.
By attracting top researchers, industry partners, and young talent to the Kingdom, it helps cement the Kingdom’s position as a center for AI excellence, Ghanem said.
It also aligns closely with Vision 2030’s “goals of building human capital, fostering innovation, and developing a knowledge-based economy” and “contributes to the long-term development of a world-leading AI ecosystem in Saudi Arabia,” he added.
Although the program accepts students from around the world, participants must demonstrate a connection to the MENA region, Abi Raad said.
The goal is to build bridges between those who may have left the region and those who remain, enabling them to start conversations and collaborate, she added.
A certain percentage of spots is reserved for participants from the host country, while a small percentage is allocated to fully international students with no regional ties, with the objective of offering them a glimpse into the regional AI ecosystem.
Looking ahead, MenaML envisions growing from an annual event into a sustainable, central pillar of the regional AI ecosystem, inspired by the growth trajectory of global movements like TED or the Deep Learning Indaba, a sister organization supporting AI research and education in Africa.
Boshmaf said MenaML’s long-term ambition is to evolve beyond its flagship event into a broader movement, anchored by local MenaMLx chapters across the region.
Over time, the initiative aims to play a central role in strengthening the regional AI ecosystem by working with governments and the private sector to support workforce development, AI governance and safety education, and collaborative research, while raising the region’s global visibility through its talent network and international partnerships.
He added: “If TED is the global stage for ‘ideas worth spreading,’ MenaML is to be the regional stage for ‘AI ideas worth building.’”
The MenaML Winter School will run from Jan. 24 to 29 at KAUST in Saudi Arabia.
