Abu Dhabi eyes expansion to build AI-powered global health firm

One of Abu Dhabi’s newest state-backed investment companies is looking at dozens of potential new deals as it plans to build an artificial intelligence-powered healthcare champion that it can expand across the world. 

M42, which was established through the combination of the healthcare assets of two of Abu Dhabi’s investment firms last year, is eying potential acquisitions and expansions of its operations into Europe, Latin America and Asia, according to chief executive officer Hasan Jasem Al Nowais.

“We continue to screen about 50 opportunities on a monthly basis to see what will really complement our strategic plans going forward,” Al Nowais said in an interview in Abu Dhabi. “We have the appetite, and there’s a real hunger for growth.”

The comments are the latest sign of the oil-rich emirate’s vast ambitions in industries from technology and life sciences to finance. The emirate, which produces over 3 million barrels of oil a day, has already committed to investing tens of billions of dollars into AI and tied up with Microsoft Corp. and Nvidia Corp. as part of its goals to invest in a future beyond crude.

While M42, which was established last year, will be selective in pursuing new deals, it’s aiming to build on last year’s roughly $2.5 billion acquisition of Diaverum, one of Europe’s largest independent dialysis clinic operators, to continue its rapid expansion plans, according Al Nowais.

Over the next three to five years M42 aims to expand further into front-line healthcare provision, while also building on Abu Dhabi’s technology investments to use AI to aid diagnosis and drug discovery.

Global healthcare spend per person rose by more than 10% in 2021, according to a World Health Organization report, and is rising at as much as 7% in Abu Dhabi. One of the other things M42 aims to tackle is spiraling health costs.

Healthcare spending, “if that’s not controlled, could break economies,” Al Nowais said. “How do you tackle that? There is no other way than technology.”

Mubadala created M42 last year by combining its health-care assets with those held by G42, an AI firm controlled by United Arab Emirates royal Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan. M42 houses businesses including the Abu Dhabi outpost of Cleveland Clinic, Amana Healthcare, Biogenix Labs and Moorfields Eye Hospital Abu Dhabi.

“Europe, Latin America, Asia, these are the three continents we want to focus on going forward,” he said. “At the moment we’re having conversations with Indonesia, with Malaysia, India, and Egypt,” about potential expansion plans, he said. 

While declining to comment on the financial firepower at its disposal, Al Nowais said that M42 will rely on support from both Mubadala and G42 to help fuel its ambitions. 

“We’re fortunate to be the child of two very, very big parents, which are very opportunistic and always willing to support us,” he said. “Abu Dhabi has grown on taking risks but it has been so successful that we continue to take risks and build on that momentum.”

Mubadala manages over $300 billion and over the past few years has become a key investment vehicle for Abu Dhabi’s global ambitions. It has recently teamed up with Citigroup and Apollo Global Management to work on $25 billion of private credit investments, and earlier this year backed Fortress’s management in the acquisition of a 90% stake in the investment manager that was held by SoftBank.

M42’s other backer, G42, is the Middle East’s most prominent AI firm, with backers including US private equity giant Silver Lake and Mubadala. It also recently lined up a $1.5 billion investment from Microsoft Corp. after agreeing to end any cooperation with China.

It’s overseen by Sheikh Tahnoon, who’s also the national security adviser of the United Arab Emirates and oversees a $1.5 trillion empire that has been at the heart of the emirate’s push to diversify away from crude. 

One of M42’s flagship projects is the Emirati Genome Programme, which aims to map the health data of the local population in an effort to prevent and treat chronic illnesses. That push dovetails with its Sheikh Tahnoon’s own interest in longevity medicine.

Under the plan, M42 is building one of the world’s largest DNA databases. It wants to combine this with pharmacology and artificial intelligence tools to create more personalized treatment plans for patients.

The goal is to enable doctors to make better prescriptions, eliminating the need for repeat visits by helping them provide drugs that will work for patients based on their DNA data. The system is already being trialed in Abu Dhabi.

It’s also building an AI-powered drug discovery platform as part of a plan to make Abu Dhabi a hub for life sciences, an area that could play a key part in future acquisitions or partnerships, Al Nowais said. 

Another area where the firm is using AI to boost productivity is screening for tuberculosis. M42 has now trained AI models to scan X-rays in screening tests for signs of the disease. That’s helped lower costs by 20% and boost productivity of radiologists by 30%, Al Nowais said.

As the technology improves, it will then be rolled out across M42’s global network of clinics. 

“Everything we do, we launch here in Abu Dhabi, we trial in Abu Dhabi, we strengthen in Abu Dhabi, then we scale to the rest of the world,” Al Nowais said.

“These are not quick wins, and we’re not after the quick dollar,” said Al Nowais. “What we’re after is a quick impact to humanity, and we believe once we tick that box, the financials will fall into place.”

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