Today I have Ali Al Nuaimi, Founder and Managing Director of Shafra Advisors. He was previously a nuclear operations leader and now helps frontier technology companies navigate the UAE. Welcome to the show, Ali. Thank you for joining us.
Thank you for having me.
You have this remarkable career in nuclear energy. Can you tell us how that led you to blockchain and AI?
Over a decade ago, the UAE embarked on the first peaceful nuclear energy programme in the Middle East — a model for the world. I was privileged to be among the founding operations team that took that site from a construction site to a nuclear operating facility. We tested all the components, worked with teams from over 80 countries, watched a regulator get built for the first time in parallel — and ultimately, a small team of highly qualified Emirati operators initiated the first fission chain reaction, declaring the UAE a nuclear nation. This coming Friday, the 31st of July, is actually the sixth anniversary of that moment.
The space role came after — I was appointed to serve on the board of the UAE Space Agency, which was really an extension of the same mission: being on the execution side of the leadership's vision. And I got to see firsthand what it takes to build genuine national capabilities. All of this happened during Covid — while borders were shutting down around the world, the UAE started its nuclear reactor, maintained an air quality admirable by global standards, and launched a probe to Mars. That gave me enormous conviction. And what came after was that the UAE became a natural hub for innovators, founders, and builders from around the world. I felt a responsibility to help that ecosystem grow.
What are some of the founders and companies you have been helping?
I typically get called when a technology has just proven its technical promise but institutions still have a lot of fear around it. Think of crypto in 2020. We had high conviction that blockchain would power financial markets and provide financial inclusion to billions worldwide. When I left the nuclear sector, I started advising some of the most recognised Bitcoin miners in the world on becoming energy partners. The UAE now has hundreds of megawatts of Bitcoin mining infrastructure. But the original bet was that the same infrastructure would eventually power our growing need for other forms of compute — which is exactly what AI turned out to be.
How do you see AI, energy, and blockchain converging to form a new financial landscape?
On the blockchain side, Bitcoin represents the energy and commodities layer. Then there is the applications layer. I partnered with some of the most recognised layer one blockchains, brought them into the UAE, and worked with institutions to prove this was fundamentally different from NFTs and meme coins. The industry has caught on — we saw Mubadala tokenise a fund, we saw BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF, we saw an influx of real institutional products. The industry no longer needs convincing. On AI, trust is now the challenge — attribution of information, provenance, accountability. That is exactly where blockchain becomes powerful again. And the infrastructure built for Bitcoin mining is now, almost entirely, in service of AI. Enterprise and government adoption of blockchain is also accelerating, with far less fear about real world applications.
When founders land in the UAE, what do they need most?
As an Emirati, I feel a genuine responsibility to ensure that founders who take the risk of coming here — bringing their businesses, their employees, their families — really experience the UAE for what it is. Many come from Silicon Valley or other developed ecosystems where the playbook is established. Here, the institutional players are strong but the venture and startup ecosystem is still evolving. There is no linear path to getting things done. What Shafra does, after doing our diligence and understanding the technology at a fundamental level, is connect those founders directly to the principals — enterprise customers, capital allocators, regulators. We almost function as a co-founder. These founders do not need generic advice. They need help making real decisions.
Final thoughts — two standout things that make the UAE a global tech hub?
First, the UAE has a verifiable track record. For an investor, track record is everything. Vision in the UAE is not a slogan on the wall — things get built on the ground. That happened during Covid and it is happening right now around the current regional situation. Second, the UAE thinks of itself as an accelerator for companies. When we bring companies to the UAE and bring the UAE to those companies, what we are really doing is giving them a platform to grow and scale globally. All the relationships, the logistics, the infrastructure — it is in service of the businesses operating here. The first thing UAE leadership will tell a founder is not just "sell to our market" — it is "how can we help you export from the UAE to the world."
Thank you so much for sharing all of this with us. Thank you very much, Ali, for taking the time to come to Fintech TV.
Thank you for having me.
