Omani AI company DeepAstra has entered a strategic partnership with Z.AI to become the company’s sole sovereign AI partner in Oman. The agreement includes plans to expand access to Z.AI’s GLM models and establish an Oman Sovereign AI Development Center.
Announced at LEAP 2026 in Riyadh, the partnership will combine Z.AI’s models with DeepAstra’s locally developed KwnX platform and sovereign AI capabilities. KwnX supports research, planning, content creation and software development.
The collaboration is aimed at organisations that need greater control over AI infrastructure, data and governance, including government entities and regulated sectors. The companies did not disclose details on hosting arrangements, infrastructure architecture or deployment models.
The planned development center will focus on Arabic AI, model adaptation and evaluation, document intelligence and industry applications. Its location, launch timeline, investment and computing capacity have not been disclosed.
DeepAstra is a portfolio company of Omantel Innovation Labs, which is also supporting the initiative as a strategic infrastructure partner. Oman’s Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology has backed the collaboration.
The center could move the partnership beyond local access to external models by supporting the adaptation and evaluation of AI systems for Arabic-language and Oman-specific use cases.
Source: MEA Tech Watch
