Pragmatic AI sovereignty: Architecting AI value chains for control and continuity in the Gulf countries

Learned a lot lending an editorial hand here:

PwC Strategy&, August 31, 2026

by Chady Smayra, Ramzi Khoury, and Sreedhar Nair



Often, the quest to achieve leadership in the global competition that has arisen around artificial intelligence (AI) is reduced to seeking access to chips. But chips are only one component of the AI value chain. To attain a leadership position in AI, countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and beyond must adopt a more nuanced approach that encompasses the entire AI value chain, including chips, compute infrastructure, cloud platforms, models, data and other elements.

We call this pragmatic AI sovereignty. It seeks to balance the need for control over the AI value chain with the need for continuous access to its components. In doing so, pragmatic AI sovereignty mitigates the risks of both external dependence and internal fragility.

There is no single way to achieve pragmatic AI sovereignty. Government leaders and other stakeholders must consider each aspect of the value chain in terms of its concentration, capital intensity, strategic sensitivity and value creation potential.

Then, leaders can determine which posture or combination of postures can be used to secure access to the layers of value. There are four postures they can use: assure, which secures a layer via agreements, allocation, diversification or contractual safeguards; control, which secures a layer by owning, operating or governing it; partner, which secures a layer via partnership with a global player while maintaining local governance, localization, resilience and exit rights; and influence, which secures a layer using capital, regulation, procurement or market access to shape its standards, capital flows, supplier priorities or policy dialogues.

The GCC countries are well positioned to not only secure their own pragmatic AI sovereignty, but also shape how AI ecosystems evolve across adjacent markets. To succeed and lead in the AI era, they will secure access where it matters, assert control where it is critical and build leadership where value can be captured. Read the full viewpoint here.

‘Becoming a Principle-Driven Leader’ Review: Prosperity and Progress

The Wall Street Journal, August 12, 2026

by Theodore Kinni




Perhaps being a nepo baby isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Take Chase Koch, whose father, Charles, has long served as chairman of Koch, Inc., a conglomerate that generates more than $125 billion in annual revenue. The younger Mr. Koch, now an executive vice president at the family business, reports that his father made him undergo a capitalist’s education from a young age.

“Every Sunday,” Mr. Koch remembers, “my sister, Elizabeth, and I were required to listen to books on tape from the thinkers, doers, and dreamers” who had shaped their father’s “understanding of the world. . . . What ten-year-old wants to listen to lectures from Friedrich Hayek, Abraham Maslow, Thomas Sowell, and Milton Friedman?”

Readers get a taste of those Sundays in “Becoming a Principle-Driven Leader,” which Mr. Koch co-wrote with his 90-year-old father. The Kochs declare that 41 principles—a mix of legal and economic concepts ranging from property rights to marginal analysis—are responsible for the “nine-thousandfold” growth of the company since 1960 and, less plausibly, for human progress itself... read the rest here.