Image by Nelemson Guevarra on Unsplash
When Bilal Abu-Ghazaleh left Scale AI, he didn’t just pack up his resume and ideas. He packed up nearly a decade of hands-on experience from the heart of the U.S. startup scene — and brought it back to the Middle East.
Now, from bases in London and Dubai, he’s launched 1001 AI, a startup on a mission to bring intelligent decision-making to the physical world — think airports, logistics hubs, construction sites, and oil fields.
And get this: the startup just raised a cool $9 million in seed funding.
From Scale AI to scaling real-world ops
Image by Tyler Casey on Unsplash
If you haven’t heard of Abu-Ghazaleh, he grew up in Jordan and spent the last several years rising through the ranks at tech companies in the U.S. At Scale AI, he led GenAI operations, overseeing massive networks that labeled and curated the data that trains large models.
But after Meta invested in Scale and shifted the company’s direction, Abu-Ghazaleh decided it was the right moment to build his own thing — this time, far from Silicon Valley.
Enter: 1001 AI.
So what exactly is 1001 AI building?
Forget chatbots and smart spreadsheets. 1001 AI is working on what’s essentially an AI-native operating system for operations managers in sectors like:
- Aviation
- Logistics
- Construction
- Oil and Gas
Instead of humans manually calling people to reroute fuel trucks or redirect cleaning crews at an airport, 1001’s platform pulls data from a company’s existing software, models the workflows, and issues real-time responses — automatically.
It’s orchestration for the physical world, powered by AI.
Why the MENA region, and why now?
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According to Abu-Ghazaleh, the Gulf alone (especially the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar) is sitting on more than $10 billion in avoidable inefficiencies — just across key infrastructure sectors.
In this region, big things are being built fast. But too often, mega-projects fall behind schedule or go over budget. If AI can improve operations by even a few percentage points, the savings could be worth hundreds of millions.
And governments are already on board. Countries in the region are pouring money into AI via sovereign wealth funds and national programs. Investors are noticing.
Backed by serious capital (and serious people)
1001 AI’s $9 million seed round is led by CIV, General Catalyst, and Lux Capital — some of the biggest names in venture. Notable angel investors are also in the mix, including:
- Chris Ré (Stanford professor, co-founder of Snorkel)
- Amjad Masad (founder of Replit)
- Amira Sajwani (DAMAC)
- Khalid Bin Bader Al Saud (RAED Ventures)
- Hisham Alfalih (Lean Technologies)
And while many AI startups build enterprise software or focus on specific use cases, 1001 AI is deliberately horizontal. The idea? Operational flows across industries often follow similar patterns — so one platform can do a lot.
Embedded with clients, building from the ground up
Abu-Ghazaleh says the team actually embeds with clients during the rollout. It’s not just a software install; it’s a co-development sprint to get the system speaking the client’s operational language. Think of it like consulting-meets-software: understanding the messy, real-world workflows and making them AI-friendly.
Deena Shakir, a partner at Lux Capital, put it this way: “We’re extremely bullish on AI that solves physical-world problems at scale — optimizing how airports turn around flights, how ports move cargo, how construction sites operate.”
It’s a bet that what the region needs isn’t just AI that thinks — it’s AI that does.
What’s next?
The first product deployment is expected by the end of this year, starting in the construction sector. From there, Abu-Ghazaleh has a five-year plan: make 1001 AI the go-to orchestration layer for infrastructure-heavy industries in the Gulf, then take that model global.
In the meantime, the company is hiring across engineering, ops, and go-to-market roles — split between London and Dubai.
If 1001 AI pulls this off, the next big thing in AI might not come from Silicon Valley. It might come from a construction site in Riyadh or a busy airport in Dubai.
And honestly? That might be exactly where it belongs.
Keywords: Bilal Abu-Ghazaleh, 1001 AI, Gulf AI startups, AI infrastructure, logistics automation, MENA tech innovation, AI in construction, AI operating systems, Middle East AI funding
