Abu Dhabi-based artificial intelligence group G42 on Tuesday launched what it calls a Digital Embassies framework and an operating model named Greenshield, aimed at allowing governments to deploy artificial intelligence while retaining legal authority and control over data and systems, even when infrastructure is located outside national borders.
The initiative comes as governments seek to accelerate the use of AI in areas such as public services, healthcare, national security and energy, while facing long lead times to build domestic cloud and data-centre infrastructure. G42 said the new model is designed to bridge the gap between policy ambition and infrastructure readiness.
Under the framework, sovereignty is treated as a legal and operational status that can travel with digital workloads, similar to how diplomatic missions operate beyond a country’s borders. This allows governments to enforce national laws and policies across designated “digital embassy” environments, regardless of physical location.
“Our vision is that every government, regardless of size or geography, can operationalise its digital and AI strategy with full sovereign control from day one,” said Omran Sharaf, the UAE’s assistant foreign minister for advanced science and technology.
Greenshield serves as the operational layer of the framework and is implemented by Core42, G42’s digital infrastructure unit. It translates sovereign policy into technical controls covering areas such as identity and access management, data handling, security, compliance, auditability and system continuity, the company said.
“Governments are clear on their sovereignty responsibilities, but they need practical ways to deploy AI today,” said Ali Al Amine, chief commercial officer of G42 International. “This model allows them to enforce their laws and policies immediately, while retaining flexibility over how and where infrastructure evolves.”
According to G42, Greenshield operates across Core42’s distributed AI cloud infrastructure, which includes sovereign compute environments in North America, Europe and the United Arab Emirates. The company said the model enables sovereign controls to remain in place even as workloads move across different cloud and infrastructure configurations.
Talal Al Kaissi, interim chief executive of Core42 and G42’s group chief global affairs officer, said the framework allows governments to run high-performance AI workloads “regardless of where the infrastructure is located,” provided legal agreements are in place between participating states.
The initiative is supported by G42’s strategic partnership with Microsoft, which provides access to global cloud platforms where appropriate, the company said. It also complements broader infrastructure projects such as the UAE’s planned 5-gigawatt AI campus, designed to support low-latency AI services across large parts of Europe, Africa and Asia.
G42 said discussions with governments were ongoing on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, as interest grows in alternatives to traditional models of digital sovereignty that rely on strictly local infrastructure.
