UAE earns top sovereign credit ratings from Moody's, S&P, and Fitch in 2025
The UAE has secured strong sovereign credit ratings from the world's top three agencies – S&P Global (S&P), Moody's Investors Service (Moody's), and Fitch Ratings (Fitch) – reinforcing international confidence in its economy and fiscal resilience.
On June 17, S&P assigned the UAE a sovereign credit rating of 'AA' with a stable outlook. Moody's affirmed its 'Aa2' rating, also with a stable outlook, in its 2025 annual review. Fitch followed on June 24 with an 'AA-' rating, maintaining the stable outlook.
These consistent evaluations from all three major global credit agencies reflect the UAE's strong fiscal position, economic diversification efforts, and disciplined financial governance.
UAE credit ratings
The country now joins a small group of nations worldwide with favourable sovereign credit ratings from all three agencies.
Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, First Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister, and Minister of Finance, said: 'The affirmation of the UAE's strong sovereign rating by the world's top three international credit rating agencies, and their consensus on a stable outlook, reflects the deep-rooted international confidence in the resilience of our national economy and the efficiency of our fiscal policies.
'This is the result of a comprehensive economic vision led by His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, and closely followed by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.'
Sheikh Mohammed said the UAE continues to implement economic policies grounded in diversification, transparency, and fiscal discipline, with a strong focus on increasing non-oil revenues and achieving financial sustainability.
This reflects the integrated performance of government entities and long-term strategic planning, which continue to reinforce the UAE's position as a flexible and credible global economic hub.
He added: 'At the Ministry of Finance, we remain committed to working closely with all government entities to enhance the efficiency of resource management, develop productive sectors, and improve the country's investment appeal.
'The development of the sovereign yield curve for the dirham was a major milestone in enhancing market transparency, providing investors with a reliable benchmark for pricing dirham-denominated debt instruments.
'This strengthens the UAE's presence on the global economic map and reinforces its ability to confidently navigate regional and international changes and challenges — by expanding the investor base and enhancing the country's reputation as a reliable and attractive destination in global capital markets.'
The individual reports from each agency highlight key strengths:
S&P: Cited the UAE's robust financial position and the strength of consolidated sovereign assets. It also noted that regional geopolitical tensions are likely to have limited impact due to the country's internal stability and sovereign wealth.
Moody's: Emphasised continued progress in non-oil revenue development and the UAE's attractiveness to foreign investors and talent, underpinned by sound policy frameworks.
Fitch: Recognised elevated regional risks but affirmed the UAE's capacity to absorb shocks, supported by strong fiscal and external reserves.
The ratings confirm the United Arab Emirates' ability to diversify revenue streams beyond hydrocarbons, maintain fiscal discipline, and manage risks effectively. These achievements have contributed to macroeconomic stability and sustainable growth across key sectors such as finance, trade, infrastructure, and innovation.
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Zawya
10 minutes ago
- Zawya
Cloudflare just changed how AI Crawlers Scrape the Internet-at-Large; permission-based approach makes way for a new business model
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This cycle rewards creators that produce quality content with money and a following, while helping users discover new and relevant information. That model is now broken. AI crawlers collect content like text, articles, and images to generate answers, without sending visitors to the original source – depriving content creators of revenue, and the satisfaction of knowing someone is viewing their content. If the incentive to create original, quality content disappears, society ends up losing, and the future of the Internet is at risk. 'If the Internet is going to survive the age of AI, we need to give publishers the control they deserve and build a new economic model that works for everyone – creators, consumers, tomorrow's AI founders, and the future of the web itself,' said Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare. 'Original content is what makes the Internet one of the greatest inventions in the last century, and it's essential that creators continue making it. AI crawlers have been scraping content without limits. Our goal is to put the power back in the hands of creators, while still helping AI companies innovate. This is about safeguarding the future of a free and vibrant Internet with a new model that works for everyone.' 'Cloudflare's innovative approach to block AI crawlers is a game-changer for publishers and sets a new standard for how content is respected online. When AI companies can no longer take anything they want for free, it opens the door to sustainable innovation built on permission and partnership,' said Roger Lynch, CEO of Condé Nast. 'This is a critical step toward creating a fair value exchange on the Internet that protects creators, supports quality journalism and holds AI companies accountable.' 'We have long said that AI platforms must fairly compensate publishers and creators to use our content. 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Enforcing a Permission-Based Model for the Internet Cloudflare powers one of the world's largest networks, helping to manage and protect traffic for 20% of the web. The company handles trillions of requests daily, and thus has the world's most advanced bot management solutions, accurately distinguishing between human users and AI crawlers. In September 2024, Cloudflare introduced the option to block AI crawlers in a single click. More than one million customers have since chosen this option, meant to be an aggressive but easy solution that halts scraping while they determine their AI strategy. Now, Cloudflare is taking the next step to enforce a permission-based model for AI crawlers. AI companies will now be required to obtain explicit permission from a website before scraping. Upon sign-up with Cloudflare, every new domain will now be asked if they want to allow AI crawlers, giving customers the choice upfront to explicitly allow or deny AI crawlers access. This significant shift means that every new domain starts with the default of control, and eliminates the need for webpage owners to manually configure their settings to opt out. Customers can easily check their settings and enable crawling at any time if they want their content to be freely accessed. 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The company recently proposed new ways for AI bots to authenticate themselves as well as for websites to identify those bots – giving creators and website owners new identification mechanisms and control over what crawlers they want to allow. Cloudflare is participating in the development of a new protocol to provide bot owners and AI agent developers with a public, standard way to identify themselves. Companies in Support of a Permission-Based Approach for AI Crawling ADWEEK: 'As the front page and homepage for marketing, advertising and media industry leaders, ADWEEK's position has been clear that we must be compensated for our investment grade journalism and information. I am thrilled Cloudflare has created a marketplace and mechanism that will enable us to properly participate in the promise LLMs have for our industry.' – Will Lee, CEO, ADWEEK The Arena Group: 'We think of our writers and content creators as entrepreneurs. Their work deserves protection. 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Digital Content Next: 'Permission is the law when it comes to copyrighted content - full stop. Cloudflare's move brings technology to help ensure AI companies can't sidestep the rules. It's a critical step toward restoring a fair value exchange for trusted publishers and content creators.' – Jason Kint, CEO, Digital Content Next DOC: 'Generative AI has given the entire Internet industry an opportunity to reimagine the broken value exchange between publishers, consumers, and marketers. It takes companies with courage and conviction to break the decades-old practice of 'steal first, apologize later' that dominates the business models of most Internet giants. Kudos to Cloudflare and its founding participants for taking decisive and consequential action while there's still time.' – John Battelle, Co-founder and CEO, DOC Drupal & Acquia: "Large sites can afford the technical infrastructure to detect and block crawlers. Some can even pursue direct licensing deals with AI companies. 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It protects the creative spark that made the Internet worth exploring in the first place.' – Darragh Lucey, CEO, Half Baked Newsletter Hyperscience: 'As AI reshapes the way we create, consume, and interact with information, the value of original content, and the rights of those who create it, have never been more important. At Hyperscience, our success is built on original research and proprietary ML models, which our customers rely on to run transparent, compliant, and accurate AI workflows. We remain steadfast in our belief that creators, researchers, and technologists deserve recognition and protection in this new era of AI. We are excited to support this visionary Cloudflare initiative and believe that it will provide the framework to ensure that creators in every domain – including software development, healthcare and biotech, art and music, and journalism – benefit from an equitable and productive exchange with the LLMs and AI systems that leverage their work.' – Andrew Joiner, CEO, Hyperscience IAB Tech Lab: 'What we're hearing from publishers is consistent. Their content is being pulled into AI systems without notice, and they're seeing real drops in traffic as a result. That's why we launched the LLM Content Ingest API Initiative. To give publishers and brands the ability to decide how and when their content is accessed by AI tools. 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At ICFJ+, we are working with small news sites -- beginning in Africa and across a variety of languages -- to help them protect and reclaim the value of their original work in the age of AI. We welcome this very promising initiative from Cloudflare.' – Sharon Moshavi, co-CEO of ICFJ+ and president of ICFJ Linkup: 'High-quality, trusted content is the lifeblood of Linkup's answer engine, ensuring we deliver reliable insights to our customers. Cloudflare's program gives us a clear, AI-ready path to that content while respecting and rewarding its creators. We're thrilled to help pioneer a model that safeguards a vibrant, sustainable future for the Internet.' – Phil Mizrahi, CEO and Co-founder, Linkup News/Media Alliance: 'The rise of AI presents exciting opportunities, but in order for the industry to grow sustainably, it must do so in cooperation with publishers. Cloudflare's tools provide a strong framework for a more equitable exchange, offering a path for both industries to grow and thrive together. By valuing and protecting the rights of publishers, we're ensuring that they can continue to create the high-quality content that fuels AI innovation.' – Danielle Coffey, President & CEO, News/Media Alliance O'Reilly Media: 'It's so great to see Cloudflare standing up for publishers! Building a sustainable economy for AI starts with giving creators and publishers control over their content, rather than simply letting it be expropriated by AI platforms and application developers. Colonialism doesn't age well as a business model.' – Tim O'Reilly, Founder and CEO, O'Reilly Media PMC: 'We are very pleased to see the market-based solution that Cloudflare has offered and encourage others to join. Waiting for legal or government interventions to remedy the current challenges in our ecosystem isn't a strategy. Supporting sustainable models that compensate content creators fairly is an obligation that we all share as news and media organizations.' – Craig Perreault, Chief Strategy Officer, PMC ProRata AI: "Our whole mission is to protect and elevate human creativity in the AI era. That's why we're proud to be one of the first AI companies to participate in Cloudflare's initiative to create a new permission-based model for the Internet. We believe that creators and publishers deserve to be fairly compensated for the value they bring, and we're thrilled to support Cloudflare in helping make that vision a reality." – Bill Gross, Founder & CEO, ProRata AI Quora: 'Publishers are essential to both the Internet's future and AI's growth. At Quora, we believe these two industries can thrive together, and we're committed to supporting initiatives like Pay Per Crawl that create mutual value and sustainable growth for the long term." – Ricky Arai-Lopez, Head of Product, Quora Raptive: 'Digital publishers fuel the Internet with original ideas and expertise, and they deserve control over how their work is used. This move toward a permission-based model is a meaningful step—restoring fair value, protecting creativity, and ensuring a better future for those who make the web worth visiting.' — Michael Sanchez, CEO, Raptive SimpleFeed: 'As the leader in content syndication, SimpleFeed is on the front lines of the battle with AI bots. We are excited for solutions that bring publishers greater transparency and fair compensation for their work. The world needs healthy publishers and we welcome opportunities to partner with companies building a new ecosystem on more equitable incentives.' – Mark Carlson, CEO, SimpleFeed Sky News Group: 'This permission-based model will help secure the future of quality digital journalism, which is our commitment. Sky News is all about providing 'the full story, first'– so we wanted to be among the first to join Cloudflare's framework for setting fair terms of trade in news. We'll help design the future of these services as video becomes an ever-larger part of both crawling and publishing.' – David Rhodes, Executive Chairman, Sky News Group 'If the shift toward AI continues to erode web traffic, I worry that most premium publishers will have no choice but to adopt a subscription-only model. The whole Internet behind a paywall isn't good for anyone. That's why I'm optimistic about Cloudflare's efforts to protect publishers and help us find a sustainable solution that benefits all sides.' – Chris Richmond, CEO, SourceForge: 'At SourceForge, we empower millions of businesses and developers by providing a trusted platform for discovering software through authentic user-generated B2B software reviews and open source projects. Cloudflare's permission-based model for AI crawlers is a vital advancement that helps protect original content while fostering innovation. By giving publishers control over how their content is accessed and used, Cloudflare supports a fairer digital ecosystem that benefits publishers, creators, developers, and users alike. We're excited to partner with Cloudflare in promoting transparency and responsible AI practices across the Internet.' – Logan Abbott, President, SourceForge Sovrn, Inc.: 'For more than a decade, Sovrn has relentlessly championed the open and free Internet. While AI represents incredible opportunities to advance human knowledge and abundance, we are putting at risk creators and publishers who make the Internet indispensable. We collectively need to ensure a balance where creators and publishers can continue their important work and thrive in the future, and that's why Cloudflare's work is so critical to this next chapter of the Internet.' – Walter Knapp, CEO, Sovrn, Inc. Stack Overflow: 'We applaud Cloudflare for all they are doing to support the new business models of the modern day Internet. Community platforms that fuel LLMs should be compensated for their contributions so they can invest back in their communities. We've been very vocal around the importance and integrity of socially responsible AI practices. Our mission is to set new standards with vetted, trusted, and accurate data that will be the foundation on which technology solutions are built and delivered to our users. We believe attribution is non-negotiable, that human review of content is necessary and community feedback is the only way to ensure GenAI tools accelerate innovation and not misinformation.' – Prashanth Chandrasekar, CEO, Stack Overflow StockTwits: 'At Stocktwits, original content and real-time conversation are at the heart of our community. As AI transforms how information is discovered and used, it's essential that innovation doesn't come at the expense of the creators and platforms driving it. We're proud to support Cloudflare's efforts to ensure a more transparent, fair, and sustainable Internet.' – Howard Lindzon, Founder and CEO, StockTwits 'In order for the Internet to remain the critical source of news and information it has been for web users, we need to dramatically re-think the business model for users and publishers. Cloudflare's vision aligns strongly with the Sustainable Media Center's mission to give GenZ users control of their digital lives. We applaud this critical effort.' – Steven Rosenbaum, Co-founder and Executive Director, Third Door Media: 'For years, publishers large and small have played by the rules, creating high-quality content in exchange for visibility and traffic. But AI shifts the game. Cloudflare's approach recognizes that content has value beyond clicks. It's time we build a new framework, one that respects the work of journalists and creators while fueling the future of AI responsibly. I, for one, am hoping to see more solutions for publishers in the marketplace.' – Marc Sirkin, CEO, Third Door Media TIME: 'At TIME, we're committed to advancing innovation without compromising the integrity of original journalism. Cloudflare's initiative is a meaningful step toward building a healthier AI ecosystem—one that respects the value of trusted content and supports the creators behind it.' – Mark Howard, Chief Operating Officer, TIME Universal Music Group: 'We welcome this new initiative from Cloudflare, that will help address the indiscriminate, disruptive, and unauthorized scraping of both creative and commercial IP by AI model developers and support new licensing. At UMG, we have always embraced innovation and new technologies, and firmly believe that AI, when used ethically, transparently, and respectfully of copyright and human creativity, has the opportunity to introduce significant new avenues for creativity and future monetization.' – Boyd Muir, Chief Operating Officer, Universal Music Group Webflow: 'With millions of websites powered by Webflow, we see how quickly AI-driven discovery is becoming the norm. Cloudflare's opt-in model brings structure and permission into that shift, giving content owners and marketing teams more control over how their work is accessed and reused. It's a necessary evolution, and a meaningful step toward a more accountable AEO ecosystem.' – Allan Leinwand, CTO, Webflow About Cloudflare Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET) is the leading connectivity cloud company on a mission to help build a better Internet. It empowers organizations to make their employees, applications and networks faster and more secure everywhere, while reducing complexity and cost. Cloudflare's connectivity cloud delivers the most full-featured, unified platform of cloud-native products and developer tools, so any organization can gain the control they need to work, develop, and accelerate their business. Powered by one of the world's largest and most interconnected networks, Cloudflare blocks billions of threats online for its customers every day. It is trusted by millions of organizations – from the largest brands to entrepreneurs and small businesses to nonprofits, humanitarian groups, and governments across the globe.
Arabian Post
16 minutes ago
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Arabian Business
27 minutes ago
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