Ask most people what kinds of companies have been setting up in the Gulf in the last few years, and they’ll give you the predictable answer: real estate, oil services, trading. And yes, those sectors remain well represented on any business registration report across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and beyond. But spend enough time looking at what is actually being incorporated – the licences being issued, the free zone applications coming through, the founders walking through the door – and a more interesting picture emerges.
The GCC has been experiencing a sustained registration boom. The World Bank’s Gulf Economic Update, published in late 2025, pointed to the UAE and Saudi Arabia’s non-hydrocarbon sectors as the primary engines of economic growth. This shift was already well underway before the current moment added fresh urgency. That non-oil story isn’t just a government aspiration – it’s also evident in where entrepreneurs have chosen to start their businesses. And it matters more than ever, precisely because the region is being reminded that oil revenues and geopolitical calm cannot always be taken for granted.
So, what are those sectors, and what does the mix tell us about where the region is really heading?
Building for the bigger picture
It’s worth looking at the conditions that have made this moment so fertile for new business formation and, equally, why those conditions are now being stress-tested in ways that will separate structural progress from surface optimism.
A myriad of regulatory reforms across the GCC, most notably the introduction of 100% foreign ownership in a wide range of mainland sectors across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, has removed one of the most persistent friction points for international founders. You no longer need a local sponsor to set up in most industries, and that single change has fundamentally altered the calculus for global entrepreneurs considering the region. These are structural shifts, written into law, and they don’t reverse when the news cycle turns difficult.
Add to that the long-term residency schemes such as the UAE’s Golden Visa and Saudi Arabia’s Premium Residency, and the message for talent and investors is consistent: we want you here for the long term. The question that founders, investors, and executives are now asking is whether that social contract holds under pressure.
PwC’s 28th Annual CEO Survey found that 90% of GCC-based CEOs were optimistic about revenue growth in the year ahead. That confidence was built on regulatory reform and diversification investment, both factors designed with a long-term vision in mind. While such forward-thinking perspectives may not make the business environment bulletproof, they do give it a little bit more resilience. That resilience is now being asked to prove its depth, and there are reasonable grounds to believe it will do just fine.
The sectors doing the heaviest lifting
Fintech is the headline story and, frankly, deserves the attention it gets. McKinsey research published in 2025 found that MENA fintech net revenue is expected to grow at 35% annually until 2028, more than double the global average of 15%. The number of fintech companies operating in the region has risen to over 1,000, and the UAE hosts well over 1,388 fintech and innovation firms within its ecosystem. These are not companies that uproot at the first sign of turbulence, they represent embedded infrastructure and deep regulatory relationships.
Technology and AI are following close behind, but with an important nuance. It’s not simply a case of seeing global tech firms establishing satellite offices – a genuine local innovation layer is being built. The Startup Genome’s Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2025 described the Gulf as one of the few global markets where ambition, alignment, and execution converge seamlessly, with Abu Dhabi’s $100 billion AI commitment and Saudi Arabia’s $40 billion technology fund translating into real infrastructure and real scaleup pipelines. That sovereign capital is committed and deployed regardless of short-term volatility, and it is, if anything, an argument for accelerating the diversification that reduces the region’s exposure to precisely the kind of disruption now underway.
It’s worth noting that the current crisis has created some immediate vulnerabilities in the tech layer. Cloud and data centre facilities linked to Amazon Web Services in the UAE and Bahrain faced disruptions, briefly affecting customer access to banking systems. The long-term response to that vulnerability is more local digital capacity, not less, which points back toward registration and investment, not away from it.
Another pressing question concerns logistics and trade facilitation, two powerhouse industries that are of central importance to the global economy. The UAE’s role as a physical node between Asia, Africa, and Europe is not new, but the question being asked right now is how exposed that model is to the disruption in the Strait of Hormuz. The answer, at least in the medium term, is that the disruption to trade is significant, but not fatal. The UAE has planned and invested precisely for this situation – in creating alternative routing, storage, and digital trade infrastructure that provides resilience when the primary corridors are under pressure.
The sectors flying under the radar
Beneath the fintech and AI headlines, several sectors are building critical mass and, with slightly fewer headlines, making an outsized impact.
Climate tech is one. The UAE and Saudi Arabia both have net-zero commitments that require private-sector participation at scale, and founders are recognising that the region’s wealth and government appetite for green infrastructure create an unusually compelling environment for new ventures. Investment in Gulf startups spanning AI, fintech, climate tech, and edtech has grown at a 24% compound annual rate since 2017, and climate tech is increasingly carving out its share of that momentum. The current focus on energy security, both globally and regionally, only sharpens the commercial logic for founders building in this space.
Health tech and wellness are registering genuine growth, and have been for some time, with technology playing a crucial role. Telemedicine platforms, diagnostic AI tools, mental health services, and longevity-focused ventures are fuelling this expansion. The UAE Ministry of Economy has identified healthcare as a strategic priority, and registration patterns support this. An expanding expatriate population, rising health awareness, and a strong medical tourism infrastructure combine to make this one of the most structurally grounded opportunities in the region, with demand drivers entirely independent of geopolitical conditions.
Creative industries deserve a mention too, given how consistently they get overlooked in regional economic analysis. Media production companies, gaming studios, marketing agencies, and digital content platforms are registering in increasing numbers, particularly in the Sharjah free zones specifically designed to attract them. The sector is not without turbulence, though, and the creator economy that flourished in the UAE’s boom years is currently facing a major stress test. However, beneath that volatility lies a more durable story: a young, digitally native regional population with a genuine and growing appetite for locally relevant content. That demand is deep-rooted, determined by demographics rather than sentiment, and the serious operators building for that audience are unlikely to be distracted by the noise.
The final sector worth watching is professional and consulting services. As substantive businesses embed themselves in the region, the demand for the advisory ecosystem around them, such as legal, tax, HR, and strategy, grows proportionally. That demand doesn’t disappear when conditions become more complex – it increases.
Company formation as a predictor of growth
In many ways, company registration data measures the unmeasurable. It captures intent before it becomes revenue, ambition before it becomes track record. When you look at the sectors founders are choosing to build in across the GCC, you are also seeing where some of the world’s leading entrepreneurs believe value will be created over the next decade – not where they believe the next few weeks will be easiest.
The picture that emerges from the data is of a region whose structural transformation is real, whose foundations are much deeper than the current headlines suggest, and whose trajectory is being tested rather than broken. The GCC has navigated regional instability before. It has, in many respects, built its economic model precisely because the neighbourhood was never reliably calm. The diversification of its economy was always meant for moments like this one.
Understanding which sectors are attracting strong business formation activity, and why, provides a window into where the GCC economy is going as opposed to where experts say it’s going. Right now, those two things remain more aligned than the news cycle might suggest. That alignment is worth paying attention to, in both the short term and the long term.
