Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence

What it is

MBZUAI, short for the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, is a university based in Abu Dhabi whose work centres on artificial intelligence ^[1]. It was founded in 2019 and enrolled its first graduate students in 2021 ^[1]. By the time of the Jais 3 release its student body stood at nearly a thousand ^[1]. Eric Xing is president of the university and is also described as founder of the Institute of Foundation Models that it hosts ^[3].

The Institute of Foundation Models

The university launched the Institute of Foundation Models in May 2025 ^[1][3]. The institute describes its mission as the open and independent development of frontier foundation models under the university ^[2]. A foundation model, in the usual sense of the term, is a large model trained on broad data that is then adapted to many different tasks; frontier marks the top end of capability at a given moment. The word open is used in this field for work whose models or technical details are made available outside the team that built them, so that others can use and check them. The institute works from three sites: Abu Dhabi, Silicon Valley and Paris ^[3]. Its Abu Dhabi office sits on the MBZUAI campus in Masdar City ^[2].

The models

The institute's model portfolio covers three lines: the K2 series, the Arabic Jais line, and PAN, a world model for embodied reasoning ^[1][3]. They are aimed at different things. K2 is the general model series, and Jais is the Arabic-focused line. PAN belongs to another category: a world model tries to predict how an environment will change in response to actions, and embodied reasoning means reasoning about an agent that acts in a physical or simulated space. A robot arm reaching for a cup, for instance, has to anticipate how the cup will move once touched; that kind of prediction is what a world model is for. On 3 September 2026 the institute announced its K2 Horizon model fleet in Abu Dhabi ^[3]. A fleet, in the wording of such releases, is a set of related models published together, usually differing in size or role.

Where it sits

Put in order, the dates are compact: a university founded in 2019, first graduate students in 2021, an in-house foundation-model institute launched in May 2025, and a model fleet announced in September 2026 ^[1][3]. The institute spans three sites in three regions and works on several model families at once, one of them an Arabic line ^[1][3]. Its stated mission places that development under a university rather than a company ^[2].

For a reader following where frontier models come from, MBZUAI is a case of a university and a model lab being built at the same time: the institution that enrolled its first graduate students in 2021 is the one whose institute announced K2 Horizon ^[1][3]. Universities have long trained the researchers who build such systems; here the university is also named as the place where the models themselves are developed ^[2].

To keep the pieces straight, three names are enough: MBZUAI is the university, the Institute of Foundation Models is the model institute it launched in May 2025, and K2, Jais, PAN and K2 Horizon are the models that institute produces ^[1][3].