I am often asked why we have one company in Zurich and one in Dubai. The short answer: Because the two together can do something that neither can do alone.
GPUs in Dubai
Let us start with the thing that surprises most people. Fact is: in Dubai you get GPU capacity very quickly and very easily.
In Europe, compute for training often means: waiting list, quotas, a sales team that only answers after two weeks. In Dubai it means: One conversation, one contract, next week it is running. The infrastructure is there, and it is being massively expanded right now, because the country decided that it wants this.
For us, with fifty micro-models and regular training runs, that makes a difference. Not in the price per hour, that is similar everywhere. In the way to get there.
Support and speed
The second thing, and I say this with some regret about Europe: In Dubai there is more support. People who can be reached. Authorities that are digital. Processes that run in days instead of months.
Founding a company, extending a licence, organising a visa, all of that happens there at a pace I do not know from Switzerland. Digitalisation is incredibly far along in the places that matter. It was simply decided that it should be this way, and then it was done.
Not everywhere
Careful, not everywhere. I have to add that, otherwise it sounds like advertising.
There are corners where you notice that all of this was built very quickly. Things that shine and are not finished behind the surface. Processes that are perfect until you have a special case. And a culture in which "yes, no problem" does not always mean that there is no problem.
But in the places that count for us, compute, authorities, speed, reachability, Dubai is further ahead. That is my honest experience after several years.
What Zurich contributes
In Zurich we have project management and implementation, and quality assurance. That has less to do with the place than with the people who are there, and with what clients expect from there.
When a project needs a clear plan, someone who holds the threads, and an acceptance you can rely on, it runs through Zurich. Innovation, on the other hand, happens in Dubai for us. Where the compute is, where decisions are made fast, and where you can try something before it is perfect. It grew that way, and it works.
How this works together
The combination works because we do not decide which location is the more important one. The client requirement decides that.
If a project needs a lot of compute, fast access to infrastructure, or room to try something new, it runs in Dubai. If it needs close management, quality assurance and coordination with the client on site, it runs through Zurich. Usually it needs both, and then we split it. Not by gut feeling, but by what matters for the project right now.
Whoever has only one location has to make do with what works there. Having two is uncomfortable, you travel a lot, you have two legal systems, two time zones, two ways of working. But you can take for every project what it needs. That is why we do it.
If someone asks you where we are: in both places, and the client decides what happens where. That is not a compromise. That is the plan.
Written by me. The thoughts, the values, the learnings, the mistakes: all mine. Grammar and spelling are corrected by our own twin model, trained on my texts. Sometimes a stumble stays in. That is mine too.