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According to the latest market report from Bayut, in the third quarter of 2026, apartment prices in some affordable and mid-range communities in Abu Dhabi increased by up to 9.2 percent. This growth occurred against a backdrop of sustained demand for more budget-friendly housing, as well as continued interest in luxury real estate.
Baniyas recorded the largest quarterly increase, where the average price per square foot for mid-level apartments rose by 9.2 percent. Al Ghadir community saw a growth of 6.2 percent, while on Al Maryah Island, apartment prices increased by 3.2 percent. Other areas, including Masdar City and Al Shamkha, also demonstrated moderate price increases.
At a media briefing, Matt Gregory, Senior Director of Strategy at Dubizzle Group, noted that Abu Dhabi continues to show positive momentum in housing prices across various segments. For the third quarter, Bayut registered about 2.5 million visits to the platform related to the Abu Dhabi real estate market, with the average number of active listings reaching approximately 20,000.
These figures reflect a constant interest in searching both in established communities and in new residential complexes. Saadiyat Island, Marina, and Marina Villa were among the popular places for searching ultra-luxury apartments. The luxury apartment segment attracted attention in Al Raha Beach, Yas Island, and Al Maryah Island.
For mid-range apartments, Al Reem Island was the most active search area, followed by Masdar City and Baniyas. Among buyers looking for affordable housing, Al Ghadir, Al Reef, and Al Shamkha remained popular. Ultra-luxury buyer interest in villas was shown by Saadiyat, Nuraiy, and Marina Islands.
In the luxury villa segment, Yas Island, Al Raha Beach, and Al Batin were preferred. The mid-range segment is represented by Al Raha Gardens, Zayed City, and Al Samkha, while for affordable villas, Al Shamkha, Al Reef, and Al Ghadir were popular.
Bayut's analysis identified Al Dafra as the leading location for estimated villa rental yield, showing a Return on Investment (ROI) of 11.5 percent in the mid-segment. Between Two Bridges, also known as Bayn Al Djesrain, an estimated yield of 10.1 percent was recorded for affordable villas. Among apartments, Al Reef offered an estimated yield of 7.9 percent in the affordable segment, and Al Samkha offered 7.1 percent for mid-range apartments.
On Al Maryah Island, an estimated yield of 7 percent was recorded for luxury apartments, and Marina offered 5 percent for ultra-luxury apartments. Regarding luxury villas, Al Raha Beach showed an estimated yield of 5.2 percent, and Saadiyat Island showed 4.3 percent in the ultra-luxury class. It should be noted that these figures represent estimated rental yields based on listed property prices, not guaranteed income.
According to Bayut, the listed rent in popular Abu Dhabi communities remained generally stable or showed only minor changes during the third quarter. Saadiyat Island and Al Raha Beach continued to be in demand among tenants seeking elite and luxury apartments. Al Reem Island attracted mid-range apartment tenants, while Khalifa City remained the leading spot for affordable rentals.
For villas, Saadiyat Island and Yas Island remained sought after in premium segments, while Zayed City and Khalifa City attracted mid-range and affordable tenants. Haider Ali Khan, CEO of Bayut, stated that Abu Dhabi is becoming increasingly competitive in the global real estate market, especially in the ultra-luxury housing and branded residences segment. He added that the range of properties under construction offers buyers greater choice and attracts international wealthy individuals and institutional investors.
The report is based on listed prices and search activity on Bayut, not on completed real estate transactions. The market for properties under construction in Abu Dhabi continued to attract interest in various price categories. Among popular ultra-luxury apartment projects was Saadiyat Cultural District, and on Yas Island, the Gardenia Bay project attracted seekers of luxury apartments. Shams Abu Dhabi on Al Reem Island was in the mid-range category, while the Al Reeman 1 and Reeman Garden 1 projects attracted interest in the affordable segment. Saadiyat Lagoons and Yas Park Gate remained popular for villas in the ultra-luxury and luxury classes. Bloom Living in Zayed City attracted mid-range buyers, and Al Reeman 2 in Al Shamkha was featured among affordable villa projects.
Upwind has successfully raised $400 million in a Series C funding round. These funds will be used to further develop its platform designed to ensure security in cloud environments and in the field of artificial intelligence. Following this round, the company's valuation reached $3.8 billion.
The Upwind platform also addresses security issues arising from the increasing adoption of AI. Investors participating in the deal include Cyberstarts, Greylock Partners, Craft Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, and Picture Capital. Other investors include Leaders Fund, TCV, Alta Park Capital, Penny Jar Capital, Cerca Partners, and Swish Ventures.
Upwind was founded in 2022 by Amiram Shahar, Liran Polak, Levi Ferdman, and Tal Zur. Notably, Shahar previously co-founded Spot.io, which was acquired by NetApp for $450 million in 2020. After that, the founders focused their attention on cloud security.
This new funding followed a Series B round in January 2026. According to presented reports, the company was valued at approximately $1.5 billion at that time, demonstrating significant valuation growth within one year.
The platform integrates data from cloud workloads, application programming interfaces (APIs), and AI agents, providing security teams with a more complete context when analyzing potential threats. Unlike traditional security tools that generate a large number of alerts, Upwind indicates exactly which vulnerabilities require attention.
Upwind aims to bridge this gap by connecting runtime activity with threat intelligence. This allows specialists to precisely identify compromised systems and investigate anomalies. For example, if an AI agent is granted permission to read data 'x' but then attempts to access information it is not authorized to, Upwind can trace this back to the source code.
This transparency enables faster investigations and informed remediation actions. The platform is available on platforms such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
Upwind's revenue increased fourfold in 2026 amid growing demand for cloud and AI security. The company reported an Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) exceeding $50 million, compared to approximately $20 million at the end of 2025.
Despite intense competition in the cloud security sector, the company's valuation of $3.8 billion with over $50 million in ARR corresponds to a multiple of about 76x revenue, setting high expectations for future growth. To support this valuation, the company needs to continue expanding its customer base. Major players in the market include Palo Alto Networks and CrowdStrike.
There are also smaller startups in AI security targeting new threats related to autonomous agents and enterprise AI applications. Upwind stands out among them due to its runtime intelligence and contextual visibility across various cloud environments.
The new investment comes at a time when companies are beginning to actively use AI agents in their business processes. These systems are capable of handling employee personal data and performing tasks without human intervention. Therefore, security teams need to understand how such agents operate within the current infrastructure.
Upwind's mission is to unify real-time data with autonomous investigation and problem resolution. The platform can help development and operations teams identify the most critical vulnerabilities. However, long-term growth will depend on customer adoption of the platform and achieving tangible security results. The raised funds will be used for further technological refinement and expansion of enterprise adoption.
The discussion about iPhone production in India goes beyond simply manufacturing one type of phone; it tests the country's ability to scale up new factories, jobs, and exports with the support of government incentives. The central government provided financial support to mobile companies through the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme to increase production volumes.
According to Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, the government has allocated ₹19,000 crore in incentives for mobile manufacturing. As a result, this sector has generated ₹25,000 crore in direct taxes and ₹3 lakh crore in GST collection. He also noted that 25 lakh people are employed in electronics manufacturing, of whom 12 lakh work directly in mobile manufacturing.
However, there is another side to this story: the question is whether India imports components for assembling phones or is gradually starting to produce the parts and technologies that constitute the true value of the device. This debate is important for understanding the progress of the 'Make in India' and 'Made in India' concepts.
PLI stands for Production Linked Incentive. Simply put, it is a program that provides financial incentives to eligible companies for increasing domestic production. The goal of this scheme is to help companies set up factories in India, increase output, invest capital, and make India a more attractive manufacturing hub compared to other countries.
For example, if a company manufactures mobile phones in India and meets the program's criteria, it can receive incentives according to established rules. This increases the economic benefit for the company when expanding production in India. The government expects that in return, investments will come in, jobs will be created, production will rise, and exports will be stimulated. Thus, the state does not directly cover the cost of every phone but encourages companies that increase production according to specific conditions.
A few years ago, most of India's mobile phone needs were met through imports. Now, the situation has changed significantly. According to government data, in 2014–15, about 75 percent of the country's demand for mobile phones was covered by imports, whereas in the fiscal year 2024–25, this figure dropped to approximately 0.02 percent.
Mobile phone production has also accelerated. Government data shows that in 2014–15, the country produced about ₹18,000 crore worth of mobile phones, while in 2024–25, this volume grew to approximately ₹5.5 lakh crore. Over the same period, the total production of electronic goods increased from ₹1.9 lakh crore to ₹11.3 lakh crore.
The PLI scheme played a key role in this transformation. Thanks to it, companies received incentives for large-scale mobile device manufacturing in India. Furthermore, existing factories in the country have expanded, and foreign companies' supply chains have begun shifting towards India.
The most discussed example of these changes is the iPhone from Apple. The company and its manufacturing partners are increasing production in India. This allows India to increase its share in the global electronics supply chain. According to a recent Bloomberg report, about one in four iPhones produced globally is now manufactured in India. This indicates that India is not only producing phones for the domestic market but is also becoming part of the production system that meets global demand.
One factor driving Apple to increase production in India is the desire to reduce dependence on China. Companies refer to this strategy as 'China plus one,' which means establishing factories and supply chains in other countries alongside those already in China to lessen reliance on any single nation. For India, this can translate into opportunities such as investment, job creation, acquisition of technical expertise, and export growth.
Official data is crucial for assessing the results of the PLI scheme. According to information presented to parliament in July 2025, by June 2025, investments under the PLI scheme for large-scale electronics manufacturing reached ₹12,390 crore. During this period, total production reached ₹8.44 lakh crore, and exports under this scheme amounted to ₹4.65 lakh crore.
Furthermore, according to government data provided as of March 2026, the total investment under the scheme reached ₹20,587 crore, and production reached ₹11.61 lakh crore, with exports totaling ₹6.43 lakh crore. These figures reflect the overall achievements over the entire period of the scheme, not just the results for one year. Export growth means that phones manufactured in India are sold in other countries, allowing the country to secure its place in global markets and encouraging companies toward large-scale production.
What benefit does the PLI scheme bring to India? Debates regarding government support for mobile manufacturing have recently intensified. A Bloomberg video report asked how India can benefit if many expensive and critical iPhone components come from abroad.
