Middle East Business
Dubai holds first place worldwide for new creative industry investment projects, with design and architecture inside the count
By Staff Writer | 26 August 2026
The emirate attracted 754 greenfield projects in the cultural and creative industries during 2025, a fourth consecutive year at the top of the ranking, with capital inflows of 3.756 billion dollars and 19,304 new jobs.
Dubai ranked first in the world for the number of greenfield foreign direct investment projects in the cultural and creative industries in 2025, the fourth consecutive year it has held that position. The Department of Economy and Tourism and Dubai Culture published the result on Tuesday, drawing on an international dataset of greenfield investment decisions that tracks 233 cities.
The count for the emirate was 754 projects. London recorded 227, Singapore 197, Riyadh 157 and Bengaluru 132. Greenfield capital inflows into the sector reached 3.756 billion dollars, which placed Dubai second in the world on that measure rather than first, and the projects were associated with 19,304 new jobs.
What the sector actually contains
The classification is wider than the phrase suggests, and one line of it belongs to readers of this page. The sub-sectors counted are advertising and public relations, specialised computer programming services, data processing and digital services, film, media and gaming, creative technologies built on artificial intelligence, creative education, professional services, design and architecture, crafts and cultural industries, performing arts and entertainment, museums and historical sites, and the logistics services that support all of them.
Design and architecture sits inside this count. A ranking that reads as a culture story is also a record of how many design practices opened a Dubai office last year, and of how many of those decisions were taken by firms with no previous presence in the emirate.
The origin of the money and the origin of the projects diverge. India led on capital inflows at 19 per cent, followed by the United States at 17.5 per cent, China at 13 per cent, Malaysia at 12 per cent and the United Kingdom at 9 per cent. By number of projects the order changes: the United Kingdom led at 21.5 per cent, India followed at 21 per cent, the United States at 14 per cent and France at 4 per cent. British firms therefore opened the most, and Indian firms committed the most capital.
This achievement is underpinned by a dynamic ecosystem in which creativity, advanced technology and enterprise converge to create sustainable economic value, high-quality employment opportunities and new avenues for growth.
Helal Saeed Almarri, Director General of the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism
What the announcement credits, and what it does not say
The Department attributes the position to full foreign ownership, business setup that it describes as efficient, specialised creative and technology clusters, long-term residency routes for individuals, digital and logistics infrastructure, and access to regional markets. It names the Dubai Economic Agenda D33 and the Dubai Creative Economy Strategy as the policy framework behind the result.
What is not published is the split between the sub-sectors. The 754 figure is a single number and neither body has said how many of those projects were design and architecture, how many were programming and data services, or how large the average project was. Nor is there a survival figure: a greenfield project is counted when it is announced, not when it is still trading three years later.
These indicators highlight the maturity of the emirate's creative ecosystem and its capacity to generate opportunities that meet the ambitions of investors and the wider creative community.
Hala Badri, Director General of Dubai Culture
The direction the announcement describes is a move away from traditional cultural activity and towards digital content, creative technology, artificial intelligence and data-driven services. For a practice weighing an office in the emirate, the useful part of the release is not the ranking but the composition: the growth is in the sub-sectors that sell time and expertise rather than product, and those are the ones that hire the people this readership employs.