More than 3,000 potential students applied to join Abu Dhabi's artificial intelligence (AI) focused university in the first week that applications were open. Most of the applications to Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) came from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Egypt, India, and China. MBZUAI, based in Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, aims to enable students, businesses and governments to increase the use of AI technology. It is the first university focused only on AI. The current applications are for the academic year 2021-2022, with the first students expected to start in September 2020.