Minister of State and PVARA Chairman Bilal Bin Saqib met OpenAI CEO Sam Altman at the United Nations, using the meeting to discuss how Pakistan could secure a larger role in the global artificial intelligence economy. Saqib shared details of the meeting in a LinkedIn post, describing a conversation that centered on the country’s underlying resources rather than any specific deal or product discussion.
According to Saqib, the two discussed Pakistan’s young talent base, its energy capacity, and its digital scale, framing these as assets that could be turned into a more meaningful position within the rapidly expanding AI economy. He argued that Pakistan’s objective should extend beyond simply adopting artificial intelligence tools built elsewhere, writing that the country’s ambition needs to be bigger than adoption alone and that Pakistan should aim to help build what he called the Intelligence Age. That framing echoes an argument Saqib has made on other international platforms this year, where he has pushed the idea that developing countries need to move from adopting emerging technologies toward shaping the infrastructure, standards, and systems that sit underneath them, a position he has applied both to digital assets through his work at PVARA and now to artificial intelligence more broadly.
The meeting took place a day after Altman addressed the UN Security Council alongside other leading AI executives, placing the Saqib-Altman conversation within a broader week of high-level engagement on artificial intelligence policy at the UN. Saqib’s post did not disclose any specific agreements, investment commitments, or follow-up steps resulting from the meeting, and OpenAI has not issued its own separate statement on the discussion.
The meeting adds to a pattern of Pakistani officials using UN platforms this year to position the country in global conversations on emerging technology, following similar engagements by Saqib on tokenisation, digital public infrastructure, and virtual asset regulation. Whether the AI-focused conversation with Altman leads to any concrete outcome for Pakistan, such as infrastructure investment, talent programmes, or formal partnerships with OpenAI, remains to be seen, with no timeline or next steps indicated in Saqib’s account of the meeting.
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