Banco Santander's Sovereign AI Strategy: Co-Development with G42 and Mouro Capital's $400M Fund III
In mid-2026, Spanish banking giant Banco Santander has emerged as a key strategic architect in vertical financial AI, executing a dual-pronged playbook that combines a deep-tech co-development model with a venture-backed startup strategy.
Co-Development MOU with G42
On June 3, 2026, Banco Santander and Abu Dhabi-based technology giant G42 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish a long-term strategic partnership in artificial intelligence. Rather than purchasing off-the-shelf software or outsourcing development to third-party vendors, Santander is pursuing a sovereign co-development partnership to build custom AI tools.
The collaboration focuses on two main initial workflows:
- AI-Enabled Retail Financial Agents: Co-developing personalized advisory and savings solutions for retail banking customers, built on G42 Inception's Catalyst agentic AI platform and Presight's applied AI platform. The goal is to bring a private-banking-style experience (anticipating needs, advising, and acting within set boundaries) to millions of retail banking customers across Europe and Latin America.
- Banking Intelligence Layer: Building a foundational intelligence layer spanning Santander’s global operations, combining Santander's domain expertise and regulatory compliance frameworks with G42's cloud, infrastructure, and LLM capabilities.
"This agreement reflects Santander’s conviction that artificial intelligence will be foundational to the future of banking, not a feature layered on top of it. We are approaching this as a long-term strategic partnership with one of the world’s leading AI groups, we intend to build something that is durable, compliant by design, and genuinely differentiated for our customers across all our markets." — Ricardo Martín Manjón, Chief Data & AI Officer at Santander
The partnership marks a significant precedent of a major global bank partnering with a middle-eastern sovereign-backed AI firm to co-develop core banking intelligence infrastructure. Both companies intend to progress the workstreams under a strict joint governance framework to ensure compliance with financial regulations and data protection requirements.