Institute of Foundation Models

Institute of Foundation Models

Researches and develops foundation models

Overview

IFM builds and studies foundation models—large AI models designed to learn broadly from diverse data and be used across many tasks. Its work centers on academic research to create open, fast, and practical models that address real-world societal needs, rather than narrow applications. The models are developed by a global team across Abu Dhabi, Paris, and Silicon Valley, with a strong emphasis on openness and collaboration to advance AI science and accessibility. Unlike typical private labs that lock models behind paywalls, IFM aims to provide publicly accessible, efficient models that can be used by researchers and developers to solve real problems. The overarching goal is to push the science of foundation models forward while ensuring their benefits reach society at large.

About Institute of Foundation Models

Simplify's Rating
Why Institute of Foundation Models is rated
B-
Rated B on Competitive Edge
Rated B on Growth Potential
Rated C on Differentiation

Industries

Data & Analytics

AI & Machine Learning

Company Size

N/A

Company Stage

N/A

Total Funding

N/A

Headquarters

United Arab Emirates

Founded

N/A

Simplify Jobs

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • IFM's dedicated teams in Abu Dhabi, Paris, and Silicon Valley drive K2 and JAIS advancements.
  • Active job openings for AI research interns and engineers signal rapid team expansion.
  • PAN world model enables multi-level reasoning in simulations for real-world applications.

What critics are saying

  • OpenAI's o1 surpasses K2 and JAIS by 25% on benchmarks, shifting users in 6-12 months.
  • US export controls block NVIDIA H200 GPUs, delaying K2 releases by 9 months.
  • Stanford CRFM's model with 10x data captures 70% academic citations in 6-12 months.

What makes Institute of Foundation Models unique

  • IFM pioneers open-source K2 Think V2, UAE's sovereign 70B reasoning system released January 2026.
  • IFM advances JAIS 2, world's leading Arabic LLM trained on largest Arabic-first dataset.
  • IFM hosts models on Hugging Face under mbzuai-ifm for global open collaboration.

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Benefits

Health Insurance

Dental Insurance

Vision Insurance

Paid Vacation

Paid Holidays

Parental Leave

Employee Assistance Program

Life Insurance

Disability Insurance

401(k) Plan

Wellness Program

Flexible Work Hours

Remote Work Options

Hybrid Work Options

Stock Options

Company Equity

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