The high cost of artificial intelligence development has met its match in MilkStraw AI. On January 6, 2026, the UAE-based startup officially closed a $2 million seed round led by VentureSouq, with participation from Ibtikar Fund and M Capital. Founded in 2024 by Jawad Shreim and Anas Abdullah, MilkStraw AI targets "cloud burn"—the notoriously high server bills that plague startups during the compute-heavy phases of AI training and deployment. By treating AWS server reservations like a hedge fund portfolio, the platform uses AI to dynamically trade and reallocate contracts in real-time, allowing startups to achieve the deep discounts of 3-year commitments while maintaining the flexibility of on-demand usage. The funding comes at a pivotal moment as MENA-based startups rapidly scale their AI operations, often seeing cloud infrastructure become their single largest expense. MilkStraw AI has already achieved remarkable product-market fit, serving over 100 startups (including fintech leade...