Pakistan’s New Auto Policy Shifts Gears
November 9, 2026
RLabs wins a Silicon Valley award for AI-powered simulations as the Pakistani startup prepares to expand into the US market.
A Pakistani startup developing artificial intelligence and advanced simulation technology has secured international recognition, putting its work in the spotlight of Silicon Valley. RLabs, led by National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) graduate Harris Ahmed, won the GOAL Startup Award at the Silicon Valley November Summit in California. The summit, organised by global innovation platform and venture capital firm Plug and Play, took place from November 2 to 5. RLabs was selected among 18 international startups to pitch its technology through the organisation’s Global Overseas Acceleration & Learning (GOAL) programme.
RLabs focuses on extended reality (XR) simulators, synthetic data and machine training. Its technology creates virtual environments that can help people and intelligent machines learn to operate complex equipment and perform specialised tasks. Ahmed, a 2018 NUST graduate, said he had spent nearly a decade developing XR technologies to train people to operate sophisticated machinery. He explained the next step in the company’s work in a LinkedIn post: “Now we use the same human experience to train machine instincts.” That shift from training people to training machines is central to RLabs’ ambitions. The startup is now preparing to enter the United States, potentially opening its technology to a larger market for AI-driven simulation and industrial training.
The startup was incubated at Pakistan’s National Incubation Centre for Aerospace Technologies (NICAT). According to the centre, the company is developing a proprietary large language model (LLM) to power a modular, cross-platform simulation engine that could reduce development time by up to 75 per cent. The award was presented at a summit attended by more than 3,000 people, including investors, entrepreneurs, corporate executives and technology leaders. Ahmed said RLabs presented its XR simulation, synthetic data and machine-training work before the international audience.
Federal IT Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja congratulated Ahmed and the RLabs team, calling the achievement a proud moment for Pakistan. She said the recognition reflected the potential of local technology talent and the growing strength of the country’s startup ecosystem. For RLabs, the award marks more than international visibility: it comes as the company prepares its US launch and looks to take its simulation technology beyond Pakistan. Its next challenge will be turning that recognition into market traction.
