UAE’s Mohammed bin Hamad, Faisal Al Bannai meet with Trump at Mar-a-Lago

Two UAE business leaders who advise President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed on security and technology matters visited U.S. President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, and made a swing through the U.S. to meet with SpaceX founder Elon Musk, investors Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, and defense firm Anduril.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad Al Nahyan, Chairman of Abu Dhabi Airports, and Faisal Al Bannai, Chairman of state-owned defense conglomerate EDGE Group, traveled to Palm Beach, Florida, for the weekend meeting at Trump’s residence and resort, they said in posts on X. Both hold senior advisory posts in the UAE Presidential Court.

The two also met separately with Jared Kushner, founder of Miami-based private equity firm Affinity Partners and Trump’s son-in-law. They were joined throughout the trip by Sheikh Zayed bin Mohammed bin Hamad Al Nahyan, Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad’s son. 

Before meeting Trump, the Emirati leaders traveled to San Francisco and discussed “possible areas of collaboration” with venture capitalists Andreessen and Horowitz, founders of A16Z, Al Bannai said in a post on X. Among those joining the various meeting was Abdallah Abu Sheikh, founder of Abu Dhabi-based Astra Tech, and CEO of Botim. Musk met them at another stop.

The group also visited U.S. defense contractor Anduril, with which EDGE signed an agreement in November to form a joint drone aircraft venture.

Saudi Arabia calls for closer cooperation on critical minerals

Saudi Arabia is using Davos this week to call for closer global cooperation on mining and critical minerals amid growing tensions over competition for resources as Donald Trump stirs the pot.

As the U.S. President left Washington to address the World Economic Forum, Saudi Minister of Mining and Mineral Resources Bandar Alkhorayef warned on Monday that countries risk conflict if they try to squeeze out competitors.

“We cannot afford a world where every country tries to secure critical minerals on its own,” Alkhorayef told a Davos panel, urging shared frameworks and cross-border partnerships.

Trump is scheduled to address the WEF today in the conference’s most anticipated event as he confronts European allies over his plans to take over Greenland from Denmark, in part because of its underground stores of rare earths such as graphite, copper, zinc and titanium.

Saudi Arabia has been positioning itself as a hub for mineral processing and investment, with Alkhorayef framing cooperation as essential to stabilizing supply chains and easing geopolitical strain. The kingdom, which is trying to diversify its economy away from reliance on oil, has an estimated $2.5 trillion in mineral wealth.

“We realized that unlocking the value that we have in our natural resources, of the different minerals that we have, will definitely help our economy to grow, to diversify,” Alkhorayef said.

Gulf CEOs circulate in Davos as AI investments take center stage

Davos is once again pulling the Gulf’s top business leaders to Switzerland’s snow-capped ski resort, where executives from the Middle East are mingling at the World Economic Forum with the likes of Bridgewater’s Ray Dalio, BlackRock’s Larry Fink and Palantir’s Alex Karp.

From Saudi Arabia, the delegation includes Talal Al Maiman, CEO of Kingdom Holding, Tareq Al Sadhan, CEO of Saudi National Bank, Abdullah Aladel, managing director and CEO of Alkhair Capital, Marco Arcelli, CEO of ACWA Power, and Jerry Inzerillo, CEO of Diriyah Co.

The UAE sent Mubadala CEO Khaldoon Al Mubarak and Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, CEO of ADNOC and Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, alongside private-sector leaders such as Peng Xiao, CEO of G42, and Badr Jafar, CEO of Crescent Enterprises.

Qatar is represented by Mansoor Al-Mahmoud, CEO of the Qatar Investment Authority, and Saad Al-Kaabi, president and CEO of QatarEnergy. Bahrain’s delegation includes Abdulla Al Khalifa, CEO of Mumtalakat, the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, and Hisham Alrayes, CEO of GFH Financial Group.

Several execs are making the rounds at the TV networks that give Davos wall-to-wall coverage. Al Mubarak, for one, annually uses the Swiss conference as a pulpit to raise Mubadala’s international visibility. 

“Leaving the noise and the hype aside, I think we have a very clear view of what we think are the investable spaces,” Al Mubarak said in an interview with Bloomberg. “Particularly when it comes to AI enablement, there are a lot of aspects that I think we believe in.”