Abu Dhabi promotes flying taxis, robots at Autonomous Week

Abu Dhabi is making its most aggressive pitch yet to become a global capital of self-driving vehicles, kicking off its inaugural Autonomous Week with a parade of pilot projects across land, air and sea mobility. 

In the opening panels of Monday’s Autonomous Summit, senior government officials touted the UAE’s regulatory advantages and pushed companies to develop their technology in the Emirates.

“Do not waste your time in any other country,” said Faisal Al Bannai, adviser to the UAE President and Secretary General of the Advanced Technology Research Council. “This is the city to be in.”

The talkfest kicks off a week-long showcase at Yas Marina Circuit, the home of Abu Dhabi’s F1 Grand Prix, which includes a global soccer tournament for humanoid robots, a car racing league and an exhibition space. Guests on Day 1 were welcomed by robots serving up coffee and ice cream, while others mowed lawns.

Companies including California-based firms Joby Aviation and Archer Aviation are awaiting licenses to start commercial operation of flying taxis in the UAE, while multiple operators are already experimenting with driverless cars and buses. 

Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohamed, Chairman of the Smart and Autonomous Systems Council, attended the summit, seated alongside Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, the UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and CEO of the ADNOC national oil company. “While other cities are still testing pilot programmes, Abu Dhabi and the emirate at large have already integrated autonomy across land, sea and air,” Sheikh Hamdan wrote in an opinion piece for The National.

The Daily Circuit: World leaders mull AI in Dubai + Neom data center

👋 Hello from the Middle East!

In the Daily Circuit today, we’re looking at Neom’s plan to build a $1.5 billion data center, a commitment by Salesforce to invest $500 million in Saudi Arabia for AI projects, ADQ’s decision to drop its acquisition of NMC Healthcare and the new Six Flags theme parks in Riyadh that will house the world’s longest roller coaster and tallest water slide. But first, Dubai is a magnet this week for world leaders in tech, politics and investment.

Inside Dubai’s luxurious Madinat Jumeirah resort today at the World Governments Summit, some 6,000 participants are scrambling between hotel ballrooms to see a parade of government and corporate leaders talk about the future of the earth. Another 1.5 million are tuning in on the web feed.

Topping the agenda in one session after another is how to address the promise and threats presented by artificial intelligence, The Circuit’s Omnia Al Desoukie reports from the conference.

Robin Li, CEO of China’s Baidu talked about how the high costs of AI development have forced the world’s second-largest economy to find new computing solutions, including DeepSeek, which has come up with vastly cheaper AI models than those developed by OpenAI, Microsoft and Google.

“You just don’t know when and where innovations come from,” Li said in an onstage conversation with Omar Al Olama, UAE Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications.

Kristalina Georgieva, the Bulgarian economist who serves as Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, said the world is at an important juncture that will determine whether AI turns into a great story or a nightmare. “There are many, many unknowns,” she sighed.

Adding a touch of glamor on Monday night was a star-studded event at the Museum of the Future, where many of the WGS delegates attended TIME magazine’s Impact Awards Gala, which featured appearances by Grimes, the artist, singer and ex-life partner of Elon Musk, as well as video artist Refik Anadol and musician Arqam Al Abri.

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📷 Photo of the Day

The Daily Circuit: MBZ visits Moscow + Riyadh finance hub sells REITs

In the Daily Circuit today, Riyadh’s burgeoning King Abdullah Financial District is raising money for further expansion, Lulu supermarkets is selling a 25% stake on the ADX, the Saudi PIF has created a company to build staff quarters for big construction projects and the New York Knicks have signed a deal to wear an Abu Dhabi logo on their uniforms. But first, a UAE-Russia summit in Moscow.

Having visited U.S. President Joe Biden earlier in the month at the White House, UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed is continuing his international travels with a stop in Moscow.

Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted the Emirati leader for dinner on Sunday, with an official meeting set for today that will focus both on commercial relations, as well as the conflicts with Ukraine and in the Middle East, according to a Kremlin statement.

Trade between the two countries has tripled to $7 billion over the last three years, even as Russia has been subject to sanctions applied by the U.S., the U.K. and the European Union. Putin personally thanked the UAE President for mediating a prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine, the statement said.

Following the Moscow visit, Sheikh Mohammed will travel on Tuesday to the Russian city of Kazan for a summit of the BRICS group of nations, which it joined in January.

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SHOPPING FOR SHARES

UAE retail giant LuLu plans to sell a 25% stake of the company in an IPO starting Oct. 28, with its shares hitting the ADX trading floor on Nov. 14. The business, which owns hypermarkets, supermarkets and malls across the MENA region, as well as in India and Malaysia, is looking to raise as much as $1.8 billion through the share sale, Zawya reports. The Abu Dhabi-based company founded by Yussuf Ali counts ADQ as an investor, having sold the sovereign wealth fund a 20% stake in 2020. Emirates NBD Capital, HSBC Holdings, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank and Citigroup are joint bookrunners on the IPO, with Moelis & Co. retained as financial advisor.

💲 Sovereign Circuit

Public Investment Fund: The Saudi sovereign wealth fund established a company to build and operate housing for staff of major construction and development projects across the kingdom.

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority: ADIA-backed Lake Shore, a management company, raised over $143 million through a green loan from HSBC Commercial Banking for Viviana Mall in Mumbai, marking India’s first sustainability-linked fundraising for a retail property.

Qatar Investment Authority: QIA Chairman Sheikh Bandar bin Mohammed Al Thani, who is also Governor of the Qatar Central Bank, held meetings in Washington last week with Howard Marks, Co-Chairman of Oaktree Capital Management, and Stephen Schwartzman, Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder of Blackstone.

↪↩ Closing Circuit

🌽 Food Finance: Helios Investment Partners, a London-based private equity fund focused on Africa, will invest about $40 million in Egypt’s Raya Foods.

🏙️ Towering Views: UAE developer Select Group awarded a building contract to Arabian Construction Co. for its $1 billion ultra-luxury Six Senses Residences Dubai Marina, which at 122 stories, will be the world’s tallest residential tower.

🔒 Security Matters: Cyera, an Israeli cybersecurity company,  acquired Trail Security, another Israeli firm, for $162 million, mostly in shares, Calcalist reports.

↪↩ Circuit Chatter

🛢️ Top Customer: Saudi Aramco is “fairly bullish” on China’s oil demand, driven by the government’s stimulus package, with rising demand for jet fuel and naphtha, Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said on the sidelines of the Singapore International Energy Week conference, Reuters reports.

🤖AI Power: ADNOC Distribution is developing over 20 AI-powered tools to optimize operations and enhance efficiencies, while also using data analytics to design new stations, CEO Bader Al Lamki told The National at the Gitex Global technology conference last week in Dubai.

☕ Coffee to Go: Gateway Partners, a Dubai-based private equity firm, is considering selling its stake in the Gulf franchise of Tim Hortons four years after its initial investment in the Canadian coffee chain, Bloomberg reports.

🌍 Power Circuit

King Mohammed VI of Morocco held a Council of Ministers meeting at the Royal Palace in Rabat on Saturday that focused on the 2025 budget, military affairs, international agreements, and key appointments.

Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council, chaired a meeting of the Advanced Technology Research Council last week and approved plans for three ventures under ATRC’s commercialization arm VentureOne. The projects focus on quantum-era data security, smart autonomous mobility, and robotics-driven agritech.

Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defense, Chairman of Dubai Executive Council, and Chairman of the Higher Committee for Development and Citizen Affairs in Dubai, approved the master plan for development of the Saih Al Salam Scenic Route.

➿ On the Circuit

Dr. Thani Al Zeyoudi, UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Trade, has launched a TradeTech Accelerator to support startups developing advanced technology solutions for the trade sector.

Bandar Alkhorayef, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources, concluded his official visit to Spain, during which he held meetings with ministers and private sector leaders, to expand the scope of industrial and mining cooperation, and highlight investment opportunities.

Mohamed Hadi Al Hussaini, UAE Minister of State for Financial Affairs, held a meeting in Dubai with Samir Sharifov, Minister of Finance of Azerbaijan, to discuss financial cooperation.

Robert Raines, U.S. Consul General for Dubai and the Northern Emirates, and a high-level business delegation from the U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council, were at the Movenpick Resort Al Marjan Island in Ras Al Khaimah on Friday to discuss growing trade relations with the emirate.

🎶 Culture Circuit

🏀 Basketball Branding: On the heels of the NBA exhibition games in Abu Dhabi, the New York Knicks are tapping into the UAE’s ferocious appetite for pro basketball. Madison Square Garden Sports Corp. and Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism have signed a marketing partnership that will place an “’Experience Abu Dhabi” logo on Knicks player uniforms. Meanwhile, the international FIBA league will hold its 14 international teams and one local team competing in the 3×3 World Tour event this weekend on the Abu Dhabi Corniche, bringing 14 international teams to the UAE capital.

📷 Photo of the Day

🗓️ Ahead on The Circuit

Oct. 21-22, Dubai, UAE: AIM Summit Dubai 2024. Investors from alternative investment firms mix with government officials and corporate executives. Jumairah Emirates Towers.

Oct.22-24, Dubai, UAE: Dubai Helishow. Conference features innovations in hybrid and electric helicopters, AI integration, UAV combat operations, and civil aviation. Skydive Dubai.

Oct. 29-31, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Future Investment Initiative Conference, 8th Edition. More than 6,000 global participants registered, including world leaders, policymakers CEOs and investors. King Abdul Aziz International Conference Center.

Oct. 31, Abu Dhabi, UAE: Transition Investment Workshop. NYU Abu Dhabi’s Transition Investment Lab holds a day of discussions on aligning investment decisions with social values. NYU Abu Dhabi, East Forum.

Nov. 5-7, Dubai, UAE: EMEA Stakeholder Conference, This invitation-only event brings together over 700 leaders from across the hotel and real estate industry in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Lapita Dubai Parks and Resorts Autograph Collection.

Nov. 12-13, Abu Dhabi, UAE: CyberQ: Security in the Quantum Era. Conference brings together international experts, policymakers and industry players to discuss challenges of the quantum age of cybersecurity. ADNEC.

Sale of stake in Mideast Starbucks franchise held up by protests

The sale of a minority stake in the Middle East Starbucks franchise owned by Kuwait’s AlShaya Group, which has drawn interest from Apollo Global Management and other international firms, appears to have been paused.

AlShaya, which owns some 2,000 Starbucks coffee outlets across the MENA region and eastern Europe, has watched the business’s market value dwindle in the face of widespread boycotts against the brand, Reuters reports.

Starbucks, McDonalds, KFC and other U.S. brands have been the target of protests in the region since the Gaza war started almost a year ago because of their perceived ties to Israel even though Starbucks has no outlets in the country.

AlShaya’s coffee business has been valued at between $4 billion and $5 billion, the news agency said.
 

From white elephant to trendy, affordable tourism

TEL AVIV – From the outside, the Tel Aviv Textile and Fashion Center looks like a standard Israeli office building. Built starting in the 1960s in the era’s Brutalist architectural style, the center boasts six high-rise towers and a common space with a sprinkling of cheap stores and workman’s cafés that serve basic Israeli fare.

Architecturally daring for its day, this hulking whitewashed structure – one of the most iconic landmarks along the city’s coastline – has long been in decline both as an industry hub and an office option for emerging companies. Much of the expansive, concrete complex now stands peeling and neglected.

Cue the arrival of the Brown Hotel Group. One of the country’s fastest-growing hotel chains, its motif is setting up shop in unlikely places and in the process regenerating and reimagining some of the more down-and-out locations as sustainable and affordable tourist hubs.

Among its latest offering is Brut – a play on Brutalist – a 224-room boutique hotel that sits interspersed throughout various floors in Gaon House, one of the Textile and Fashion Center’s towers. 

The hotel opened last April with just 182 rooms, but as business and companies ended their leases in the crumbling building, Brown took over the space, renovating and opening more rooms and facilities as travelers began to return to Israel amid relaxed COVID-19 restrictions.

It’s part of the hotel operator’s urban renewal philosophy, Shahaf Segal, PR manager and spokeswoman for the Brown Hotel Group, explained to The Circuit. She listed a similar process for the group’s 13 other hotels dotted around the city (there are also now Brown Hotels in Jerusalem, Eilat, Greece and Cyprus), as well as some now under construction in other iconic landmarks, including one slated to open in the historic former Histadrut worker’s union building.

Each hotel, some with just a handful of rooms and others more expansive like Brut, has a slightly different vibe, but the overall goal is to convert existing buildings, as well as the areas around them, into reasonably priced lodgings and tourist centers in expensive cities.

“We are taking unoccupied spaces and turning them into positive spaces,” Segal said, pointing to the reception desk, which still shares space with a security team servicing the remaining offices in the building, and to the hotel’s back office, which until recently was occupied by a hair clinic offering transplants in Turkey.

The intriguing and intricate process of renewal and replacement can be seen throughout the hotel. Brut’s rooms now occupy the first, second, third, seventh and 14th floors, and are still interspersed with a medical clinic, a car rental office, insurance brokers and accountants.

And there is a range of different room styles, spanning from a basic “urban room” to an executive suite with a breathtaking sea view to a two-room family suite replete with a kitchenette. All the rooms are simple in design and practical, and all incorporate unique elements of the building’s original architecture with many of the signature features of a Brown Hotel: wire metal shelving, ecologically friendly soaps and a coffee maker.

In the executive suite on the 14th floor, unparalleled views of the Tel Aviv coastline and the sea beyond fill the purposely slanting windows, which the building’s designers hoped would be effective in deflecting the powerful rays of the Middle Eastern sun. Now they give guests the feeling they are floating above the earth or have been set adrift to sea.

On the seventh floor, the VIP lounge contains a modest conference center for business meetings or small gatherings. Its colorful decor captures the heart of the hotel’s urban renewal process, with re-upholstered and reconstructed ‘70s style furniture, couches, bookcases and even a collection of typically drab Israeli pottery from that era.  

A third-floor sun deck also boasts views of the Mediterranean and Brown’s signature hot tubs. On the ground floor, the center’s long-neglected communal areas have been spruced up and furnished with comfortable outdoor couches, hammocks and oversized plants for both guests and the remaining office workers to enjoy.

Also on the ground floor, Brown has taken over a long-forgotten restaurant, reopening it as the Kilometrage, with dishes created by celebrity chef Idan Bushari, winner of Israel’s “Next Restaurant” reality show. In the morning, the restaurant space doubles as the hotel’s breakfast buffet (which is a modest but delicious Israeli-style breakfast), but in the evening the music is turned up and the well-stocked bar and taboun-themed menu attract young Tel Avivians looking to be wined and dined.

And the Brut is not the only Brown group hotel to find a new home in this aging office complex. In an adjacent tower sits WOM, one of the group’s less expensive affiliates. Not exactly a hotel, at least not in the classic sense, and though it veers towards the communal lodging style of a hostel that is popular across Europe and in Israel, Segal calls it a “boutique pod hotel.”

Inside the converted space, more than 100 rooms line three long hallways. Stacked like a Tetris, the tiny rooms (which feel unexpectedly spacious inside) offer both single, two singles and king-size beds either low down or up on a bunk. Aside from the bed, there’s space to store luggage, a desk, a sink and a safe. Toilets and showers are shared, one per three rooms, and are cleaned by hotel staff between each use – a phone app governs access.

“We are maximizing the space to allow affordable beds in an expensive city,” said Lihi Gerstner, co-founder, designer and owner of the WOM, who describes the concept as similar to WeWorks — but for travelers.

An architect by trade, Gerstner, who opened Tel Aviv’s first pod hotel in 2019 on nearby Allenby Street, explained that after years of traveling for work, she recognized the need to create a hotel for people who wanted a place to rest their heads while traveling but one that would not detract from the overall experience of visiting a city.

And, she believes that such accommodation, with enhanced communal space, is really the way forward for adventure seekers of all ages determined to travel the world.

“I think people are realizing that they want to spend more money on experiences when they travel and less on accommodation,” concluded Gerstner, who is in the process of expanding WOM into other parts of the office tower.

The writer was a guest of the Brown Hotel Group. A stay in WOM ranges from  142NIS-300NIS ($40-$85) depending on room type and season. Brut rooms range from 315NIS-1,200NIS ($90-$342).