The Daily Circuit: ADFW draws global investors + Binance gets Abu Dhabi OK

In The Daily Circuit today, we’re reporting on Abu Dhabi’s $16 billion expansion of its ADGM free zone, PIF-backed Lucid expanding its electric car network in Saudi Arabia, ADIA joining a group of investors that bought out British American Tobacco’s $776 million stake in India’s ITC Hotels and DP World’s agreement to modernize Afghanistan’s ports. But first, investors pour into Abu Dhabi for ADFW and Bitcoin MENA.

Abu Dhabi this week is hosting both the sprawling Abu Dhabi Finance Week event and the Bitcoin MENA conference, drawing crypto, finance and institutional investors to the UAE’s capital from around the world.

Headlining the Bitcoin event is Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance better known as CZ, who was pardoned by U.S. President Donald Trump in October after pleading guilty to violating money laundering laws. Also appearing are Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Executive Chairman & CEO of the Dubai Multi-Commodity Centre; Abdulla Al Dhaheri, CEO of The Blockchain Center; Faisal Al Hammadi, Managing Partner at Further Ventures; and Ali Alnuaimi, Founder at Shafra.

Amid the gatherings, Binance received formal approval from Abu Dhabi Global Market’s regulatory authority to provide global platform services from Abu Dhabi via three licensed entities – an exchange, a clearing house, and a broker-dealer. Under the arrangement, Binance’s regulated operations are set to begin January 5, 2026.

Missing this year is Eric Trump, who spoke to a packed hall last year before Donald Trump took office and promised that his father would be the most pro-crypto President ever. Excitement over crypto appeared not to be dampened much by the 30% slide in Bitcoin’s value.

“This year has certainly been an interesting one where we started well, went sideways, came a little bit lower and leveraged positions,” Sam North, a market analyst at eToro, told The Circuit’s Omnia Al Desoukie at the conference. “But overall, I think it has been a good year.”

Editor’s Note: Kindly let us know your thoughts and feedback by replying to this newsletter or emailing us at [email protected].

📈 Debt Market: GCC debt issuance soared to a decade high of $226 billion by November 2025, far outpacing last year’s record and contrasting sharply with the region’s weakest IPO activity since 2020, S&P Global Market Intelligence reported.

Trump moves on to Qatar after bounty of deals in Saudi Arabia

U.S. President Donald Trump took his Middle East dealmaking tour to Qatar today after a summit meeting in Riyadh with leaders of the six Gulf states that focused in part on promoting more investment in American military hardware and artificial intelligence.

The visit to Qatar’s capital of Doha continued to generate criticism from Democrats in Congress over Trump’s intention to accept a gift from the Qatari government of a refurbished $400 million plane that would temporarily replace Air Force One.

Arriving in the early afternoon after a short flight from Saudi Arabia, Trump landed at Hamad International Airport in Doha and was met by Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim, who was waiting on a yellow carpet to symbolize the desert peninsula’s sandy terrain.

Tomorrow, the President will meet Qatari business leaders for breakfast and greet U.S. soldiers at the Al Udeid U.S. Air Base, before taking off for the UAE.

In his two-day visit to Riyadh, Trump lavished attention on Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who said he would try to meet the President’s challenge for investing $1 trillion in the U.S. over the next four years.

At a Saudi-U.S. business conference in Riyadh, Trump and MBS held court with a constellation of billionaires, including Tesla’s Elon Musk, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, BlackRock’s Larry Fink, Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman and Bridgewater’s Ray Dalio.

From the Saudi business world, the conference featured Muhammad Al Jasser, Chairman of Islamic Development Bank; Nabeel Koshak, CEO of Saudi Venture Capital; Marc Winterhoff, Interim CEO of Lucid; John Pagano, Group CEO of Red Sea Global; Mohammad Abunayyan, Chairman of ACWA Power; Tony Douglas, CEO of Riyadh Air; and Jerry Inzerillo, Group CEO of Diriyah Co.

The Saudi Crown Prince wrapped up the day by bringing Trump for a tour of Diriyah, the ancestral home of the Al Saud royal family, which was led by Inzerillo. The site is undergoing a massive renovation as one of the multibillion megaprojects undertaken by the kingdom, along with the 100-mile long Neom city on the kingdom’s west coast and the Al Mukkab skyscraper cube in Riyadh.

Among the biggest issues discussed in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday was the extent to which the Trump administration would lift sanctions on AI semiconductor chips that are being eagerly sought by the Gulf states.

Nvidia, the world’s biggest semiconductor maker, agreed to supply its most advanced AI chips to Saudi Arabia’s Humain, a company created to push that country’s AI infrastructure efforts, Bloomberg reports. Humain will get “several hundred thousand” of Nvidia’s most advanced processors over the next five years, starting with 18,000 of its cutting-edge GB300 Grace Blackwell products and its InfiniBand networking technology.

Huang saw his personal net worth surge to approximately $120 billion over the day, up from $80 billion a year ago, driven by soaring demand for the company’s AI chips that has fueled a sharp rise in its stock, Reuters reports.

AMD, Nvidia’s nearest rival in AI accelerators, will provide chips and software for data centers “stretching from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the United States” in a $10 billion project, Humain and AMD said.

Also, Saudi VC firm STV launched a $100 million AI fund backed by Google to invest in MENA startups, as part of a broader set of tech-focused U.S.-Saudi agreements announced during President Trump’s visit to Riyadh, Bloomberg reports. And Saudi Arabia agreed to authorize the use of Musk’s Starlink service for aviation and maritime shipping, the SpaceX founder announced.

MBS tells Trump in Riyadh he’ll try to invest $1 trillion in U.S.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told President Donald Trump and a solid portion of the world’s business elite on Tuesday that he hopes to fulfill his pledge to invest $600 billion in the U.S. and might even hit the $1 trillion mark sought by the White House.

In turn, Trump praised MBS as a visionary leader and hailed the U.S.-Saudi alliance as a profitable enterprise for both sides as the two spoke at a business conference in Riyadh and the president kicked off a four-day swing through the Gulf that will also take him to Qatar and the UAE.

“Today we hope for investment opportunities worth $600 billion, including deals worth $300 billion that were signed during this forum,” the Saudi leader said in a speech at the capital city’s King Abdulaziz International Conference Center. “We will work in the coming months on the second phase to complete deals and raise it to $1 trillion,” he said.

A good chunk of that commitment will come from an agreement to sell Saudi Arabia an arms package worth nearly $142 billion, which the White House called “the largest defense cooperation agreement” that the U.S. has ever signed.

Trump beamed as he followed MBS onstage to address an audience that included Tesla founder Elon Musk, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, Aramco CEO Amin Nasser, Saudi Public Investment Fund Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan and hundreds of other corporate leaders, investors and government officials from the two countries.

The President thanked MBS for setting the $1 trillion goal and talked for close to an hour about his affection for the kingdom, ticking off several of the deals signed by the two countries during the day.

“So, number one, I like visiting with you, and we’ve known each other very well, and I really believe we like each other a lot and, number two, for the United States, we’ve brought tremendous investment in and tremendous jobs, and we continue to service your great country very well,” Trump said.

The U.S. leader also said he maintains a “fervent hope” that Saudi Arabia will join the Abraham Accords to normalize relations with Israel, as the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco did in 2020, though he added, “you’ll do it in your own time.”

Earlier in the day, the Saudi Crown Prince took the unusual step of greeting Trump in person when the president landed on a flight from Washington at King Khalid International Airport outside Riyadh.

Unlike former President Joe Biden’s tense visit and cautious fist bump in 2022, MBS stood on the tarmac and patiently watched Trump descend from Air Force One onto a royal purple carpet. The two shook hands and Trump gave the prince a warm shoulder tap before they strode together to the waiting motorcade.

The greeting underlined the intentions on both sides to make Trump’s first regional trip in his second term a public success and broadcast the closeness of the U.S.-Saudi alliance.

Inside the Al-Yamamah Palace where a lavish reception and lunch were held, both leaders were accompanied by top Cabinet ministers and a roster of business leaders, with Trump’s entourage including Musk and OpenAI’s Sam Altman.

Conversations at the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum – held at the same site beside the marble-lined Ritz-Carlton Hotel as the annual Future Investment Initiative conference – were focused on concrete dealmaking and illustrated the seriousness in both countries to make the most of the rare event, said Tally Zingher, Managing Director of the U.S.-headquartered boutique advisory firm Blue Laurel.

“Being here allows me to listen and observe firsthand how the Saudis are articulating their priorities and how those priorities have already manifested into concrete opportunities for U.S. companies,” Zingher told The Circuit.

Among the headliners addressing the conference were Khalid Bin Abdulaziz Al-Falih, Minister of Investment; Mohammed Al-Jadaan, Minister of Finance; Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, Minister of Energy; Bandar Alkhorayef, Minister of Industry and Minerals and Faisal Alibrahim, Minister of Economy & Planning.

The U.S. delegation was headed by Scott Bessent, Secretary of the Treasury; Howard Lutnick, U.S. Secretary of Commerce; and David Sacks, the White House Special Advisor on AI and Crypto.

From the Saudi business world, the conference featured Muhammad Al Jasser, Chairman, Islamic Development Bank; Nabeel Koshak, CEO of Saudi Venture Capital; Marc Winterhoff, Interim CEO of Lucid; John Pagano, Group CEO of Red Sea Global; Mohammad Abunayyan, Chairman of ACWA Power; Tony Douglas, CEO of Riyadh Air and Jerry Inzerillo, Group CEO of Diriyah Co.

U.S. financiers at the forum included Citigroup’s Jane Fraser, Franklin Templeton’s Jenny Johnson, Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman and Bridgewater’s Ray Dalio, LionTree’s Aryeh Bourkoff and BDT & MSD Partners’ Dina Powell McCormick.

From the U.S. tech industry, Palantir’s Alex Karp joined the forum as well as Alphabet/Google’s Ruth Porat, Amazon’s Andy Jassy, IBM’s Arvind Krishna and Qualcomm’s Cristiano Amon.

With planemakers and defense contractors set to reap billions in Saudi deals, the conference featured Boeing’s Kelly Ortberg, Lockheed Martin’s Michael Williamson, Honeywell’s Ken West and Halliburton’s Jeff Miller.

Among other speakers at the summit, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez is a perennial fixture at the FII conference and hosted a spinoff conference in his city last February, where Trump spoke. Also appearing was Gianni Infantino, President of world soccer’s governing FIFA organization, after Saudi Arabia was picked to host the 2034 World Cup.

The Weekly Circuit: Aramco disputes oil slump forecast + PIF pumps up Lucid

👋 Hello from the Middle East!

This week we’re looking at a new Abu Dhabi financial services company under the IHC umbrella, the extra $1.5 billion that EV carmaker Lucid is getting from the Saudi PIF, Oman’s plan to build artificial reefs through 3D concrete printing and Bahraini runner Winifred Yavi’s gold medal at the Paris Olympics. But first, Aramco disputes forecasts of lower oil prices.

Washington energy analysts are backing expectations of a slump in global demand for oil next year that is likely to bring lower crude prices. Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser disagrees.

In its monthly report released on Tuesday, the U.S. government’s Energy Information Administration said global crude consumption will be about 104.5 million barrels a day in 2025, a drop of 200,000 barrels a day from its earlier forecast. With China, the world’s largest crude importer, expected to cut back its oil usage, the agency reduced its projected demand growth rate for next year to 1.6%.

Aramco’s Nasser, on the other hand, says oil will rebound from the selloff this week that brought prices to their lowest level since January. Speaking in a conference call on Tuesday about the company’s lower-than expected second-quarter earnings, Nasser said energy traders have been too quick to respond to global concerns about a U.S. economic slowdown, Bloomberg reports. “The market to my view is overreacting and the fundamentals do not support the drop in prices that we are witnessing today,” Nasser said.

Brent crude dropped to almost $75 a barrel on Monday, alongside the rout in global stock markets. Despite Aramco’s profit falling in the second quarter due to OPEC+ limits on production, Nasser said demand for oil is expected to rise by 1.6 million to 2 million barrels a day this year.

Sliding profit didn’t stop Aramco from paying a $31 billion dividend in the second quarter. The state-owned petroleum producer reported that net income fell 3.4% to $29.1 billion in the three-month period ended June 30 compared with a year earlier.

Aramco, nevertheless, distributed the dividend, which is the lifeblood of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 plan to diversify the economy from dependence on oil and finance more than $1.5 trillion in megaprojects such as the Neom development on the kingdom’s Red Sea coast. Shares of Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, have declined 19% this year, underperforming rivals such as Exxon Mobil and Shell.

Welcome to The Weekly Circuit. Read on for the stories, deals and players at the top of the news across the MENA business landscape. Please send comments and story tips to [email protected].

FINANCE FOCUS

UAE’s Rorix to capitalize on free-trade pacts as IHC subsidiary

International Holding Co., the broad-based conglomerate controlled by UAE power broker Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, is expanding its financial services business by forming Rorix Holdings, The Circuit’s Jonathan Ferziger reports.

Money Spinner: The new company under the IHC umbrella will focus on finance, commodities trading and trade insurance, the parent company said in a statement on Monday.

Trade Route: Through Rorix, IHC said it expects to accelerate trade volumes, attract foreign investment, and broaden economic partnerships. The new firm will seek to capitalize on a flurry of free trade agreements the UAE has signed in the past three years.

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BATTERY RECHARGE

Saudi PIF pumps another $1.5 billion into Lucid Motors

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has pumped another $1.5 billion into electric vehicle start-up Lucid Motors ahead of the launch of its first SUV later this year, The Circuit reports.

Cash Injection: The PIF, which already has a 60% stake in California-based Lucid after investing about $8 billion over several years, will buy $750 million in convertible preferred stock and provide a $750 million loan facility through Ayar, an affiliate investment company.

Expedited Delivery: Nasdaq-traded Lucid reported Q2 earnings on Monday, recording a $790 million net loss, but beating analyst expectations with $200 million revenue after delivering 2,394 cars in the quarter.

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💲 Sovereign Circuit

Public Investment Fund: Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund has invested $750 million in Magic Leap, a 14-year-old augmented-reality company that’s still searching for a workable business model and says it needs even more cash, Bloomberg reports. Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal’s Kingdom Holding Co., which is 17% owned by the PIF, reported that it has more than doubled its net profit year-on-year in Q2 to 624.2 million riyals ($166.5 million). 

Mubadala: Emirates Global Aluminium, a Mubadala-backed manufacturer, said it used an LNG-fueled cargo vessel to ship bauxite to China, cutting greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 28% over conventional transport. MGX, the artificial intelligence mega-fund created in January through a partnership between Mubadala and G42, has reportedly joined a consortium in a bid for Australian data center AirTrunk in a deal worth more than $12.8 billion.

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority: Hargreaves Lansdown gave a consortium led by ADIA and CVC Advisers until Aug. 9 to make a firm offer of at least $6.9 billion for the British investment platform. L’Oreal is buying a 10% stake in Galderma Group, a Swiss maker of injectable skin fillers, from a consortium that includes ADIA, Sunshine SwissCo and Auba Investment.

Qatar Investment Authority: Nasser Al-Khelaifi, chairman of QIA-owned Qatar Sports Investments, the majority owner of the Paris-Saint Germain football club, has become one of French soccer’s most influential figures, Bloomberg reports.

↪↩ Closing Circuit

🏭 Chemical Reaction: Saudi Aramco agreed to pay about $700 million to purchase an additional 22.5% stake in refining and chemical firm Petro Rabigh from Japanese joint venture partner Sumitomo Chemical Co, becoming the company’s majority owner.

🚜 Caterpillar Distributor: Saudi Arabia’s Zahid Group is in talks to acquire South Africa-based Barloworld, the distributor in Africa for Caterpillar’s construction and mining equipment, which has an approximate corporate value of $886 million, Bloomberg reports.

💼 Deal Dropped: Dubai’s Sidara is calling off efforts to spend $2 billion on a buyout of the U.K.’s John Wood consulting firm, which advises on engineering projects in the energy field, citing geopolitical risks and market uncertainty. The shares plunged 40% after the announcement.

🏦 Banking Bid: Dubai-listed Emirates NBD has been shortlisted to submit a bid to buy a majority stake in Indian state-backed IDBI Bank, vying with Canada-based Fairfax Financial Holdings and Indian lender Kotak Mahindra Bank, Reuters reports.

👟 Keeping Track: Placer.ai, an Israeli startup platform for tracking location and foot traffic data, raised $75 million in a funding round limited to current investors, including Josh Buckley, WndrCo, Lachy Groom, MMC Technology Ventures, Fifth Wall Ventures, and Array Ventures.

🗣 Circuit Chatter

☁️ Billowing Cloud: Oracle has opened its second cloud region in Saudi Arabia, enabling the kingdom to get more value out of artificial intelligence, The National reports.

🛩️ Fraud Alert: The UAE’s Securities and Commodities Authority and Etihad Airways issued notices alerting the public to fake advertisements inviting people to invest in a fictitious IPO for the Abu Dhabi airline.

💵 India’s Wealthy: Nuvama Private, one of India’s largest wealth management firms, has opened an office in Dubai International Financial Centre, from which it intends to steer its Middle East business.

🐠 3D Reefs: Omantel, the state-owned telecom company, and Omani startup Innotech, signed an agreement to build artificial reefs through 3D concrete printing with the aim of increasing the depleted fish population.

🛫 Maintain Altitude: Jordan has asked all airlines landing at its airports to carry 45 minutes of reserve fuel, in what experts see as a precautionary measure in case of an attack by Iran against Israel, Reuters reports.

🌍 Power Circuit

U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad, the Emir of Qatar, and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in separate phone calls on Tuesday about how to stop growing regional tensions from turning into a war.

Sultan Haitham of Oman was greeted by U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer for a meeting at his 10 Downing Street office in London, where they discussed trade between their two countries and rising Middle East tensions.

UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed talked by phone with Kenyan President William Ruto about economic cooperation in sectors including renewable energy, technology and infrastructure.

Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohamed, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister of the UAE, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Media Inc., toured DP World’s London Gateway Logistics Park, where he was met by DP World Chairman and CEO Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem.

Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Chairman of the emirate’s Executive Council, placed medals on the winners of the World Junior Mixed Martial Arts Championship at the Mubadala Arena in the UAE capital.

➿ On the Circuit

Nabil Ouajjane, founder of London-based Aster Capital Management, is moving to Dubai and opening an office amid a wave of investment firms building up their presence in the Gulf.

Sheikh Theyab bin Tahnoon, who was appointed as the new chairman of Dubai-listed contractor Drake & Scull on Friday, said the company will play a “vital” role in the UAE construction sector.

Winifred Yavi won Bahrain’s first medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, securing gold in the women’s 3000m steeplechase and setting a new Olympic record with a time of 8:52.76 minutes. 

Jared Kushner, founder of Gulf-backed private equity fund Affinity Partners, plans to spend $1 billion to turn bombed-out buildings in Albania and Serbia into luxury hotels and homes, Bloomberg reports.

Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al-Deghaither, the CEO of Zain who is credited with turning around the mobile telecommunications operator by eliminating more than $500 million in accumulated losses and tripling the company’s market capitalization, has died.

🎶 Culture Circuit

🎤 They’re Back: Seminal 90s pop group the Backstreet Boys will return to Abu Dhabi for a performance at Etihad Arena on Oct. 23. The vocalists, known for hits including “Everybody” and “I Want It That Way,” will be back little more than a year after their first gig in the UAE capital as part of their DNA World Tour last May, which sold out in six hours, The National reports.

⚾ Batter Up: Baseball United, the first professional baseball league focused on the Middle East and South Asia, announced plans to start its opening season Oct. 23 in the UAE, with a championship tournament scheduled for next February.

📷 Photo of the Week

🗓️ Ahead on The Circuit

Aug. 12-15, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Saudi Food Expo. One of the kingdom’s largest trade shows for the food & beverage industry. Riyadh Front Exhibitions. 

Aug. 24-25, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. New Global Sports Conference. Uniting top players to showcase how esports can create new global opportunities. Four Seasons Hotel Riyadh.

Aug. 31-Sept. 8, Abu Dhabi, UAE. Abu Dhabi International Hunting and Equestrian Exhibition (ADIHEX). The premier event for hunting, falconry and equestrian enthusiasts in the Middle East. ADNEC.

Sept. 1-7, Dubai, UAE. Dubai Fashion Week. Promoting Dubai’s creativity and fashion businesses to a worldwide audience. Dubai Design District.

Sept. 10-11, Dubai, UAE: Global Vertical Farming Show 2024. Annual event brings together investors, growers, and executives in the vertical farming industry from around the world. Le Méridien Dubai Hotel & Conference Centre.

Sept. 24-25, Dubai, UAE: ACT Middle East Treasurers Summit. Corporate treasurers and financial professionals from across the region gather for policy discussions on issues ranging from cash management to sustainability. Grand Hyatt Dubai.

Sep. 30-Oct. 2, Dubai, UAE: Future Hospitality Summit. The global conference for leaders in the hospitality industry expands this year at a new location with dedicated space for ESG planning, country pavilions and a larger exhibition area. Madinat Jumeirah.  

The Weekly Circuit: EVs ply Saudi summit + Delta embraces Riyadh Air

👋 Hello from the Middle East! 

This week we’re looking at Delta’s early embrace of Riyadh Air, prospects for a recovery by MENA venture capital firms, the UAE’s use of satellites and artificial intelligence to safeguard the seas and Saudi royal palaces transformed into super-luxury hotels. But first, we plug into the EV makers roaming Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia’s drive to establish an electric vehicle industry in the kingdom – clinching deals over the past year with the U.S., China and Europe – is on display this week during the Global EV and Mobility Technology Forum in Riyadh.

The two-day conference at the Riyadh International Convention and Exhibition Center, brings together senior government officials, financiers and car company executives – led by Faisal Sultan, Managing Director and Vice President of Lucid, the California EV-maker backed by the Saudi Public Investment Fund.

Lucid shares jumped as much as 10% in Nasdaq trading this week after the company reported that second-quarter car deliveries grew 70% from the same period in 2023. The PIF, which has a 60% stake in Lucid, opened a factory in the kingdom last year and has poured billions into the U.S. company as it looks to become a significant regional manufacturer.

Meanwhile, Riyadh Air has yet to embark on its maiden voyage — that’s scheduled to depart sometime in 2025 — but it’s already changing the air space over Saudi Arabia. The startup carrier, marketed to the business class crowd flocking to the Gulf these days in search of deals, inked its own agreement on Tuesday with Delta Air Lines. 

The partnership deal will introduce the only non-stop service on an American airline between the U.S. and King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, and marks Delta’s first foray into the Middle East market. 

Signed at Delta’s headquarters in Atlanta, Ga., the partnership makes Riyadh Air Delta’s exclusive partner in Riyadh while offering hundreds of destinations in the U.S. to Riyadh Air’s customers. The partnership, still subject to regulatory approvals, will also allow coordination on flight times and routes while enabling passengers to book tickets on both carriers’ flights.

Delta, the world’s largest publicly traded airline by revenue, is getting in at a good time: airlines in the Middle East recorded a 33% increase in air passenger traffic in 2023 compared to 2022, according to the International Air Transport Association. 

Riyadh Air, which is owned by the Public Investment Fund, aims to fly to more than 100 destinations worldwide by 2030. Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways said it will run daily nonstop flights between Boston and the UAE capital starting in October in response to the route’s strong performance flying four times weekly.

Welcome to The Weekly Circuit. Read on for the stories, deals and players at the top of the news across the MENA business landscape. Please send comments and story tips to [email protected].

BOTTOMING OUT

VC funding drop spawns acquisition prospects for Mideast startups

The steep decline in venture capital investment across the Middle East and North Africa has turned many tech startups into ripe candidates for acquisition, Nour El-Shaeri reports for The Circuit.

Rebound in Sight: Watching the industry slide for the 16th month in a row, Philip Bahoshy, CEO of Dubai-based fund-tracking platform MAGNiTT says there are some signs a bottom may be in sight.

Buying Time: “This is a great opportunity for potential M&A activity where international investors may encourage their portfolio companies to acquire companies in the region for expansion, or startups and corporates acquiring for market share,” Bahoshy said. “Valuations are beginning to come down, making it a lot more appealing for investors, especially those that have dry capital.”

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Eyes in The Sky

UAE to use satellites and AI to avert maritime troubles

The UAE is aiming to use its advances in space to prevent chaos at sea, The Circuit’s Jonathan Ferziger reports.

AI AI Captain: Launching its new Satgate project, in collaboration with the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre in Dubai, the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure said it will employ satellites and artificial intelligence to locate ships, monitor sea conditions and forecast the weather, according to a statement issued on Monday.

Securing the Sea: At a time when oil tankers and cargo vessels are being attacked in both the Red Sea and the Gulf, the satellite project has the potential to make commercial sea traffic in the region more secure and financially competitive.

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🤖 AI Interest: DAMAC Group, one of the UAE’s largest conglomerates with activities ranging from real estate to technology, announced it will invest $50 million in San Francisco-based startup Anthropic to develop its interests in artificial intelligence.

🇪🇬 Egyptian Horizon: Saudi Arabia-based Adeer International is planning to invest $400 million in the Egyptian real estate market within five years, CEO Bassel El-Serafy told Asharq Business.

💰 Expansion Plans: Dubai-based Gulf Islamic Investments has raised $100 million from investors including Saudi ​​Arabia’s Al Nahdi Family Office to expand its private equity business across the Middle East and India.

💸 Crypto Property: Mantra Chain, a Hong Kong-based blockchain developer, will tokenize $500 million worth of assets of Dubai real estate developer MAG Group.

🇲🇦 Orbital Surveillance: Israel Aerospace Industries signed a $1 billion deal to furnish Morocco with an intelligence satellite, Calcalist reports, citing La Tribune in France.

Saudi Arabia invests another $1 billion in EV start-up Lucid

Less than a month after Lucid’s CEO said the electric car start-up must not rely on the “bottomless wealth” of Saudi Arabia, its biggest backer, the company is raising capital from an affiliate of the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund (PIF).

Shares in Lucid jumped 8% on the news that Ayar Third Investment Co. will buy $1 billion worth of stock amid lower-than-expected demand for luxury EVs. 

The PIF, which has a 60% stake in Lucid, opened a factory in the kingdom last year and has poured billions into the California company as it looks to become a significant regional manufacturer.

Saudi Arabia expects 30% of car sales to be EVs by 2030, but faces consumer hurdles since the price of gas in the kingdom is subsidized and less than 1% of current passenger car sales are electric. 

When the new Lucid plant opened last September, outside the western port city of Jeddah, the initial plan called for assembling 5,000 EVs a year with an eventual target of an annual 155,000 vehicles exported from the kingdom.

Such output would be a major leap for Lucid, which expects to make 9,000 cars in 2024. By comparison, Elon Musk’s Tesla sent almost 1.4 million cars off its assembly lines in the U.S., Germany and China in 2022.