XRG Executive Chairman Sultan Al Jaber takes on role as CEO
Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, meanwhile, the UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and ADIPEC’s official host, has been appointed the Chief Executive Officer of XRG, the international investment arm of national energy company ADNOC.
Al Jaber was already XRG’s Executive Chairman before formally taking the CEO title, following the retirement of Khaled Salmeen, XRG’s former Chief Operating Officer, Bloomberg reports.
Al Jaber is also Group CEO of ADNOC, Chairman of renewable energy firm Masdar and he served as President of the U.N.’s COP28 climate conference that was hosted by the UAE two years ago.
ADNOC’s Al Jaber pledges sixfold increase in new U.S. investments
Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, the UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Chief Executive of the state-owned ADNOC oil company, pledged to boost investments in the U.S. by sixfold during a conference in Washington.
Calling for a global overhaul of national power grids to accommodate the massive demands of artificial intelligence, Al Jaber told the Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum on Tuesday that the industry must upgrade its technology while utilizing the broadest menu of resources, including oil, gas, nuclear and renewables.
“You can’t run tomorrow’s technology on yesterday’s grid,” Al Jaber said. “Many of our grids were built for a completely different century.”
XRG, ADNOC’s new international investment arm, plans to inject some $440 billion into the U.S. energy industry over the next decade, Al Jaber said.
The fund is an investor in Houston, Texas-based NextDecade’s Rio Grande LNG export facility while Abu Dhabi renewable energy company Masdar, partly owned by ADNOC, has developed 5.5GW of production and storage capacity “from coast to coast,”, Al Jaber said.
Touching on the war between Israel and Iran, Al Jaber called on all parties to show restraint. “The United Arab Emirates stands for dialogue, for de-escalation and diplomacy,” he said.
“We reaffirm our belief in peace over provocation, calm over confrontation and progress through partnership, and only partnership,” Al Jaber said.
UAE promotes manufacturing with $11B financing program
The UAE and its largest banks are pouring nearly $11 billion into a financing plan aimed at spawning new manufacturing companies and building the country’s industrial base.
Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, said at the opening session of the “Make it in the Emirates” conference in Abu Dhabi on Monday that the government will provide backing for a cross-section of target industries, from food and construction to renewable energy and artificial intelligence.
“Investing in manufacturing is an investment in an advanced economy,” Al Jaber said in a speech at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre. “Every investment in the industrial sector has a multiplier effect, stimulating growth and related sectors.”
Among the lenders lined up to finance the program are Emirates Development Bank, First Abu Dhabi Bank, Mashreq, Emirates NBD, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, and Wio Bank.
In his address, Al Jaber noted last week’s visit by U.S. President Donald Trump to Abu Dhabi, where he was shown a model of a new campus being built in the emirate that is planned to be the largest hub for development of AI technology outside the U.S.
“We do not see artificial intelligence as just a tool or a new technology, but as a complete economic sector expected to generate over US$1.5 trillion globally by 2040,” Al Jaber said.
Vance hosts ADNOC’s Al Jaber for energy, tech talks at White House
U.S. Vice President JD Vance welcomed Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, the UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Chief Executive of ADNOC, to the White House on Monday as the two countries sought to add heft to their growing economic ties.
Al Jaber and UAE Ambassador to the U.S. Yousef Al Otaiba were part of a top-ranking Emirati delegation led by National Security Adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed that fanned out in the presidential mansion for a series of meetings with senior Trump administration officials.
The meeting with Vance was arranged “to discuss deepening UAE-U.S. collaboration on supporting energy investment and abundance, technological leadership, and unleashing unprecedented economic growth,” the UAE Embassy said in a post on X.
On the agenda this week for Sheikh Tahnoon, Chairman of Abu Dhabi-owned International Holding Co. and sovereign wealth funds ADIA and ADQ, are meetings with Tesla’s Elon Musk, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and Oracle’s Larry Ellison, Semafor reports.
Also scheduled to meet Sheikh Tahnoon are Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, BlackRock’s Larry Fink, and Palantir’s Alex Karp, the news outlet said.
