G42 invests with OpenAI, Nvidia to build massive data center

G42, the UAE’s flagship artificial intelligence company, took a big step in its bid to establish regional leadership in the booming field.

The Abu Dhabi-backed tech company, whose Chairman is National Security Advisor Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, announced a partnership with OpenAI on Thursday to build an AI data center with a 1-gigawatt capacity that would make it one of the most powerful facilities in the world.

Among other investors in the Abu Dhabi data center called Stargate UAE – OpenAI’s first major project outside the U.S. – are Oracle, SoftBank, Nvidia, and Cisco.

G42 and OpenAI didn’t disclose a cost for the Abu Dhabi project, although similar projects planned in the U.S. run well over $10 billion, The Wall Street Journal reports. It said the data-center project is the fruit of months of negotiations between the UAE and the Trump administration that culminated in a deal last week to allow the U.A.E. to import up to 500,000 advanced AI chips a year.

Abu Dhabi’s Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, meanwhile, is planning next week’s graduation ceremony, where 104 students from 24 countries will get their degrees, including the six-year-old school’s first Emirati PhD graduate.

MBZUAI’s President Eric Xing told Bloomberg in an interview published today that he hopes to make his school the Stanford of the Gulf, pointing to the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship it cultivates, and its global influence.

Trump heads home after sewing up $200 billion in UAE deals

President Donald Trump wrapped up his four-day tour of the Gulf with a pomp-filled visit to the UAE, locking in some $200 billion in contracts that starts to fulfill the UAE’s pledge to spend $1.4 trillion in the U.S. over the next decade. He took off for Washington in the early afternoon.

With attention focused on the U.S. leader’s commitment to ease restrictions on selling advanced AI semiconductor chips to the UAE and Saudi Arabia, the two countries signed an agreement to build an AI development campus in Abu Dhabi that would be the world’s largest outside the U.S.

Though specifics on the AI tech purchases were not disclosed, Trump and Sheikh Mohamed met together with Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, which is the largest maker of the most advanced chips.

“We’re making great progress for the $1.4 trillion that the UAE has announced that it intends to spend in the United States over the next couple of years,” Trump told the UAE-U.S. Business Forum in an address early today. “This will generate billions and billions of dollars in business and accelerate the UAE plans to become a really major player in artificial intelligence.”

Trump also met with Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, the UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and CEO of ADNOC, at the business summit.

Among the deals were a $14.5 billion commitment from Etihad Airways for the purchase of 28 Boeing aircraft and a $60 billion oil and gas deal with ADNOC involving ExxonMobil, Occidental Petroleum, and EOG Resources. UAE officials said today the country will increase the value of its energy investments in the U.S. to $440 billion over the next 10 years.

Before returning to Washington, Trump visited the Abrahamic Family House on Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island, the monumental prayer compound built by the UAE that contains a mosque, a church and a synagogue.

Gliding into President Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed’s Qasr Al Watan palace grounds on Thursday night for a state dinner, Trump’s motorcade was flanked by mounted camels to the right and Arabian stallions to the left, The Circuit’s Omnia Al Desoukie reports from Abu Dhabi.

The Emirati and American leaders then strode together through the palace’s grand marble halls, where Emirati children waved flags while the national anthems of both countries were played. President Trump was presented by Sheikh Mohammed with the Order of Zayed, the country’s highest civilian award, which was also given to former U.S. President George W. Bush in 2008.

Among the guests at the state dinner were Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed; UAE Vice President; Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi; Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, UAE National Security Adviser; Sheikh Abdallah bin Zayed, the UAE Foreign Minister; and Yousef Al Otaiba, the UAE Ambassador to the U.S.

Khaldoon Al Mubarak, Managing Director and Group CEO of the Mubadala sovereign wealth fund, and Peng Xiao, CEO of AI tech company G42 were also present.

Senior U.S. officials at the state dinner included U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Martina Strong, U.S. Ambassador to the UAE.

UAE welcomes Trump amid anticipation of AI chip deals with U.S.

In the final leg of his tour through the Gulf’s royal palaces, U.S. President Donald Trump landed in Abu Dhabi on Thursday as G42 and other UAE tech firms awaited a green light for billions of dollars in advanced chip deals.

UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed greeted the U.S. leader at Abu Dhabi’s exclusive Presidential Terminal after a brief flight on Air Force One from neighboring Qatar. Also on hand to welcome Trump were the President’s brothers, Vice President and National Security Adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, who is Chairman of G42, and Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed.

Earlier in the day, Qatar hosted a business conference with Trump in the capital city of Doha and the president talked talked to U.S. soldiers at the Al Udeid U.S. Air Base, which has been an anchor for America’s security alliance in the Gulf.

The U.S. leader woke up in Doha after Emir Sheikh Tamim hosted a lavish state dinner at Lusail Palace on Wednesday night. On Trump’s arrival in Qatar, his motorcade passed sword dancers, parading camels and a royal honor guard mounted on Arabian stallions.

Today’s visit to the UAE is the last stop in his regional tour, which started on Tuesday when he landed in Riyadh and wraps up with Friday’s return to Washington.

Trump and close adviser Elon Musk spent two days in Saudi Arabia, hosted by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and holding chats with corporate leaders from such powerhouses as Aramco, the Public Investment Fund, Nvidia, OpenAI, BlackRock and Citigroup.

In Abu Dhabi, where main roads are decked out with neon signs welcoming Trump, the president was expected to announce a preliminary agreement to let the UAE import 500,000 of Nvidia’s most advanced AI chips per year, starting in 2025, boosting the Emirates’ construction of data centers required for the highest level of AI development, Reuters reports.

Twenty percent of the chips will be allocated to UAE tech firm G42, and the remainder will be allocated to U.S. companies like Microsoft and Oracle that are building data centers in the UAE. The deal could potentially extend through 2027 or even 2030, according to the news agency.

The White House said Trump secured deals totaling more than $243 billion with Qatar after leaders from the Gulf peninsula state pledged some $1.2 trillion in American investment. The UAE has committed to investing $1.4 trillion in the U.S. over the next 10 years, while Saudi Arabia said it hopes to reach $1 trillion during Trump’s four-year term.

Among the largest deals was Qatar’s $96 billion plan to acquire as many as 210 Boeing 787 Dreamliner and 777X aircraft. The U.S. and Qatari governments also signed off on a $1 billion agreement for Raytheon to provide counter-drone capabilities to Qatar. General Atomics also secured a nearly $2 billion agreement for Qatar to acquire MQ-9B drones.

Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman, meanwhile, defended his country’s offer to Trump of a luxury jet to replace the 40-year-old Air Force One, telling CNN it was not an influence-buying effort.

“It is government to government. The transaction has nothing to do with personnel, whether it’s on the U.S. side or on the Qatari side,” he said, adding that Qatar is ready to withdraw the plan if it’s found to be illegal.

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.

Trump hints at lifting AI chip restrictions ahead of trip to Gulf

Indications that President Donald Trump will modify or even scrap U.S. sanctions on the sale of advanced AI semiconductor chips are building anticipation for his trip to the Gulf next week.

A statement from the Commerce Department in Washington on Wednesday criticized the Biden-era rules – originated to fence in China and extended to a circle of U.S. allies including the UAE and Saudi Arabia – as “overly complex, overly bureaucratic” and a barrier to “American innovation.”

Following up a few hours later in response to questions from reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said: “We might be doing that, and it’ll be announced soon.”

Dubbed the Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion, former President Joe Biden issued rules a week before he left office making it more difficult for foreign countries to buy the most advanced chips made by Nvidia that drew the greatest demand from providers of artificial intelligence services and AI developers.

The UAE, through its state-owned G42 firm and MGX fund, has placed AI at the center of its national ambitions to be a global tech leader.

Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, the UAE’s National Security Adviser and Chairman of a network of government companies including G42 and MGX, appealed to Trump during a White House visit in March to lift the chip restrictions. One incentive was the $1.4 trillion investment package Sheikh Tahnoon announced that would be spent in the U.S. over 10 years.

The Emirati royal also met with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and a constellation of other U.S. tech leaders with whom the UAE has forged billion-dollar partnerships to finance AI development and build massive AI data centers.

Musk’s xAI, Nvidia join with MGX in artificial intelligence fund

The UAE’s biggest tech firms are capitalizing on White House support to tighten partnerships with America’s leaders in the booming industry of artificial intelligence.

A consortium created last year by Abu Dhabi investment fund MGX, Microsoft and BlackRock to finance power-hungry AI data centers welcomed chipmaker Nvidia and Elon Musk’s xAI to the group on Wednesday.

Expansion of the top-level venture came amid the Washington visit by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, the UAE National Security Advisor and Chairman of MGX and a constellation of other tech companies, who dined at the White House this week with President Donald Trump.

Sheikh Tahnoon, who held a meeting with Musk through a video feed on Wednesday, has been accompanied through the trip by Khaldoon Al Mubarak, the MGX Vice Chairman and CEO of the Mubadala sovereign wealth fund. Also on the visit is Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, CEO of the ADNOC national oil company and the UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology. Peng Xiao, CEO of the Abu Dhabi-based AI company G42, joined the call with Musk.

Among the other meetings in his U.S. rounds, Sheikh Tahnoon said he “explored opportunities for collaboration and investment” with Oracle’s Larry Ellison.

ADQ, meanwhile, another Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon, agreed to invest a combined $5 billion in a partnership with U.S-based Energy Capital Partners to build power stations for data centers and AI projects – with the investment eventually reaching $25 billion.

The announcement came as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told the company’s GTC conference in San Jose, Calif., that the industry is preparing for a massive leap in building data centers and chip manufacturing plants with accompanying energy demand.

“Over the next several years, we’re going to be building giant AI factories,” he said. Not normal AI factories … ones you see from space,” Huang said.

DeepSeek AI challenge to Nvidia reverberates in Abu Dhabi, Dubai

The emergence of DeepSeek, the Chinese startup whose artificial intelligence capabilities rival those of Nvidia and triggered a 17% plummet in the U.S. chipmaker’s shares, is being felt in the Gulf.

G42, International Holding Co. and other Abu Dhabi companies that have billions of dollars in active deals with Nvidia stand to lose if DeepSeek can follow through with its plans to provide advanced AI functions at a fraction of the cost. Nvidia’s market value plunged $589 billion on Monday.

Damac Properties Chairman Hussain Sajwani, for example, pledged $20 billion to U.S. President Donald Trump two weeks ago to build AI data centers, which may not ever be built if DeepSeek’’s technology proves itself.

“The introduction of DeepSeek’s cost-effective solutions has disrupted… anticipations of expansive investments in AI, leading to a sharp market correction,” Roberto d’Ambrosio, CEO of Axiory Global, told The Circuit’s Omnia Al Desoukie in Dubai.

“From a risk management perspective, this development underscores the perils of over-reliance on anticipated technological trajectories,” d’Ambrosio said, noting the possible downside for G42 and other companies backed by IHC – which is led by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, the UAE National Security Advisor and Chairman of sovereign wealth funds ADQ and ADIA.

“The rapid advancement of AI capabilities, coupled with the emergence of more affordable alternatives, necessitates a reassessment of investment strategies,” he said.

UAE’s Falcon Mamba breaks new ground in artificial intelligence

At a time that Microsoft is investing $1.5 billion with the UAE’s G42 artificial intelligence firm and Nvidia is consulting on new computer chip development, the Gulf state is turning into a regional research hub for commercial applications of AI technology. 

Leading much of the UAE’s international collaboration is Dr. Hakim Hacid, Chief Researcher at the Technology Innovation Institute’s Artificial Intelligence and Digital Science Research Center. It was in his lab, part of the Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology Research Center, that scientists developed Falcon Mamba, a new platform for AI architecture that can process massive amounts of data and was launched in August.

In an interview with The Circuit, Dr. Hacid describes Falcon Mamba’s ability to handle enormous  files without overloading memory capacity. The unique design makes it faster and more reliable for tasks that involve heavy data, such as analyzing video content and large-scale scientific data, where existing models struggle. He also explains how the government-owned research center decides where to devote its resources.

What is the scope of the Technology Innovation Institute’s research activities?

We are targeting the different priority sectors of the UAE. So you have transportation, healthcare, education, defense and security. Anything that is related to or is matching and can be mapped to these priority sectors, we go with it, definitely.

How do you decide that this is an important technology that you want to invest in?

Of course we do some research in the background to understand the potential of the technology. We are in the R&D context so we also take risks from time to time. This is what happened, for example, with generative AI. We have a lot of researchers who are capable of understanding the future of such technology and the potential. So, it’s not something that I would say is deterministic, but it’s more about mixing the expertise, the technical expertise, and also the business understanding of the environment and the ecosystem that helps us to decide.

What is Falcon Mamba and why did you decide to work on it?

You see we have different architectures on the ground. So the main architecture that everybody is following is the transformer-based, so all the models are built on a transformer-based architecture. We believe that we did not yet have the full potential of these models. So we need to look into how we could actually somehow open up this potential, so we have the hypothesis that the quality and the performance of this model is related to the data. So we work a lot on the data, but then on the architecture side, most of the things have been done. So most of the model providers, they have more or less the same things, where we can change here and there, few things soon. We thought that it would be interesting also to look into different ways and explore different architectures completely. So this is what we have done with the Falcon Mamba which is not built on the transformer side. It’s actually transformer-free. There is no transformer inside so far, and it actually relies on what we call the state space models that will allow you to actually control or to learn the changes of states for your architecture, which gives you actually more sort of flexibility and better management of all the resources that you have.

What are the applications for Falcon Mamba?

When you have a large amount of data that you need to handle, for example, when it comes to video and audio, if you have a one-hour or two-hour audio or video, it’s much, much bigger than the text that you have. Mamba is good for managing memory. Wherever you go large, it doesn’t go exponentially large when it comes to memory. So the target is when you have time series, videos, for example, audio, and it’s like genomes, for example, will be also a good application. 

You launched in August and what has happened with Falcon Mamba? 

We have a lot of people who are using it because it was the first big model that was, let’s say, actually launched using this architecture. So a lot of people are using it. A lot of people are taking it and fine-tuning it for several sorts of applications. From our side, we have been working, actually, on a bigger model than the one that we had before, with a better architecture, because of the opportunity of building that allowed us to learn a lot of things when it comes to the Mamba architecture. So there is a model that will be coming, hopefully soon.

What are the ongoing trends within the AI sphere that you have witnessed and in which you’re putting in some resources?

Well, we have, of course, the reasoning part that’s very important. So we want to have models that can actually think, that can reason on the questions and the prompt they receive. So before giving you the answer, it’s not just a matter of probabilistic calculations on the next token. But we need, we want also to integrate a way of thinking and reasoning to constrain the generation itself. You also have the stream of the multi-modality that is following. We continue in that we have proposed the model that handles images, understands images. Now we are working on things related to video, for example, and we should get this kind of thing soon. There is also the model safety. We invest a lot on that. So now our models are much more safer, so they are able to understand when a prompt will lead to a risk for the user, for example. So we are able to let the model know that it shouldn’t answer the questions that may result in harming the user or any human being.

How do you advise clients and potential clients on what to use when it comes to AI? 

I think it’s a matter of trying and failing so we learn from these things. We don’t have a deterministic approach, again, to consume and use this AI. It’s a matter of getting the AI trying different ways of making it usable in your context. And then, of course, give the time and make sure that the people who control the data, for example, are part of this process, because the data is the key at the end of the day. And if these people are not, let’s say, confident, or they are not comfortable in having this kind of AI, it will be complicated to put it in this. 

The Daily Circuit: Lunate weighs HPS stake + Salesforces’s UAE outpost

Today in the Daily Circuit, we’re looking at Core42’s use of Nvidia AI chips, progress on Saudi Arabia’s $5 billion investment pledge to Pakistan, the opening of SalesForce’s regional office in Dubai and next week’s GITEX mega-conference, with a preview of the convening in The Circuit’s new “Plugged In” column. But first, Lunate’s dipping its toes into Wall Street.

Lunate, the upstart $105 billion asset manager fueled by Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth, is mulling an investment in the fast-growing private credit market.

The firm, launched in January by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed’s International Holding Co. may buy a minority stake in New York-based HPS Investment Partners, which itself is considering an IPO or sale, Bloomberg reports.

Lunate is evaluating an investment of $1 billion or more in HPS, according to the news agency, which says the company is also entertaining interest from BlackRock and private equity firm CVC Capital Partners

The origins of Lunate trace back to two of Abu Dhabi’s most active holding companies, IHC and sovereign wealth fund ADQ. It was in March 2023 that IHC announced plans to establish a multi-asset class investment manager, which later became Lunate, and bring on U.S. private equity firm General Atlantic as a strategic partner and investor.

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

CHIP SECURITY

Following earlier and now resolved U.S. concerns over China getting access to its artificial intelligence technology, the UAE’s Core42 AI company is showcasing its use of Nvidia’s high-security, American-made H100 Tensor Core GPUs. “There’s a domestic regulatory regime, and then there’s the U.S. regulatory environment in controlling advanced U.S. technologies and export controls more broadly,” Talal Al Kaissi, Core42’s chief government affairs and partnerships officer, tells The National. “To a great extent we have a first-mover advantage in being able to create an environment that delivers and inspires confidence to ensure that we are mitigating against the risks of diversion or access by unauthorized parties,” he said. The UAE has forged partnerships with Nvidia, Microsoft and OpenAI under the understanding that it would vigorously protect their products from foreign intrusion.

ISLAMABAD PLEDGE
In a bid to finalize $2 billion in proposed deals, Saudi Investment Minister Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al-Falih is midway through a three-day trip to Pakistan. His visit comes ahead of next week’s conference of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a Eurasian regional alliance founded by China and Russia. Pakistan has been trying to strengthen trade, energy and defense ties with Saudi Arabia as it seeks to emerge from an economic crisis that has emptied foreign exchange reserves and pummeled its currency. Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar was quoted by Saudi Arabia’s Arab News as telling a cabinet meeting that the two countries are on a path to forge ever closer strategic cooperation.”

💲 Sovereign Circuit

International Holding Co.: NMDC, an IHC subsidiary that performs dredging, reclamation and ground improvement services, signed a $1.4 billion contract with UAE-based Modon Co. for a marine construction project.

Qatar Investment Authority: Sainsbury’s largest shareholder QIA is selling $399 million worth of shares in the U.K. supermarket group, according to regulatory filings.

↪↩ Closing Circuit

International Holding Co.: NMDC, an IHC subsidiary that performs dredging, reclamation and ground improvement services, signed a $1.4 billion contract with UAE-based Modon Co. for a marine construction project.

Qatar Investment Authority: Sainsbury’s largest shareholder QIA is selling $399 million worth of shares in the U.K. supermarket group, according to regulatory filings.

🔌 Plugged In

Plugged In

Where to position yourself on the Middle East conference circuit

While getting started in the world of Middle East business is largely about making personal connections, the inevitable question is: How? The Circuit’s Brittany McDonough has answers.

What steps can investors, startup founders and entrepreneurs take to forge relationships and develop deals as they contemplate entering the MENA market? 

“Plugged In” debuts in the Daily Circuit today as a column that will regularly offer practical advice on approaching this dynamic and growing region – whether for the first time or through reigniting past conversations that were left by the wayside.

Click here for the full article.

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↪↩ Circuit Chatter

🖇️ Office Platform: Salesforce, the largest maker of customer management software, opened an office in Dubai as part of its strategy to expand globally and introduce new AI products.

💳 Cashless Commerce: Dubai launched an initiative to promote digital commerce, aiming to make 90% of all transactions in the emirate cashless by 2026.

🔋Ammonia Contracts: ADNOC Logistics and AW Shipping, a joint venture with Wanhua Chemical, awarded $250 million in contracts to China’s Jiangnan Shipyard for two additional Very Large Ammonia Carriers. The energy giant has also completed its acquisition of OCI’s 50% + 1 share stake in Fertiglobe.

🌍 Power Circuit

UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed made a phone call to Kais Saied, President of Tunisia, to congratulate on his re-election for a second presidential term.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Qatar’s Foreign Minister, met with the Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Doha on Thursday.

➿ On the Circuit

Noor Sweid, Founding and Managing Partner at Dubai-based Global Ventures, noted the growing number of IPOs and M&A activity in Saudi Arabia and across the GCC region, telling Bloomberg Television, “the landscape is maturing rapidly.”

Carlos Ghosn, the embattled former Chairman of Nissan, said he is not interested in running for President of Lebanon, despite calls that he join Beirut’s political fray.

Hammad Albalawi, head of the Saudi Arabia FIFA World Cup organizing committee, announced a partnership with Saudi Research and Media Group’s Manga Arabia to release a cartoon-style publication titled “Road to 2034” to capture the imagination of young fans.

Nagaraj Padmanabhan was appointed CEO of the Middle East and African markets at CirrusLabs, a U.S.-based software product and technology services provider with a branch in UAE since 2022.

🎶 Culture Circuit

💫 Dream Weddings: Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island is evolving into a popular wedding venue. Known for its elegant private beaches and home to the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the island will be prominent at the Abu Dhabi Wedding Show next week. Some of its notable wedding locations include the Park Hyatt, the Rixos Premium Saadiyat Island, Kai Beach and the Saadiyat Rotana R

🗓️ Ahead on The Circuit

Oct. 12, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Riyadh Season. The Saudi capital’s annual festival kicks off with a nighttime concert featuring R&B queen Ciara and hip-hop artist Busta Rhymes. Riyadh Season grounds.

Oct. 14-18, Dubai, UAE: GITEX Global. One of tech’s biggest events, the UAE conference brings companies from around the world to showcase their latest innovations. Dubai World Trade Center.

Oct. 15-17, Dubai, UAE: Aviation Future Week. Conference brings together UAE ministers, senior government officials and leaders from the aviation, aerospace, air freight and other related industries. Museum of the Future.

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.

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.