Red Sea Global offers its luxury resorts to test AI applications

A new Saudi-backed partnership is putting artificial intelligence to work at the kingdom’s new luxury seaside resorts.

Red Sea Global and Bunat Ventures are launching an AI venture fund targeting startups, with plans to back about 25 budding firms a year, Arab News reports.

Beyond funding, the program will give founders access to RSG’s resorts, airport operations and other assets as testing grounds.

The partners say the effort is designed to strengthen Saudi Arabia’s innovation ecosystem, attract talent and support the kingdom’s broader push into advanced technologies.

Lunate buys $2 billion minority stake in London’s Brevan Howard

Abu Dhabi is pouring $2 billion into hedge fund powerhouse Brevan Howard to anchor a new investment hub in the Gulf.

The deal was set in motion by Abu Dhabi-owned asset manager Lunate’s agreement to acquire a minority stake in Brevan Howard and commit the funds to launch a new investor platform.

Lunate, which has more than $100 billion under management and is backed by Abu Dhabi’s ADQ and Chimera Capital – investment arms tied to Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed – said the partnership is designed to strengthen the city’s role as a global hub for alternative investments.

The venture will be based in the Abu Dhabi Global Market, the emirate’s international financial center, and will oversee funds tailored to global investors. 

London-based Brevan Howard, which manages more than $35 billion worldwide and is best known for its macro trading and digital asset strategies, will contribute its investment expertise and client base to the new platform.

Brevan Howard’s founder, Alan Howard, said in a statement that the partnership “reflects our deep and ongoing commitment to the region.”

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.

Riyadh Air inks deal with Delta for U.S. connection

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.

A number of factors are coming together to boost air travel in the region, in addition to improved airport infrastructure in a part of the world that serves as a transit hub connecting East and West.

Government tourism campaigns are also encouraging travel. Saudi Arabia for example, is pouring $800 billion into developing its tourism sector. 

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.

Saudi Arabia eyes Chile in quest for lithium to supply EV industry

Saudi Arabia’s quest for lithium to power its nascent electric vehicle industry is leading to stronger links with South America, as evidenced by the Future Investment Initiative’s conference in Brazil earlier this month.

Saudi-owned Almar Water Solutions is now looking to form a partnership with Chile’s state mining giant Codelco in its planned Maricunga lithium mining project, Reuters reports.

Almar’s CEO Carlos Cosin told the news agency that the Spain-based firm, which focuses on water solutions for renewable energy production, wants to leverage its technology in the extraction of battery-metal lithium, a water-intensive process.

As part of a Saudi conglomerate, Cousin said Almar would be able to bring in another strong financial partner if included in a consortium to develop the Maricunga salt flat.

The company’s technology can be used in metal separation in the microelectronics industry, direct lithium extraction and battery recycling, he said.