A data breach that exposed identity documents of high-level attendees at Abu Dhabi Finance Week 2025 two months ago has been secured, according to organizers.

Scans of more than 700 documents, including passports and state ID cards, were discovered to be accessible online via an unprotected cloud storage server, uncovered by a freelance security expert, the Financial Times reports.

Those exposed included former British prime minister Lord David Cameron, billionaire hedge fund manager Alan Howard, investor Anthony Scaramucci, a former White House communications director.

Organizers blamed a vulnerability at a third-party vendor. “The environment was secured immediately upon identification, and our initial review indicates that access activity was limited to the researcher that identified the issue,” a representative of ADFW told The National.

After plowing billions of dollars into Anthropic, OpenAI and xAI, Abu Dhabi’s MGX fund is rapidly emerging as one of the world’s most active investors in artificial intelligence.

The emirate-owned vehicle, barely two years old, is now prepared to deploy as much as $10 billion a year to reach dominant positions in the global AI industry even while the market is full of uncertainty, MGX Chief Investment Officer Ali Osman tells Bloomberg. “We are in the business of the not-obvious,” he said.

The fund is targeting more than $100 billion in assets under management, positioning MGX as a central pillar of the UAE’s push to convert its oil wealth into long-term technological influence. 

MGX moved into OpenAI in 2024, participating in a major funding round and later joining with the ChatGPT maker on its multibillion-dollar Stargate AI infrastructure venture.

Last month, MGX joined a massive fundraising for Elon Musk’s xAI, alongside investors including Nvidia and Cisco. Last week, the fund emerged as a co-lead investor in Anthropic’s latest multibillion-dollar financing round, completing a rare trifecta by backing the three rivals.

Egyptian stocks are outperforming most emerging markets as investors warm to signs of economic stabilization following months of reform and fresh capital from the Gulf.

The turnaround has been fueled in part by $35 billion in Abu Dhabi sovereign fund investment at Ras El Hekma that helped ease Egypt’s foreign-currency crunch and restore market confidence, Bloomberg reports. 

IMF support, including an expanded multibillion-dollar program tied to currency flexibility and fiscal reforms, has bolstered the recovery and drawn renewed foreign interest in Egyptian assets. 

Saudi Arabia has reinforced Egypt’s recovery through a $10 billion central bank deposit and plans by the Public Investment Fund to channel about $5 billion into Egyptian companies including eFinance and Misr Fertilizers.

Egypt’s benchmark EGX30 index is up 27% in dollar terms this year, building on a previous 50% gain in 2025. The government devalued the currency by 40% two years ago and adopted a free-floating exchange rate system, a move that helped secure the IMF bailout

“Current valuations are still cheap,” Allen Sandeep, director of equities at ACT Financial in Cairo, told the news agency. “The EGX is right now on a positive re-rating path.”

An Iraqi-Emirati consortium is planning a $700 million high-speed cable linking the UAE to Turkey through Iraq, aiming to ease pressure on crowded east-west data routes.

The project, called WorldLink, would run underwater from Fujairah in the UAE to Iraq’s Faw Peninsula, then continue overland to the Turkish border.

Backers say the network will be built in stages over about five years to serve big cloud and AI companies while offering a faster alternative to routes that pass through the Suez Canal, Reuters reports.

The plan underscores intensifying Gulf competition to become a regional hub for digital connectivity and data-center investment.

The UAE has successfully launched its first homegrown rocket to conduct space research.

The tiny projectile, weighing 13 kilograms (29 pounds), blasted off on Friday from a remote island off Abu Dhabi and soared to an altitude of 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) before a parachute opened and the vessel landed in the UAE desert, The National reports.

The flight itself was a test of the UAE’s ability to launch a reusable research rocket, which was equipped with an engine, injectors, tanks, control systems and avionics that were designed and built by the government’s Technology Innovation Institute.

“This launch is a defining moment for science and engineering in the UAE,” said Najwa Aaraj, the institute’s CEO.

Abu Dhabi’s International Holding Co., the UAE’s largest publicly traded company, said it plans to launch Judan Financial Holding, a new international financial services firm with $237 billion in assets under management.

The new conglomerate will consolidate IHC’s largest finance businesses, including Alpha Dhabi, 2PointZero Group and Sirius International, providing services in banking, insurance, asset management and fintech. 

Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, the UAE National Security Adviser, will serve as Judan’s Chairman, as he does at IHC. Investment Minister Mohamed Alsuwaidi will be CEO, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, according to a government statement.

Creating Judan as an umbrella holding company comes amid a broader restructuring in Abu Dhabi’s investment holdings and reflects IHC’s push to build up its financial services globally. The firm will control more than 20 operating companies and serve over 11 million clients in 13 countries.

Last month, Abu Dhabi’s newest sovereign wealth fund, L’Imad Holding, took control of ADQ, creating an investment firm chaired by Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed. ADQ, which managed $263 billion before the merger, had been chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon and headed by Alsuwaidi, who now leads asset management firm Lunate.

Abu Dhabi tech investor MGX co-led a $30 billion funding round in U.S. firm Anthropic, the maker of the Claude AI chatbot.

The deal, led by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC and Coatue Management, roughly doubled Anthropic’s valuation to $380 billion.

Anthropic, founded in 2021, has rapidly grown its revenue run rate to $14 billion, focusing on safer AI applications for sectors like finance, healthcare, and software.

MGX, which was set up less than two years ago with support from Mubadala and tech conglomerate G42, has been expanding its U.S. tech footprint, including stakes in OpenAI and Elon Musk’s xAI, and participation in a $40 billion acquisition of Aligned Data Centres.

Saudi Arabia performed a sweeping reshuffle on Thursday evening, replacing more than 40 senior and regional government positions, as the kingdom continues to overhaul its financial priorities in light of falling oil revenues.

Leading the changes was the removal of Investment Minister Khalid Al Falih, one of the most recognizable faces of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 plan and a former Energy Minister and Chairman of Saudi Aramco. 

Al Falih, who has held the role since 2020 and was a regular on the global conference circuit, has been replaced by Fahad Al Saif, a senior executive at the Public Investment Fund. Al Falih will remain in the cabinet and serve as a Minister of State.

Dozens more appointments were made in the kingdom’s biggest reshuffle since 2022, including Dr. Khalid Al Yousef, the president of the Board of Grievances, being promoted to the role of Attorney General. He replaced Sheikh Saud Al Muajab, who joined the royal court as an advisor with the rank of minister. 

Royal watchers were quick to point to the appointment of Prince Rakan bin Salman, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s youngest full brother, as the Governor of Diriyah, an area considered the crown jewel of the kingdom and the birthplace of the Saudi state. 

Other regional changes included Prince Saud bin Nahar moving from Taif Governor to Medina Deputy Governor, with Prince Fawwaz bin Sultan taking over Taif, and Prince Mohammed bin Abdullah being named Northern Borders Deputy Governor.