The UAE is teaming up with Microsoft, Nvidia and BlackRock to build data centers with the enormous heft to develop artificial intelligence technology and establish guardrails to protect trade secrets from leaking.

The financial partnership, which BlackRock is launching with its new infrastructure investment unit, Global Infrastructure Partners, would be one of the biggest investment vehicles ever raised on Wall Street, the Financial Times reports.

Microsoft and Mubadala-backed investment company MGX are general partners in the fund while AI chipmaker Nvidia will advise on factory design and integration, according to the FT.

Microsoft and UAE government-owned G42, meanwhile, said they will open two development centers in Abu Dhabi to work on “responsible” AI initiatives. The move comes amid U.S. concerns about deepening Gulf-China ties and potential tech transfers to Beijing.

Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are teaming up to create one of the world’s largest producers of aluminum.

Following a separate deal this week with U.S. industry leader Alcoa, Saudi Arabian Mining Co. – known as Maaden – said on Monday it will sell the share capital of two of its units to Aluminium Bahrain.

In exchange, the Bahraini company, known as Alba, would issue new shares for allotment to Maaden, according to a statement issued by the two companies. The firms, which signed non-binding term documents, also agreed to seek a cross-listing of Alba shares on the Saudi stock exchange, pending regulatory approval.

Maaden and Alba have become major players in the global aluminum industry in recent years, particularly in value-added products that have historically been dominated by a handful of suppliers, Bloomberg reports.

The threat of disruptions to shipments from Russia has caused particular anxiety among buyers in Europe, and Middle Eastern producers have provided an important alternative source of supply, the news agency said.

The UAE and Australia have wrapped up negotiations for a free trade agreement eliminating some 99% of import and export tariffs between the two countries.

Dr. Thani Al Zeyoudi, the UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade, announced the development in a post on X, saying the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, as the pact is called, will  “secure a new era of co-operation and opportunity.”

Dropping fees on non-oil trade will result in estimated savings of $135 million in the first year and $160 million a year once the agreement is fully implemented, Australian Minister of Trade and Tourism Don Farrell said.

Australia exports a range of products to the UAE that include aluminum, coal, steel, meat, nuts, honey and seafood. Besides oil, the UAE sells furniture, copper wire, glass containers and plastic to Australia.

Groq Inc., a California-based artificial intelligence startup, is teaming up with Aramco to build a data center in Saudi Arabia that it hopes will become a regional AI hub.

With funding from Aramco, the No. 1 oil company, Groq plans to operate the world’s largest AI inferencing center with an initial cluster of 19,000 language processing units that is expected to cost “in the order of nine figures,” CEO Jonathan Ross told Bloomberg in an interview. It may grow to as much as 200,000 processing units.

The partnership will be managed through Aramco Digital, a new unit intended to help Aramco use AI in its core energy business while also helping other firms use the technology.

Aramco is “planning to do massive capital deployments for this, and it is a way to help diversify the economy away from oil,” Ross told the news agency.

By building the data center in Saudi Arabia, Groq aims to capitalize on the country’s low energy costs, availability of land, and access to 4 billion people within a 100 millisecond ping – a measure of how quickly data can travel between processing location and users, Ross said.

The UAE’s mega-retailer and supermarket chain LuLu Group is preparing to launch an IPO that could be as much as five times larger than any previous IPO for the industry in the MENA region.

The offering, scheduled for late October or early November, will be a dual listing aiming to raise between $1.5 billion and $1.85 billion, Zawya reports.

The stock will be traded on both the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange and Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul.

Emirates NBD Capital, HSBC Holdings, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, and Citigroup have been hired to manage the offering, Zawya said.

The race is on for dominance over AI development in the Gulf.

At dueling conferences this week in Dubai and Riyadh, government ministers, investors and corporate executives are sketching out their visions for integrating artificial intelligence into virtually all aspects of daily life.

Addressing a packed ballroom at the Dubai AI & Web3 Festival on Wednesday, Omar Al Olama, the UAE’s Minister of State for AI, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications, pledged that companies with the most innovative technologies will have the government’s backing.

“Our job is to enable you, our job is to ensure you’re able to use Dubai and the UAE as a springboard to make global companies that will make global impact and change the future,” Al Olama said.

In the Saudi capital, where the vast King Abdulaziz International Conference Center played host to the annual global AI summit known as GAIN, the buzz in the corridors was about chips – specifically whether the U.S. government will allow Nvidia to export its advanced AI semiconductor chips to Saudi Arabia, Semafor reports.

Saudi leaders have been trying to allay the Biden administration’s concerns that the kingdom’s growing ties with China could lead to the leaking of technological U.S. secrets and damage national security.

As Saudi Arabia opens its doors wider to international tourism, visitors have discovered that it pays to keep some riyals in their wallets.

That’s an opportunity that Travelex, the U.K.-based currency exchange firm, couldn’t miss out on.

Travelex CEO Richard Wazacz tells The National his company is intrigued by the opportunity of dotting the kingdom’s airports with his company’s currency booths.

“We operate in every GCC market except Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, and we are very interested in operating in other markets,” he said. “Saudi Arabia is the one that interests us the most.”

The price tag keeps on getting higher for Saudi Arabia’s ambitious national building program – from the futuristic city of Neom in the west to the Qiddiya cluster of theaters, theme parks and a Formula 1 track in Riyadh.

Tallying the expenditures indicated for all the property, infrastructure and tourism projects that the kingdom has started over the past eight years, Knight Frank, the London-based real estate consulting firm, estimates the total cost at $1.3 trillion, up 4% from a year ago.

About $164 billion worth of real estate contracts have been awarded since 2016, when Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman unveiled his Vision 2030 strategy to wean the country off its dependence on oil and unleash underdeveloped industries such as mining, manufacturing, tourism and entertainment, Knight Frank said in a report.

The largest chunk of that money – $28.7 billion – has gone to Neom, with heavy spending on the development within it known as The Line, a pair of mirrored towers expected to eventually span more than 105 miles through the desert. Bloomberg reports.

Other banner projects include establishing the National Housing Co. with $12 billion to build more than 1 million homes, the development of Riyadh’s Diriyah Gate section at $9 billion and the entertainment city of Qiddiya in the capital with almost $7 billion.