MGX is exploring the potential acquisition of Singapore-based data center operator DayOne, a deal that would mark the Abu Dhabi-backed investor’s first takeover in Asia if completed.

The company has been working with an unidentified investment bank on preparations for a possible transaction, Reuters reports, citing three confidential sources. DayOne is also considering a U.S. IPO that could target a valuation of about $20 billion and may also list in Singapore, the news agency said. MGX declined to comment.

DayOne, which is affiliated with China’s GDS Holdings, develops and operates data centers across Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Japan and Finland, and could still pursue an IPO if a deal does not materialize.

Founded just over two years ago by Mubadala and G42, MGX is targeting more than $100 billion in assets and investments across artificial intelligence infrastructure, including data centers and semiconductor technology.

MGX’s investments include OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI, while its infrastructure portfolio includes Aligned Data Centers through a $30 billion AI infrastructure fund with BlackRock and Nvidia.

The firm has also acquired a 15% stake in TikTok’s U.S. operations and invested $2 billion in Binance.

ADNOC is telling oil buyers it’s time to come back to the Gulf.

Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. has instructed customers to resume loading cargoes from terminals inside the Strait of Hormuz and warned that failing to lift scheduled shipments could constitute a breach of contract, Bloomberg reports, citing notices from the company.

The move follows the reopening of the narrow waterway under the U.S.-Iran agreement, with tankers and LNG carriers returning to the route that carries roughly a fifth of the world’s oil supplies.

Saudi Aramco, ADNOC and other Gulf producers are all working through a backlog of delayed cargoes while ramping up exports through the strait, the news agency reports in a separate story. Iraq’s exports and oil bound for China and Japan are among the shipments most affected by the disruption.

The shipping industry still faces a cleanup operation, with about 80 naval mines remaining in parts of the channel that must be removed before traffic returns to normal levels, Arabian Gulf Business Insight reports.

Aramco is planning to expand its global oil stockpile network after the Iran war exposed the risks of moving crude and other fuels through the Strait of Hormuz.

“We are thinking seriously of having larger storage facilities all over the world,” Aramco Chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan said Thursday at the FII Priority Europe summit in Rome, pointing to existing storage hubs in Japan and South Korea.

Al-Rumayyan, the Governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, used the forum to call on European regulators to ease restrictions on foreign investment. He said the Saudi sovereign wealth fund invested 98 billion euros ($113 billion) across Europe and the U.K. between 2017 and 2025, while Aramco spent roughly 80 billion euros with European suppliers.

Reflecting on the growing use of alternative energy sources, Al-Rumayyan said the conflict reinforced the world’s recognition that industry still largely relies on oil and gas.

“In the last decade or so, a lot of push came from the new energy, which is fine,” Al-Rumayyan said. “I think it’s a great addition, but it’s not going to be a substitute for fossil fuel.”

Meanwhile, Mohamed Alabbar, the Emirati businessman who founded Emaar Properties and built Dubai’s Burj Khalifa tower, said that European countries with unruly governments might learn something from how Gulf countries have prospered. “We are losing trust in democracy,” Alabbar told the FII audience.

“Why are these people so upset with us in the Middle East?” he asked. “They have two political parties; we only have one, so that’s okay. There is not much difference. The only difference is that even if you have two political parties, say 51% get the vote, and nobody gives a sh*t about the 49%.”

Digital bank Revolut is launching its services in the UAE after gaining key authorization following a protracted approval process.

The London-based firm said that the UAE’s Central Bank had okayed its application for so-called stored value facilities and retail payment services, Bloomberg reports.

It now plans to build out its local operations before going live. Revolut has been planning to launch since it secured “in-principle” approvals in September last year.

Historically, it has been complex for so-called neobanks to enter the Gulf market, where traditional banks have dominated.

However, since the emergence of homegrown digital banks including Wio, Mashreq Neo and Liv — all tied to major UAE lenders — the market has started to open up.

London-based money transfer company Wise also recently secured approvals, and homegrown Islamic digital finance startup Fasset has been expanding its services.

UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade Thani Al Zeyoudi offered a glimpse today at how government planners are trying to prevent a repeat of Iran’s chokehold over Gulf shipping. “We want to make our dependency on the Strait of Hormuz close to zero,” Al Zeyoudi said in an interview with Bloomberg.

A key part of the strategy is the emirate of Fujairah, where the government has spent years building infrastructure to bypass the narrow waterway. ADNOC already operates a pipeline that can carry up to 1.5 million barrels of crude a day directly from Abu Dhabi to Fujairah, and is developing a second line that would further increase export capacity.

Al Zeyoudi said the UAE is also investing in rail links, ports and overland trade corridors that can move goods between Asia, the Middle East and Europe without relying on a single maritime route.

The aftermath of the Strait of Hormuz crisis will also be prominent at this week’s Saudi Arabia’s FII Priority Europe conference in Rome.

Opening the formal proceedings on Thursday will be PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan, who will be joined by Saudi Tourism Minister Ahmed Al-Khateeb, Princess Reema bint Bandar, the Saudi Ambassador to the U.S., and a full roster of government officials.

Among European leaders on the schedule are Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and Italian Industry Minister Adolfo Urso.

Speakers include Anthony Gutman, Co-CEO of Goldman Sachs International; Andrew Cohen, executive chairman of JPMorgan Chase’s global private bank; Lord Franck Petitgas, Vice Chairman of Blackstone Europe; Sir Noel Quinn, Chairman of Julius Baer; Mohamed Alabbar, founder of Emaar Properties; and Gerard Inzerillo, Group CEO of Diriyah Co.

The White House’s UFC Freedom 250 fightfest came up repeatedly when U.S. President Donald Trump met with Middle East leaders at the G7 summit this week.

During one exchange, UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan mentioned Dana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship mixed martial arts organization, telling Trump, “Dana White is an amazing guy.”

Trump also chatted about the June 14 event, which coincided with his birthday, with Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and French President Emmanuel Macron.

White has worked closely with Abu Dhabi since 2019, when UFC signed a long-term partnership with the emirate and began staging championship fights on Yas Island. He created the “Fight Island” bubble that kept the sport operating during the COVID19 pandemic, and has since overseen more than 20 UFC events in the UAE.

Benoit Roulon, a veteran oil trader at hedge fund Squarepoint Capital, has been hired by Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. to head its trading arm.

The move comes as ADNOC Trading plans to boost the volume it handles by two-thirds in the next few years as it undergoes a major international expansion, Bloomberg reports. It follows the UAE’s decision to quit OPEC in April, giving it more freedom to expand oil production and trading outside of restrictive quotas.

The UAE is targeting oil production capacity of 5 million barrrels a day, compared to 3.6 million barrels a day earlier this year.

At Squarepoint, which has headquarters in London and New York, Roulon has been leading a push into physical oil since the start of the year. Before that, he was head of crude oil trading for Gunvor and also worked at TotalEnergies.

ADNOC’s trading business has an office in Geneva and plans to open an outpost in Houston, Texas, next year.

The Strait of Hormuz may be reopening, but Gulf energy companies still face weeks, if not months, of disruption following the deal with Iran brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump that was signed on Monday.

Clearing mines from the waterway could take 40 to 50 days, leaving shipowners, insurers and energy producers such as Saudi Aramco, ADNOC and QatarEnergy navigating a slow recovery, Reuters reports.

Oil markets are already pricing in a recovery, with Brent crude falling below $83 a barrel after peaking above $120 during the conflict, while Middle East crude markets weakened on expectations that Saudi, Emirati and Qatari exports will increase.

Meanwhile, Qatar is preparing to restart production at QatarEnergy’s Ras Laffan Industrial City, the world’s largest LNG export complex, which exported almost one-fifth of global LNG supply in 2025 before being idled for more than three months, Bloomberg reports.

The return of Ras Laffan would restore tens of billions of dollars in annual LNG exports and provide a boost to buyers in Europe and Asia that have been scrambling to replace Qatari cargoes since the effective closure of Hormuz.