On a state visit to Paris, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani pledged to invest 10 billion euros ($10.9 billion) in French startups and tech funds between now and 2030.

Feted by French President Emmanuel Macron with a dinner on Tuesday night at the Élysée Palace, the Emir hailed the longstanding relationship between the two countries and said his visit would deepen their strategic partnership.

The Qatari investments will cover a range of industries, including energy, semiconductors, aerospace, artificial intelligence, health, hospitality and culture, Macron’s office said.

Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan said the world’s best investors now operate in places such as the UAE and Singapore, criticizing American funds for being too focused on benchmarks.

Apollo and other private equity firms are increasingly turning to the Middle East and Asia as deal-making activity dwindled last year due to higher interest rates.

At the start of his career, Rowan “thought the single best investors in the world were in the U.S.,” he said in a nearly hour-long interview on Tuesday with David Rubenstein at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. “That’s no longer the case.”

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – Kicking off the UAE’s annual Investopia conference on Wednesday, Mubadala chief Khaldoon Al Mubarak pointed to the more active stance that the country’s sovereign wealth funds are taking in the global investment landscape.

“Sovereign funds now have the responsibility and opportunity to go from asset allocators to enablers of global progress,” the Managing Director and Group CEO of Abu Dhabi’s second-largest sovereign wealth fund said. Al Mubarak noted that the emirate’s sovereign funds — Mubadala, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and ADQ — are among the world’s top 10 most active sovereign investors in 2023, which he said, “speaks to the momentum that is building over here.” 

Mubadala plans to invest more in the U.S. and has increased its long-term allocations for Asia “in line with megatrends and demographics, including “Japan, China, Korea and, of course, India,” Al Mubarak said. 

On the domestic front, UAE Minister of Economy Abdulla bin Touq said in his opening remarks that the ministry is working to better integrate the seven disparate emirates that make up the country. “In the UAE, each emirate has its own strength. We’re now working to enable those emirates to integrate and complement each other to build economic clusters that supercharge the whole economy.”

Thousands of investors have flocked to the third edition of Investopia, a marquee event for the government’s “Projects of the 50” initiative, first announced in 2021. The UAE aims to build the world’s most innovative economy in collaboration with the global investment community. Funds that manage a total of more than $500 billion in assets are attending, according to organizers.

Slated to speak during the two-day conference are Adam Goldstein, Founder and CEO of aviation startup Archer; Eric Cantor, General Manager and Vice Chairman of Moelis; Antonio González, Founder and CEO of Sunset Hospitality Group; Nathan Sheets, Global Chief Economist at Citi; Giorgio Furlani, CEO of AC Milan; Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi, Head of CIO Equities at UBS and Gabrielle Rubenstein, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Manna Tree.

It wasn’t until the morning that Hub71, the bustling startup accelerator in Abu Dhabi, staged a celebrity reveal for its showcase Impact event.

Splashing the news on social media on Tuesday, Hub71 announced that comedian Trevor Noah would appear onstage fresh from his appearance at Web Summit in Qatar on Monday.

Hub71’s annual Impact conference highlights emerging tech companies in the UAE ecosystem and provides opportunities for startup leaders to rub shoulders with investors.

Besides Noah and Idris Elba, the British actor, DJ and investor who was interviewed onstage by The Circuit’s Kelsey Warner, speakers at the two-day conference included Badr Al-Olama, Director General of the Abu Dhabi Investment Office; Ahmad Ali Alwan, CEO of Hub71; Eddy Farhat, Executive Director of e& Capital, and Nadine Mezher, Co-founder of the Sarwa investment platform.

Joe Kawkabani, CEO of OSN Group and Elie Habib, Co-founder of Anghami, also spoke to Warner onstage, the first public appearance for the media executives since announcing their merger in November.

More investors, corporate executives and government leaders will appear on Wednesday at the UAE’s Investopia conference on Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island.

Among the keynotes will be UAE Minister of the Economy Abdullah bin Touq Al Marri, Mubadala CEO Khaldoon Al Mubarak; Anthony Scaramucci, Founder and Managing Partner of SkyBridge and Eric Cantor, the former U.S. Congress Majority Leader and Vice Chairman of Moelis.

International Holding Company, the Abu Dhabi-owned industrial conglomerate, announced that it has created a new post on its Board of Directors for an “Artificial Intelligence Observer.”

The virtual entity was developed by G42, the holding company’s fast-growing AI firm, in collaboration with Microsoft, and given the name “Aiden Insight.”

It will use its abilities “to continuously process and instantly analyze decades of business data, financial information, market trends, and global economic indicators,” the company said.

IHC Chairman Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan said appointing Aiden Insight to the Board shows the company’s “commitment to innovation and forward-thinking leadership.”

Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ is leading a consortium that has agreed to invest $35 billion in Ras al-Hekma on Egypt’s northern Mediterranean shore to build a financial and tourism center, which may help resolve a long-stalled agreement on a $10 billion loan package with the International Monetary Fund.

The deal prompted Goldman Sachs to suggest that the injection of cash should end Egypt’s foreign exchange crisis.

“If the financing comes through as planned, we believe this, along with an upsized IMF program, should provide ample liquidity to cover Egypt’s financing gap over the next four years,” Goldman Sachs’s analyst Farouk Soussa said in the note to investors.

Doha’s tech scene is in the spotlight this week as a Middle East edition of Web Summit — touted as the world’s biggest technology conference — opens today in Qatar’s capital city.

More than 1,100 startups from 80 countries are expected to attend the four-day event as the Qatari government joins its neighbors in trying to lure early-stage tech companies to set up shop in the country. Tickets sold out more than a week ago.

One of those efforts, which is expected to be promoted heavily at Web Summit, is Startup Qatar. The program was rolled out last week and is offering free visas, tax waivers, licenses, office space and funding to promising tech firms.

Among the event’s prominent participants are Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani and Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan.

Top financiers and founders include Huda Al-Lawati, founder and CEO of UAE fund manager Aliph Capital; Will Ahmed, founder and CEO of U.S. wearable tech company Whoop; Fadi Ghandour, Managing Partner at UAE VC fund Wamda Capital; Hosam Arab, co-founder & CEO of Riyadh-based FinTech startup Tabby and Edward Achtner, Head of AI at HSBC.

Qatar Investment Authority, the country’s sovereign wealth fund, will also feature prominently with Daniyal Khan, a Director for QIA’s advisory group in New York, and Head of Tech Mohammed Al-Hardan set to speak.

One topic driving the conversation will be why VC dollars are drying up almost everywhere except the Middle East – in particular, the GCC countries. A session tomorrow will tackle this directly: QIA Chief Investment Officer for the Americas Mohammed Al-Sowaidi; Noor Sweid, Founder & Managing Partner at Global Ventures, and Khaled Talhouni, Managing Partner of Nuwa Capital, will be in conversation with TIME contributor Zachary Karabell.

Emirates is making some senior executive changes that appear to signal a final-stage competition to succeed 74-year old President Tim Clark, who has run the Dubai-based airline for two decades.

Promotions were announced on Thursday for Emirates Chief Operating Officer Adel Al Redha and Chief Commercial Officer Adnan Kazim, who were both named Deputy Presidents under Clark.

Budget carrier Flydubai, meanwhile, said profit reached a record high of $572 million last year, rising 75% from 2022, as passenger numbers on the UAE budget airline surged 31% to 13.8 million.