Non-oil business activity in Saudi Arabia and the UAE picked up quickly in February, according to new data.

The kingdom’s economy rose at its fastest rate in five months, reaching its highest level since September 2023 following a slump to a two-year low in January, according to Riyad Bank. Expectations towards future activity were buoyed, while supply chains remained supported despite ongoing conflict in the Red Sea.

Meanwhile in the UAE, the latest index from S&P Global noted the fastest upturn since June 2019, as 38% of monitored firms noted a month-on-month increase in activity from new business, stronger client activity and more marketing and development work.

Anecdotally, Dubai Mall — a landmark of the Gulf’s economic diversification efforts — welcomed 105 million visitors in 2023, a 19% uptick from the previous year, making it “the most visited place on Earth in 2023,” according to its developer Emaar. 

Ten billion. That was the figure that caught everybody’s attention at Day 1 of LEAP24, the buzzing tech exhibition now underway in Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia announced on Monday it has attracted over $10 billion in investment from Amazon Web Services and other tech companies to build data centers, the critical infrastructure to support its ambitions in artificial intelligence.

AWS, Amazon’s cloud division, said it plans to open the data centers in 2026 and will pour more than $5.3 billion into the kingdom.

The Seattle, Washington-based colossus is one of many international firms that have set up regional headquarters in Saudi Arabia in response to a January 2024 deadline set by the kingdom for foreign firms to establish HQs in the country or lose out on big government contracts.

Meanwhile, Saudi Aramco unveiled a large language model called AramcoMetabrain, which is built on 90 years’ worth of company data.

Aramco President and CEO Amin H. Nasser said the aim is to make the world’s largest oil company more productive.

Aramco also announced a new partnership with Grok, a U.S.-based AI chip company that it says can offer a faster implementation of AI. ADNOC, which has been developing AI tools for several years, said today it has generated $500 million of additional value in 2023 by using AI.

Alat, the new sustainable technology manufacturing company launched last month and backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, said it plans to team up with Riyadh research university King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology to boost the development of the semiconductor industry in the kingdom.

Amit Midha, CEO of Alat, laid out his vision for the company in a keynote at LEAP on Monday: “Imagine purchasing a phone that has been assembled by intelligent robots – in an automated factory, in a smart city, in Saudi Arabia, powered by clean energy.” 

With Ramadan expected next week, business events in the Gulf are reaching a frenzied pace before quiet sets in during the holy month.

Touted as the biggest tech exhibition in the world, LEAP24 got underway in Riyadh this morning, with many of the major players represented, including Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Dell, Cisco, SAP, Amazon Web Services, Alibaba and Huawei.

The kingdom was quick to break news at the conference, announcing a $1 billion commitment to its new accelerator for artificial intelligence startups. 

Abdullah Alswaha, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology, announced the government’s massive capital injection into the program, which is less than one year old.

The accelerator, known as GAIA, is a collaboration between the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority, the National Technology Development Program and the U.S.-headquartered global AI community New Native. The project – based out of Riyadh’s startup space The Garage, which opened last year – has already recruited nearly 50 AI startups.

Indeed, AI would appear to be dominating the LEAP agenda: The kingdom’s flag carrier, Saudia, is introducing its virtual travel assistant over the four-day gathering.

Also working the event is Mohammad the humanoid robot, a “male” counterpart to Sara, who stole the show at last year’s conference with her Arab dancing and speaking in different Mideastern dialects.

In 2017, Saudi Arabia became the first country in the world to grant citizenship to a robot. Named Sophia and created by the Hong Kong-based company Hanson Robotics, she made her debut at the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh that year. 

More than 1,800 international and local exhibitors, including 600 startups, are populating the exhibition floor at the King Abdul Aziz International Conference Center in Riyadh, and the Saudi government is showing off 30 of its agencies to highlight its national digitalization drive.

Meta executive Greg Marra will be speaking about building the metaverse to a largely receptive crowd: the GCC is one of the fastest growing markets for digital currencies, gaming and augmented reality.

Zayad Salem will talk about the future of sports in the kingdom, from his perch as head of sports operations at Kijami Saudi Arabia.

And from the cap table: Noor Sweid, Managing Partner of Dubai VC fund Global Ventures; Reema Khan, CEO of U.S. private equity fund Green Sands Equity and Chris Rust, Partner of Silicon Valley VC fund Clear Ventures, are set to speak.

Competition is picking up in the Middle East aviation market as Gulf countries seek more ways to extract value from diversifying their economies.

In the UAE, Abu Dhabi-based Etihad, backed by the ADQ sovereign wealth fund, is considering an IPO, which would make it the first Gulf carrier to go public, Bloomberg reports.

In Saudi Arabia, which is launching Riyadh Air as a second flag carrier, budget airline Flynas said in December that it is looking into a public share sale.

UAE President Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed and Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed introduced the country’s new international water initiative and launched the $119 million XPRIZE competition to spur development of desalination technology.

In an event that took place on Thursday night at the site of Abu Dhabi’s historic Naqa Bin Ateej reservoir, Sheikh Abdullah outlined the Mohamed bin Zayed Water Initiative, which he chairs, saying it will seek to stimulate international investment in innovative ways to address the drying up of water resources.

“The solutions that currently exist to address the water scarcity crisis are not sufficient to prevent a range of unacceptable scenarios from occurring,” he said. The UAE initiative “is committed to collaborating with stakeholders from around the world to uncover these new ideas, to prove their viability, and to bring them to fruition as efficiently as possible.”

Among the initiative’s board members are Khaldoon Al Mubarak, Chairman of the UAE Executive Affairs Authority and Group CEO of Mubadala Investment Co., and hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates. Also, UAE Minister of Energy and Infrastructure Mohamed Al Mazrouei, Minister of Investment Mohamed Hassan Al Suwaidi and Minister of Climate Change and the Environment Amna bint Abdullah Al Dahak Al Shamsi, according to a press release.

The Culver City, Calif.-based XPRIZE Foundation sponsors competitions around the world to encourage “radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity” in technological development. The $119 million prize pool for the five-year desalination project is the foundation’s biggest to date.

“XPRIZE Water Scarcity is a global call to scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs to convert water scarcity into water abundance by using converging exponential technologies to address this critical global need,” said Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, XPRIZE’S Founder and Executive Chairman of the foundation. He said the competion is focused on “creating new desalination solutions to unlock Earth’s ocean water to clean water for all, in an equitable and sustainable fashion.”

As Saudi Arabia attracts more international businesses, Riyadh’s Mayor Prince Faisal bin Abdulaziz bin Ayyaf says his city is vying for top executives with the likes of New York and Tokyo.

“Competition for talent is no longer regional or local – it’s global,” he said in an interview with Arab News.

The Saudi capital is working to enhance the quality of life for expats in ways that will persuade the best and brightest to relocate, the Mayor said.

Major international banks, law firms and companies have established their regional headquarters in Riyadh since the kingdom made that a prerequisite this year for the awarding of government contracts.

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – Surveying the thousands of investors and business leaders rubbing shoulders at the Investopia conference in Abu Dhabi, UAE Minister of Economy Abdullah bin Touq Al Marri said he felt like “the father of the bride” at a wedding. “I just want to make sure everyone is happy and well fed,” he told The Circuit’s Kelsey Warner this morning.

Keeping participants comfortable at the third edition of Investopia, which the Minister chairs, is a fairly light lift, with the St. Regis resort on Saadiyat Island offering a backdrop of swaying palm trees and turquoise waters.

Engaging them is another matter as the confab aims to also drive investment into fast-growing sectors like technology, capital markets and tourism to the UAE.

Al Marri has said that by the 2030s, the UAE will “take the number one position globally in the development of proactive legislation for new economic sectors.” 

Funds that manage a total of more than $500 billion in assets are attending, according to organizers. Top of mind and regularly popping up in conversation for the largely American crowd are the implications of an election year in the U.S. and the direction of interest rates.

Al Marri, for his part, expressed his desire for lower rates to spur investment: “There will be a movement of capital that will [boost] investments into new areas and move the economy forward. So we hope that can happen by this year,” he said.

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.