Soundstorm, the Saudi music festival that drew about 450,000 fans to the desert north of Riyadh last year, has canceled its 2026 edition.

Organizer MDLBEAST gave no reason for scrapping the Dec. 3-4 event, saying only that it plans to return “better and stronger” in 2027.

Since launching in 2019, the festival has brought global stars including Bruno Mars, Post Malone, Cardi B and DJ Khaled to the kingdom.

The cancellation comes after the Red Sea International Film Festival’s decision to scrap its December event in Jeddah and postpone its return until late 2027.

The first commercial satellite built entirely in Abu Dhabi has launched into orbit, marking a milestone in the UAE’s sovereign-funded ambition to rank among the world’s top 10 space economies by 2031.

Altair-1, built by Orbitworks, launched aboard the Transporter-18 rideshare mission with SpaceX at 11:32 a.m. Pacific time from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Thursday. 

It will form part of a constellation of 10 AI-powered satellites that will make up the UAE’s first commercial Earth observation network, processing data from an array of sensors autonomously and in real time via onboard NVIDIA chips. 

Orbitworks, a joint venture between UAE-based space company Marlan Space, a subsidiary of Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed’s International Holding Co., and San Francisco-based Loft Orbital, was established just over two years ago.

“The UAE is no longer only a buyer of space capability; it is a builder of it,” Dr. Hamdullah Mohib, CEO of Orbitworks and CEO of Marlan Space, said. Altair-1 is “the start of a future in which customers see, decide and act on their own terms, with intelligence created in orbit.”

Last month, Marlan Space and Loft Orbital announced a $1 billion consortium with French AI company Mistral, U.S.-based geospatial intelligence service BlackSky and French aerospace startup MaiaSpace to build what could become the world’s largest artificial intelligence satellite infrastructure, starting with 50 satellites.

Flydubai suspended flights to and from Tel Aviv after Wednesday’s cockpit attack, temporarily halting an air link that has become a mainstay of business and travel between Israel and the UAE.

The Dubai-Tel Aviv flight was diverted to Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, after its Omani co-pilot was reported to have stabbed the captain and tried to crash the aircraft. Passengers and crew subdued him, allowing other pilots aboard to land safely. Passengers later reached Ben Gurion International Airport on a replacement flydubai aircraft.

Flydubai runs 30 weekly flights between Dubai and Tel Aviv, and carried more than 800,000 passengers on the route last year, up 45% from 2024. Since the 2020 Abraham Accords, it has provided Israeli executives and tourists with access to the UAE and connections to other parts of the Gulf and around the world.

“Its importance extends beyond tourism and business,” Yoel Guzansky, a senior researcher at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, told The Circuit. “Flydubai is a key element supporting the UAE-Israel relationship.”

Flydubai became one of the few international carriers to maintain regular service to Israel after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack and ensuing war in Gaza, while many competitors repeatedly suspended flights. 

Mohammed Baharoon, Director-General of B’huth, a Dubai public policy research center, said the airline’s persistence when other carriers suspended Israel service reflects its “strategic commitment” to play a significant role in moving people, goods, money and data around the world.

“Creating these links and maintaining them at the hardest of times is an investment the UAE has made in maintaining the fluidity of the world economy and also its stability,” Baharoon told The Circuit.

The UAE Foreign Ministry said Thursday that prosecutors would investigate “any possible connection to terrorist activity or intent,” including whether the attack involved prior planning or direction. Attorney General Hamad Al Shamsi ordered the inquiry, which the ministry said falls under UAE jurisdiction because the aircraft is registered in the country.

The UAE ministry expressed appreciation to Saudi authorities for their cooperation and urged against circulating “speculation or unverified information” before investigators announce their findings.

Flydubai said it is “fully committed to supporting the ongoing investigation and maintaining the highest safety standards across our network,” according to a statement. It will review the suspension as more information becomes available and help passengers with bookings on the airline make arrangements with other carriers where possible.

The Dubai airline has played an “extraordinary role in bringing together Emiratis and Israelis,” David Sprecher, an Israeli lawyer specializing in the aviation industry, told The Circuit. “They are transferring a lot, a lot, a lot of businessmen in both directions.”

Founded by Dubai’s government to offer affordable travel and connect underserved markets, flydubai began operating in June 2009. It now serves 140 destinations in 58 countries across the Middle East, Africa, Europe and Asia. Flydubai carried 15.7 million passengers worldwide in 2025. Revenue rose 6% to $3.7 billion, while pretax profit fell to $591 million from $674 million a year earlier.

Temasek’s decision to open offices in Abu Dhabi and Riyadh is part of the Singapore sovereign wealth fund’s larger strategy to expand its Middle East presence and pursue emerging business opportunities in the region.

By mid-2027, Temasek plans to develop partnership and investment opportunities in Qatar and other markets, Ankit K., Managing Director for Structuring and Execution in the GCC, said.

“Over the past few years, I’ve had the opportunity to work with institutions, partners and portfolio companies across the Middle East,” he wrote in a LinkedIn post on Wednesday. “These engagements have helped me build meaningful relationships and gain a deeper appreciation of the region.”

Temasek already plays an active role investing alongside some of the Gulf’s biggest sovereign funds in major regional infrastructure projects.

Last month, it joined an Emirati-led $3 billion funding round for Elon Musk’s Boring Co. to support a large-scale expansion of transport tunnels in the UAE. 

Temasek’s asset management arm Seviora Group opened an office in Abu Dhabi last year and has established strategic partnerships with Mubadala and Qatar’s Doha Bank.

Abu Dhabi’s newest sovereign wealth fund has become central to the UAE’s “Zero Hormuz” strategy, a plan to bypass the troubled waterway that is evolving into one of the world’s largest infrastructure efforts.

As part of that plan, L’Imad Holding, overseen by Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed, has been buying out minority shareholders in AD Ports Group through its subsidiary ADQ.

The fund is now preparing to spend tens of billions of dollars more on new port infrastructure outside the strait, Bloomberg reports.

The effort makes Sheikh Khaled and the powerbrokers surrounding him crucial to both Washington and Wall Street, the news agency reports, citing discussions between the Crown Prince, L’Imad CEO Jassem Bu Ataba Al Zaabi and finance bosses including BlackRock’s Larry Fink.

Saudi Arabia has put aside about 14 gigawatts of power capacity for Humain to build one of the world’s largest AI computing developments.

CEO Tareq Amin outlined the allocation at Servcorp’s inaugural economic forum in Riyadh on Tuesday, saying government agencies had helped secure power, land and infrastructure for the AI factories, Asharq Al-Awsat reports.

That’s roughly the output of 14 typical nuclear reactors and nearly three times the capacity of the campus that will house the UAE’s planned 5-gigawatt Stargate AI development. Super-sized data centers that both train and run AI systems are known in the industry as AI factories.

Humain, the Saudi AI company launched in May 2025 and controlled by the Public Investment Fund, develops data centers, cloud services, AI models and applications.

The company’s projects include a partnership with Amazon Web Services involving more than $5 billion in planned investment, and a collaboration with AMD to invest up to $10 billion in 500 megawatts of AI computing capacity over five years.

Etihad Rail will begin passenger services from Dubai tomorrow, connecting the city’s Al Yalayis station with Abu Dhabi and Fujairah.

The Dubai-Abu Dhabi journey will take about 64 minutes, with fares starting at 39 dirhams ($10.60) for comfort class and 109 dirhams for premium seats.

The debut comes three months after the launch of the UAE’s first passenger line between Abu Dhabi and Fujairah, with the Dubai station primed to serve as a key commuter route link to the capital.

UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed and Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai and UAE Minister of Defense, attended the official opening of the Dubai station on Monday.

Less than a month after Saudi-backed LIV Golf filed for bankruptcy after the withdrawal of the Public Investment Fund as its key financial backer, the kingdom is also pulling back from the Ladies European Tour.

The PIF Global Series, a series of golfing events that featured five tournaments this year with a total $15 million prize pool, will be reduced to just the PIF London Championship, to be renamed The Championship, with a $4 million prize fund.

“The shape of our investment has changed as our strategy has developed,” a spokesperson for Golf Saudi told Front Office Sports.

Golf Saudi published a statement detailing a pivot towards grassroots development of golf for women and girls within the kingdom, echoing the PIF’s broader shift towards domestic spending over the past year.

The loss of the high-paying PIF-sponsored events will be a major blow for the LET, where most tournaments have purses of about $500,000 or less.

Two final $2 million events in Korea and China will still go ahead this year and Golf Saudi will sponsor the LET’s Order of Merit season-long points race.

LIV Golf filed for Chapter 11 protection earlier this month, revealing millions of dollars in debts to some of its biggest stars, after burning through some $5 billion in four years.