Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman heads to Paris on Sunday for a two-day visit that mixes geopolitics, business and Saudi Arabia’s multibillion-dollar bet on gaming.

French President Emmanuel Macron will host MBS for talks on economic ties and regional stability, and the two leaders will convene the Franco-Saudi Strategic Partnership Council for the first time, Arab News reports.

The visit comes as France and Saudi Arabia seek closer coordination on the Middle East amid the war with Iran and follows Macron’s trip to the kingdom in December 2024.

MBS and Macron will also attend Sunday’s closing ceremony of the Esports World Cup, which moved from Riyadh to Paris this year due to the regional conflict and is being held outside Saudi Arabia for the first time.

The tournament offers a showcase for one of the kingdom’s biggest diversification bets, with the Public Investment Fund committing $38 billion to turn Saudi Arabia into a global gaming hub.

The chief of Saudi Arabia’s multibillion-dollar drive to build a world-class entertainment industry posted a photo of himself on social media with the son of Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, the UAE National Security Adviser, in a public show of warmth amid strained ties between the two Gulf neighbors.

The picture shared on Instagram on Thursday shows Turki Alalshikh, Chairman of the Saudi General Entertainment Authority, with the young Emirati royal, Sheikh Zayed bin Tahnoon bin Zayed. The two are both wearing dark baseball caps with their arms on each other’s shoulders.

Last month, Alalshikh posted a photo of Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, the UAE Vice President, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Presidential Court, in a friendly embrace with Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Defense, Prince Khalid bin Salman. Saudi-UAE relations have frayed in recent months over a variety of issues, including OPEC oil quotas and their support for opposing sides in Yemen’s conflict.

Alalshikh, who was given a mandate by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman 10 years ago to build up the kingdom’s near-dormant entertainment industries, praised Sheikh Zayed in his post for demonstrating “the height of character and knowledge.”

The Saudi impresario visited Abu Dhabi late last year, where he met with President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed and Sheikh Tahnoon, the UAE leader’s brother and one of the most influential figures in the country’s business community.

Kuwait Petroleum Corp.’s scorched waterfront headquarters has become a symbol of the Iran war’s impact on the Gulf nation.

The government is trying to reassure businesses that the country remains open for business despite the April drone strike that forced employees to relocate while operations continued, Bloomberg reports.

After seven months of conflict, Kuwait is focused on maintaining oil exports, electricity and desalination supplies and normal economic activity, including a $16 billion pipeline deal with North American firms.

The response reflects a resilience shaped by the 1990 Iraqi invasion, with many Kuwaitis seeing the latest conflict as another chapter in the country’s struggle to preserve its independence, the news agency said.

Saudi Arabia is reshuffling ownership in four of its biggest soccer clubs, transferring additional stakes to its sovereign wealth fund as the kingdom seeks to attract private investment.

The Public Investment Fund is receiving 25% holdings in Al-Ittihad, Al-Ahli, Al-Hilal and Al-Nassr that are currently held by nonprofit foundations, Arabian Gulf Business Insight reports.

The Saudi Ministry of Sports announced on Wednesday that the foundations’ boards will be dissolved, saying the changes are intended to make the clubs more attractive to investors.

The PIF already agreed in April to sell 70% of Al-Hilal to Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s Kingdom Holding for $224 million, while U.S.-based Harburg Group became the first foreign buyer of a Saudi Pro League club last year.

The moves are part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s effort to turn Saudi sports into a business that can attract outside capital, rather than relying primarily on government money.

Saudi Arabia is treating financial transfers to the UAE with the extra scrutiny generally applied to countries suspected of money laundering.

The Saudi central bank notified key banks earlier this year to apply the additional checks, Reuters reports, three people with direct knowledge of the policy and six who said transfers to the UAE have been delayed or returned.

The Saudi central bank said there are “no direct restrictions on specific countries, while a UAE official said the government had received no reports of unusual transfer delays.

One Saudi insider told the news agency that the measures are a “subtle message” to Abu Dhabi amid widening tensions between the two Gulf powers. 

Saudi Arabia and the UAE are looking far from home for safer places to store their oil, pushing to expand stockpiles in Asia as the Strait of Hormuz remains dangerous because of the U.S.-Iran war. 

The two Gulf producers have asked Japan to let each increase its stored crude by as much as 10-fold from the roughly 8 million barrels they hold there today, The New York Times reports.

They are pursuing similar talks with South Korea, putting more barrels closer to their biggest customers and beyond the Gulf’s vulnerable shipping routes.

The plan could give Japan and South Korea a bigger cushion against supply disruptions, although Japan may not have enough spare tank capacity to accommodate all the oil that Riyadh and Abu Dhabi want to store.

Meanwhile, Japanese refiner Idemitsu Kosan has begun sourcing Saudi crude from the Red Sea port of Yanbu through safer alternative routes that can extend shipping from about 20 days to as long as 60 days, Reuters reports.

Abu Dhabi’s Space42 aims to become a lot less dependent on the UAE, targeting international markets to account for nearly a third of its revenue by 2030.

The satellite and data company, whose largest shareholders are Abu Dhabi-based G42, the Mubadala sovereign wealth fund and International Holding Co., currently gets about 90% of its business from the UAE and 80% of its revenue from government contracts, Arabian Gulf Business Insight reports. 

Managing Director Karim Michel Sabbagh told the outlet that the Iran conflict has increased demand for resilient communications and near-real-time satellite intelligence, lifting what he called the “baseline” for Space42’s services.

Space42 reported first-half revenue on Monday of $260 million, up about 15% from $226 million a year earlier, while net profit fell about 65% to $18 million. The company is committing about $1.7 billion to growth while aiming to cut government business to roughly half of its revenue by the end of the decade.

Sabbagh said one of the company’s key prospects is Equatys, a partnership with U.S. satellite operator Viasat that would let ordinary mobile phones connect directly to satellites, with deployment planned for 2028-2029.

Abu Dhabi’s L’Imad Holding sovereign wealth fund wants tighter control of the emirate’s ports as the Iran war makes shipping through the Strait of Hormuz increasingly risky.

The government-owned fund is offering to buy the 24.6% of AD Ports it doesn’t already control for about $2.1 billion, valuing the company at $8.66 billion, Bloomberg reports.

The offer of 6.25 dirhams a share is a 23% premium to Friday’s close and sent AD Ports shares up by the daily limit of 15% on Monday.

Taking AD Ports private would give L’Imad more freedom to invest and make acquisitions across a network that includes ports, shipping services and economic zones, including infrastructure that can help Abu Dhabi bypass Hormuz.

The move comes two months after L’Imad said it would delist $81 billion utility TAQA, reversing Abu Dhabi’s recent push to put major state assets on the public market.