Amid shrinking profits, Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said the world’s biggest oil company is shopping for new investments in China.

Nasser spoke in Beijing on Monday at the China Development Forum, where he said Aramco is “currently” supporting projects in the areas of Fujian, Liaoning, Zhejiang and Tianjin.

“I emphasize ‘currently’ because we are continuing to identify additional opportunities, which include energy and chemicals, as well as technology,” Nasser said.

Aramco’s interest in China, Nasser said, rests partly on its emergence as the “world’s largest consumer and producer of petrochemicals, accounting for nearly half of global demand, and it’s becoming a major hub for the entire chemicals industry value chain, which will be critical to industries of the future.”

The conference in Beijing was the first stop for international executives and policymakers trying to navigate trade tensions between the U.S. and China, with the subject hitting center-stage this week at the Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan.

The Gulf states have become a dominant force in the world of sovereign wealth funds even if their assets fall shy of those in Norway and China.

Led by the UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, government-owned funds in the Gulf are expected to grow 50% by 2030 and control $18 trillion in assets, according to an analysis by Deloitte Middle East. The region is home to six of the world’s 10 largest funds and about 40% of total sovereign assets.

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority leads the Gulf with $1.05 trillion, according to Deloitte, followed by the Kuwait Investment Authority at $1.02 trillion, the Saudi Public Investment Fund with $925 billion and the Qatar Investment Authority with $526 billion.

“The Gulf region continues to be the epicenter of sovereign wealth fund activity, with its major players driving innovation in investment strategies and operational excellence,” Julie Kassab, sovereign wealth fund leader at Deloitte Middle East.

Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global is the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, with assets of more than $1.7 trillion. China Investment Corp. comes in second with $1.3 trillion.

Another phenomenon identified by Deloitte is the proliferation of Royal Private Offices, or RPOs, that now control approximately $500 billion in assets in the Gulf and have become one of the key drivers behind the creation of new sovereign wealth funds in the region.

Sovereign wealth fund tracker Global SWF has identified 35 RPOs in the Gulf, with the UAE home to a vast majority of the offices. The most significant of them is the Royal Group, a family enterprise headed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, the UAE National Security Adviser and Deputy Ruler of Abu Dhabi.

Sheikh Tahnoon is also Chairman of sovereign funds ADIA and ADQ, in addition to leading some of the emirate’s largest firms, including International Holding Co., MGX and G42. 

The UAE plans to increase its investments in the U.S. to $1.4 trillion over 10 years.

Following last week’s visit by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed with President Donald Trump and several of his cabinet members, the White House announced that the UAE had agreed to a new investment framework, pledging money for AI infrastructure, semiconductors, energy and manufacturing.

Sheikh Tahnoon, the UAE National Security Advisor who leads several of the country’s largest companies and sovereign wealth funds, spent the first part of the week with government leaders.

Later, he met with heads of the biggest tech companies, including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Palentir’s Alex Karp and xAI’s Elon Musk.

The UAE’s biggest tech firms are capitalizing on White House support to tighten partnerships with America’s leaders in the booming industry of artificial intelligence.

A consortium created last year by Abu Dhabi investment fund MGX, Microsoft and BlackRock to finance power-hungry AI data centers welcomed chipmaker Nvidia and Elon Musk’s xAI to the group on Wednesday.

Expansion of the top-level venture came amid the Washington visit by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, the UAE National Security Advisor and Chairman of MGX and a constellation of other tech companies, who dined at the White House this week with President Donald Trump.

Sheikh Tahnoon, who held a meeting with Musk through a video feed on Wednesday, has been accompanied through the trip by Khaldoon Al Mubarak, the MGX Vice Chairman and CEO of the Mubadala sovereign wealth fund. Also on the visit is Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, CEO of the ADNOC national oil company and the UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology. Peng Xiao, CEO of the Abu Dhabi-based AI company G42, joined the call with Musk.

Among the other meetings in his U.S. rounds, Sheikh Tahnoon said he “explored opportunities for collaboration and investment” with Oracle’s Larry Ellison.

ADQ, meanwhile, another Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon, agreed to invest a combined $5 billion in a partnership with U.S-based Energy Capital Partners to build power stations for data centers and AI projects – with the investment eventually reaching $25 billion.

The announcement came as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told the company’s GTC conference in San Jose, Calif., that the industry is preparing for a massive leap in building data centers and chip manufacturing plants with accompanying energy demand.

“Over the next several years, we’re going to be building giant AI factories,” he said. Not normal AI factories … ones you see from space,” Huang said.

While Saudi Arabia leads the Gulf in oil production, it’s also the region’s biggest banker.

The kingdom hosts 10 of the 30 largest lenders in the Middle East and North Africa, with a combined market value of $269 billion, according to Forbes’ annual ranking.

Riyadh-based Al Rajhi Bank was the region’s most valuable bank, with a market capitalization of $106 billion. Trailing Saudi Arabia in the rankings were the UAE in second place with seven banks valued at $153 billion, followed by Qatar in third place with six banks worth $77 billion.

Kuwait has two banks on the Forbes list with a combined worth of $68 billion, while Morocco’s three banks have a market value of $24 billion.

U.S. President Donald Trump gave a warm reception to UAE power broker Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed at the White House with dinner and a broad review of business and strategic ties between the two allies.

Sheikh Tahnoon, who is the UAE’s National Security Advisor, Chairman of its biggest sovereign wealth fund and brother to President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, led an Emirati delegation on Tuesday that dined with Trump, Vice President JD Vance and other top administration officials.

Accompanied by Mubadala CEO Khaldoon Al Mubarak, ADNOC CEO and UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, and UAE Ambassador to the U.S. Yousef Al Otaiba, Sheikh Tahnoon also met with cabinet members including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“Tonight, in the White House, I warmly welcomed UAE National Security Adviser H.H. Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan to meetings and a dinner with many notable, senior U.S. officials,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social media platform. “The evening demonstrated the long-standing ties and bonds of friendship between our countries.”

Sheikh Tahnoon said in a post on X that the talks focused on the UAE’s “long-term strategic partnership” with the U.S., as well as strengthening economic ties “by accelerating investments in artificial intelligence, advanced technology, infrastructure, energy and health care.”

During his U.S. visit, Sheikh Tahnoon also planned to meet some of the country’s top tech leaders, including Tesla’s Elon Musk, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Oracle’s Larry Ellison, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and Palantir’s Alex Karp, Semafor reported.

While the Emirati delegation was at the White House, the government in Abu Dhabi announced the signing of an agreement with Microsoft and UAE tech company Core42 to improve the efficiency of digital services.

​​Zapp, a British grocery delivery startup, plans to launch in Dubai this year, entering an already crowded and competitive Middle Eastern market.

The company, which launched during the pandemic, saw valuations drop as workers returned to office and inflation hit delivery spending.

“We are always looking for opportunities to grow our business and are considering launching in the region as early as this year,” a Zapp spokesperson said in a statement to Bloomberg.

Zapp says it’s rebounding by focusing on high-end goods, generating over $100 million in U.K. sales in 2024 through partnerships with brands like LVMH and Fortnum & Mason, the news agency said.

Zapp’s entrance to the market is the latest of series in a highly competitive market for delivery companies. Keeta, the international arm of China’s Meituan, has captured 10% of Saudi Arabia’s food delivery market just four months after launch.

Talabat, the Middle East branch of Germany’s Delivery Hero, raised $2 billion in December through an IPO on the Dubai Financial Market. The company acquired full control of Instashop from Delivery Hero two weeks ago for $32 million.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance welcomed Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, the UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Chief Executive of ADNOC, to the White House on Monday as the two countries sought to add heft to their growing economic ties.

Al Jaber and UAE Ambassador to the U.S. Yousef Al Otaiba were part of a top-ranking Emirati delegation led by National Security Adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed that fanned out in the presidential mansion for a series of meetings with senior Trump administration officials.

The meeting with Vance was arranged “to discuss deepening UAE-U.S. collaboration on supporting energy investment and abundance, technological leadership, and unleashing unprecedented economic growth,” the UAE Embassy said in a post on X.

On the agenda this week for Sheikh Tahnoon, Chairman of Abu Dhabi-owned International Holding Co. and sovereign wealth funds ADIA and ADQ, are meetings with Tesla’s Elon Musk, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and Oracle’s Larry Ellison, Semafor reports.

Also scheduled to meet Sheikh Tahnoon are Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, BlackRock’s Larry Fink, and Palantir’s Alex Karp, the news outlet said.