While Silicon Valley venture capitalists continue making pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia in search of cash, the kingdom’s native startups are drawing more investment from other countries than its Gulf peers.

For the second consecutive year, Saudi Arabia was on the receiving end in 2024 of $750 million to lead the MENA region in collecting VC investments, according to a report by MAGNiTT. The UAE followed with $613 million.

On the providing end, government-owned Saudi Venture Capital Co. has committed $1 billion in investments since its inception in 2018, Arab News reports.

Adding contributions from partners raises the total to $4.8 billion over the six-year span, spread among VC, private equity, debt and private credit markets, according to SVC’s latest Impact Report.

“We are committed to further stimulating the private capital ecosystem in Saudi Arabia by launching required investment programs and developmental initiatives based on an analysis of the ecosystem’s needs,” SVC’s CEO Nabeel Koshak said in the report.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, meanwhile, is in talks for a $3.1 billion loan guarantee with Sace, the Italian insurer and export credit agency, Bloomberg reports. If negotiations reach an agreement, Sace will provide guarantees to a group of international banks for a range of Saudi projects.

The talks follow Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s trip to Saudi Arabia last month, where she met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the two countries agreed on deals worth $10 billion.

While hedge funds, law offices and wealth managers are pouring into Saudi Arabia and the UAE, other parts of the Gulf are also attracting interest from international businesses.

BlackRock, for one – the world’s largest asset manager, with holdings of about $11.5 trillion – is scouting office space in Kuwait City as it tries to deepen ties in the region, Bloomberg reports.

The New York-based firm is in discussions with Kuwaiti regulators and could make a final decision as soon as this month, according to the news outlet, which said BlackRock declined to comment.

Kuwait’s state-run KUNA news agency, meanwhile, reported that BlackRock CEO Larry Fink was in Kuwait on Monday and met with Emir Sheikh Mishaal Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah.

BlackRock has close links to Kuwait, whose sovereign wealth fund, the $1 trillion Kuwait Investment Authority, is one of its top shareholders.

Elsewhere in the Gulf, London-based private equity firm Permira plans to open an office in Dubai, issuing a statement on Mondeay that said it will seek fresh strategic partnerships with institutional and private wealth investors in the region.

Permira’s new representative office in Dubai’s financial center is still subject to regulatory approval. Among the major draws to the region are the Gulf’s sovereign wealth funds that control roughly $4 trillion in assets.

Private wealth is also an attraction. Dubai is now home to family offices that control more than $1 trillion in assets, according to Bloomberg.

Saudi Arabia has persuaded hundreds of companies to establish regional headquarters in the kingdom by making it a prerequisite for winning government contracts.

Speaking at the World Investment Conference in November, Saudi Investment Minister Khalid Al-Falih said more than 550 firms had complied with the regulation, pointing to announcements the previous week by Citibank and Morgan Stanley on their expanded Saudi offices.

Setting up headquarters in Saudi Arabia comes with perks, including a 30-year exemption from corporate income tax and access to discounts and support services.

The UAE is moving ahead with plans to transform a piece of Jordan’s Red Sea beachfront into a luxury resort.

MAG Group, a subsidiary of ADQ’s AD Ports Group that was appointed on Sunday as the project’s developer, said it will soon begin work on the Marsa Zayed property in the southern port city of Aqaba, which abuts the Saudi border.

In the first phase, MAG will begin construction on ​​what will be called the Zayed Riviera with four residential towers, a yacht club, and restoration of the Aqaba Minaret.

The Jordanian project could potentially link to similar planned resorts in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel that form a border-traversing horseshoe around the Red Sea.

Energy ministers from OPEC+ meet today as oil and gas customers around the world gird for the expected fallout from the U.S. trade war taking shape with Canada, Mexico and China.

Oil prices rose today after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on the three countries, sparked by fears that the feuds would disrupt supplies. Brent crude futures rose 78 cents, or 1.03%, to $76.45 a barrel at 1:33 p.m. UAE time after touching a high of $77.34. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were up $1.36, or 1.88%, to $73.89.

The OPEC+ members, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, will meet online for a monthly review at which they’re expected to leave production and supply plans unchanged through March and gradually lift the current quotas that were designed to keep prices from falling, Reuters reports.

While Trump has urged the petroleum producers bloc to cut prices, several OPEC+ delegates have said they won’t adjust the plan for now since crude markets remain fragile amid faltering demand in China and plentiful supply across the Americas, Bloomberg reports.

Goldman Sachs issued a report on Sunday that suggests the Trump tariffs are likely to have a limited near-term impact on global oil and gas prices.

“Potential tariff-driven decline in U.S. natural gas imports from Canada is too small to significantly raise U.S. natural gas prices,” the investment bank said.

In the world of debt finance, blue bonds are an emerging class of securities used to support maritime projects that carry potential environmental benefits.

Nasdaq Dubai announced on Thursday it will host the MENA region’s first blue bond sale as DP World seeks to raise $100 million for its seaports and logistics businesses.

The bond issue is aimed at supporting a range of DP World projects this year, including development of alternative fuels to reduce maritime carbon emissions, upgrading port infrastructure to minimize environmental damage and restoring damaged ecosystems, the company said in a statement.

“As a responsible leader in global trade, we are committed to preserving the ocean’s ability to provide for future generations,” DP World Chairman and CEO Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem said.

Based at the Dubai International Financial Centre, Nasdaq Dubai already issues green bonds, sustainability bonds and sustainability-linked bonds. The total value of its debt listings is $137 billion, of which $29 billion are linked to ESG – environmental, social, and governance – goals.

Developers of New Murabba, Neom, Diriyah and other multibillion-dollar construction projects across Saudi Arabia occupied center stage this week at the Real Estate Future Forum in Riyadh.

Until former U.S. President Bill Clinton mounted the podium Wednesday night at the Four Seasons.

Praising Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 plan that set off a torrent of building activity across the kingdom, Clinton told a packed ballroom, “It’s worth investing in.”

The 78-year-old statesman, who met with MBS earlier in the day, added: “I think that we Americans should come here and study this 2030 plan and ask ourselves what is our equivalent,” Arab News reports.

Clinton capped the final day of the conference in Saudi Arabia’s capital, where the cube-shapped New Murabba development promises to be the “most complex structure known to man or woman,” the project’s CEO Michael Dyke told a conference panel.

“We will have something like two to three Empire State Buildings on each corner, which anchor the four corners of Mukaab,” Dyke said. At the center will be a residential tower the size of the Eiffel Tower “that will be the only skyscraper in the world that lives inside another building.”

“Below the ground is enormous as well,” he said, adding, “It’s a complete cavernous labyrinth of various different asset classes” with retail space “the size of Dubai Mall that will be capable of extending to be bigger.”

The UAE’s Ministry of Defense displayed its first Dassault fighter jet at a ceremony in Paris that inaugurating its $17.4 million deal with the French aviation firm.

The acquisition of 80 Rafale jets, among the most advanced combat aircraft, is part of a broader effort to upgrade the UAE’s defense capabilities.

“Our strategy focuses on acquiring the most advanced weaponry and systems that align with the evolving nature of modern warfare and technological advancements,” Mohamed Al Mazrouei, Minister of State for Defense Affairs, said at the ceremony on Thursday.

Al Mazrouei was joined at the event by French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu and other representatives from France and the UAE.

Bustling with new hospitals and medical startups, the UAE is a global center for innovative health care this week, proclaiming its aspirations from the world’s tallest skyscraper.

The annual Arab Health conference took over the 162-story facade of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa on Tuesday night to announce with a laser light show that it will henceforth be known as WHX – as in, the World Health Expo.

On hand for the event were some of the biggest names in the healthcare industry, including Merck, Baxter AG, the Cleveland Clinic, GE Healthcare, Siemens and the UAE’s PureHealth.

Abu Dhabi’s M42 – backed by Mubadala and G42 – showed off the integration of artificial intelligence into treatment regimens at hospitals and clinics across the country.

Over the three days of proceedings in the vast halls of the Dubai World Trade Centre, some 3,800 companies from 180 countries – including Saudi Arabia, Morocco, the U.S., the U.K., China, India, Singapore and Taiwan – are pitching their wares.

One exhibit that captured attention was a display of Dubai’s use of facial recognition by its ambulance services through an app that can identify unconscious residents who aren’t carrying an ID card.

“This event embodies Dubai’s long-term vision of building innovative and comprehensive health systems based on strong international partnerships and platforms that bring together thought leaders and experts,” said Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, Second Deputy Ruler of Dubai, hailing the city’s “growing status as a global hub for anticipating and shaping the future” of healthcare.

Also present at the conference were Mansoor Al Mahmoud, Qatar’s Minister of Public Health; Dr. Jaleela bint Al-Sayed Jawad Hassan, Bahrain’s Minister of Health; and Dr. Khaled Atef Abdel-Ghaffar, Egypt’s Minister of Health.