French defense and technology giant Thales is advancing plans to deepen its footprint in Saudi Arabia through a radar production facility and expanded cooperation with Saudi Arabian Military Industries.

The goal, Pascale Sourisse, senior executive vice-president of international development at Thales, told The National, is to bolster the kingdom’s air defense capabilities and contribute to its broader strategy of localizing military production and becoming a global defense supply chain player.

This partnership aligns with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 ambitions, aiming to reduce dependence on foreign suppliers, create skilled jobs for Saudis, and boost domestic technical expertise.

With military spending reaching over $80 billion in 2024, Saudi Arabia remains a key market for Thales’ long-term growth and innovation in defense technologies, Sourisse said.

While focusing on the kingdom, Thales is also pursuing plans to establish an AI research center in Abu Dhabi, marking its first such hub in the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund is looking to further broaden its interests in professional sports after becoming a global power in competitions ranging from golf and soccer to mixed martial arts.

SURJ Sports, an investment arm of the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund, is in talks to invest in the organizers of the T100 Triathlon World Tour as part of plans to grow the series, Bloomberg reports.

The Saudi fund is negotiating with the London-based Professional Triathletes Organisation and it’s unclear how much SURJ will invest, the news agency said.

The PTO aims to turn triathlons into a professional sport. Last year, it launched the T100 Triathlon World Tour, which covers a total distance of 100 kilometers (62 miles), including an 80-kilometer bike ride, an 18-kilometer run and a 2-kilometer swim.

Cordillera Investment Partners, a San Francisco-based investment fund, invested $10 million into the PTO in March, Bloomberg reports. Other investors in the PTO include Warner Bros. Discovery. 

Delivery firm Ninja is Saudi Arabia’s newest tech unicorn, reaching a valuation of $1.5 billion after it raised $250 million from local investors.

The funding round was led by Riyad Capital, the investment banking arm of PIF-backed Riyad Bank, the kingdom’s third biggest lender by assets, Bloomberg reports.

Ninja, which was founded in 2022, offers rapid delivery of food and groceries in Saudi, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain. It is targeting an IPO by 2027, according to Bloomberg.

Startups in Saudi raised nearly $400 million in the first quarter of this year, highlighting the kingdom’s growing venture capital scene.

Ninja joins several other Saudi start-ups with so-called “unicorn” valuations over $1 billion, including fintech companies Tamara and Tabby.

Meanwhile, Qatar has moved to regulate commercial licenses for its cloud kitchens, the hidden production facilities used by many restaurant brands for booming home delivery services.

The Gulf’s largest state-owned oil companies are adapting to lower crude prices in the foreseeable future by cutting back on multibillion-dollar acquisitions and selling assets.

Both Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest petroleum exporter, and Abu Dhabi-based ADNOC have slowed down their M&A activities as they assess what the 16% drop in oil prices this year will mean for their bottom lines, the Financial Times reports.

Over the past three years, Aramco and ADNOC have been the oil industry’s most active dealmakers, announcing more than $60 billion of acquisitions as the two giants expanded into gas, chemicals and lubricants.

With oil prices falling to $67 a barrel this week and analysts predicting continued oversupply in the market, both companies are looking at ways to cut spending and curb their appetites for big acquisitions, the newspaper said.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, meanwhile, reported that net profit fell by more than half last year to about $7 billion, reflecting the impact of lower crude prices for the sovereign wealth fund, which owns a 16% stake in Aramco.

The PIF’s income from investment activities, however, gained 38% from the previous year, pushing the fund’s total assets under management above $1 trillion, second among Gulf sovereign wealth funds to the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

Etihad Rail could take a lead role in upgrading dilapidated railways in Africa, as the developer and operator of the UAE’s nascent national rail network eyes opportunities for overseas expansion.

The company signed a host of initial cooperation agreements in May with governments in Uganda, Kenya, South Sudan and Chad, Arabian Gulf Business Insight reports.

Chiefly, the UAE is being courted to provide a potential lifeline to Kenya’s Mombasa-Malaba standard gauge railway connection to Uganda, an ambitious project which stalled about 400 kilometers short of the border after China pulled back on lending.

The railway will eventually continue on to South Sudan.

Etihad Rail, established in 2009, successfully launched freight operations in the UAE in 2023, with passenger rail services expected to start next year.

Saudi Arabia appears to be rebounding from a slowdown in foreign investment that has strained government budgets and forced cuts in some of the kingdom’s most ambitious construction projects.

First-quarter figures released on Sunday showed that inflows of foreign direct investment reached $6.4 billion, a 24% jump from the same period in 2024 and the best start to a year since 2022.

Saudi Arabia has been prodding trade partners to invest more heavily in the kingdom amid low oil prices that have led to growing budget deficits.

Slowing FDI over the past three years is enabling the UAE to overtake Saudi Arabia this year in the value of awarded construction projects, Bloomberg reports, citing data provided by the Middle East Economic Digest.

Halfway through 2025, the UAE has approved an estimated $31 billion in contracts, compared to Saudi Arabia’s $20.6 billion. If the trend continues, it will be the first time the UAE comes out ahead in awarded contracts since 2018.

Egypt is preparing to open up the operations of 11 major airports to private investment, aiming to modernize the country’s aviation infrastructure and reach its goal of attracting 30 million tourists annually.

Backed by the World Bank’s International Finance Corp., the plan focuses on boosting efficiency and service standards while keeping state ownership intact.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi reviewed the strategy over the weekend, endorsing a timeline that begins with offering Hurghada airport on the Red Sea to the private sector by the end of 2025.

The initiative is set to be finalized next summer.

Abu Dhabi launched its first test flight for drone parcel delivery, seeking a solution to speed packages through the capital city’s chronic traffic jams.

The pilot project by aviation technology company LODD, announced on Wednesday, took place through a partnership involving the Abu Dhabi Investment Office and investment group 7X.

Emirates Post, the UAE mail service, and express delivery provider EMX are among 7X’s holdings.

In Dubai, the government has been testing a Chinese-made drone to deliver food and medicine.