A year after the UAE hosted the annual United Nations environmental summit, the torch passed today to Azerbaijan as officials and activists from 197 nations converged on the capital city of Baku for the two-week event known as COP29.

Opening the conference was COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev, Azerbaijan’s Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources, who said the earth is on a “road to ruin” and beseeched delegates to embrace U.N. goals for transition from fossil fuels. “COP29 is the unmissable moment to chart a new path forward for everyone,” he said.

The focus of this year’s climate summit is finance as estimates for the cost of building out clean energy systems, making cities more resilient to extreme weather, and transitioning factories and transportation systems away from fossil fuels run into trillions of dollars, The New York Times reports.

Much of the attention, however, is on what to expect from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who has dismissed global warming as a hoax. Also stirring controversy is Azerbaijan’s economic dependence on oil production, which is drawing protests similar to those against the UAE last year at COP28.

Countries will present their updated national climate action plans, which detail how they plan to reduce emissions. At the end of the conference, which closes on Nov. 22, negotiators will try to ratify a final agreement that will include new commitments to address climate change.

More than 100 heads of state and government were planning to attend, including the leaders of Barbados, Finland, Greece, Kenya, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan. Skipping the event is U.S. President Joe Biden, as well as the leaders of China, India, Brazil, Britain, Germany and France.

Among the speakers at today’s opening event was Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, who was President of COP28. He is also CEO of Abu Dhabi-based national energy company ADNOC and the UAE’s Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology.

“I urge you all to prove once again that we can unite, act and deliver,” Al Jaber said. “Let positivity prevail and let it power the process.”

Dealmakers are tallying the numbers from this week’s ADIPEC energy summit in Abu Dhabi, touting a record 205,000 participants and more than $10 billion in contract agreements.

Among the top deals announced at the mammoth conference were ADNOC Drilling’s $223 million acquisition of virtually all of Deep Well Services, TA’ZIZ’s $2 billion infrastructure contract for Al Ruwais Industrial City in Abu Dhabi and BGP’s $490 million contract with ADNOC for its 3D seismic survey in the UAE capital.

ADIPEC’s agenda was set from the start by ADNOC CEO Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, who also serves as UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, Chairman of Masdar and COP28 President. Pointing to the voracious energy needs of AI data centers, Al Jaber said, “No single source of energy is going to be enough to meet this demand.”

In turn, many of the conference’s 1,800 speakers focused on the central themes of harnessing AI in energy production, the shift to sustainable fuels and the rise of the so-called global south in the energy market.

Elsewhere on the MENA conference circuit, the opening of Saudi Arabia’s Biban 24 summit on Thursday, which focuses for small and medium-sized businesses, yielded a total of 17 contracts and preliminary agreements, alongside the launch of government financial initiatives valued at more than $4.8 billion.

G42, the Abu Dhabi technology firm backed by the emirate’s sovereign wealth and Microsoft, is cooking up plans for its new investments in artificial intelligence next year.

At a board meeting on Thursday led by G42 Chairman Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, who is also the UAE’s Deputy Ruler and National Security Advisor as well as Chairman of ADIA and International Holding Co., the company worked out its growth strategy for 2025.

Among those around the board table were Mubadala CEO Khaldoon Al Mubarak, G42 CEO Xiao Peng, G42 Group Counsel Marty Edelman, Microsoft President and Vice Chairman Brad Smith, and Bridgewater Associates Founder Ray Dalio, Etisalat Chairman Jassem Al Zaabi and Silver Lake Technology CEO Egon Durban.

“We emphasized the Group’s crucial role in shaping the future of global technology and making innovation a cornerstone for a more prosperous future globally,” Sheikh Tahnoon said in an Instagram post.

As G42 grows, Saudi Arabia is planning a new AI initiative with as much as $100 billion in backing as it seeks to compete with the UAE, Bloomberg reports. A tech hub being built by the Saudi Public Investment Fund and Google may serve as the starting point for the project, the news agency said.

Hugging the UAE’s Gulf coast east of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the emirate of Sharjah is prospering as a lower-cost business center within easy proximity to its high-flying neighbors.

While cultivating its own ecosystem of free zones and industry clusters, Sharjah has committed $8 billion to new strategic initiatives over the past two years, drawn in $2 billion in foreign direct investment and created more than 3,000 new jobs. With 1.8 million people, its population is roughly half the size of Dubai’s.

In an interview with The Circuit, Marwan Alichla, Director of Investment Promotion & Support at the emirate’s Invest in Sharjah agency, talks about new efforts to reach small and medium-sized enterprises, or SMEs. Among the sectors being targeted are advanced manufacturing, agritech, food security, healthcare, culture and tourism, and environmental sustainability.

Positioned at the crossroads of the UAE, Sharjah is using its strategic location, improved infrastructure and a basket of new financial incentives to attract businesses, presenting a compelling argument as the cost of living in neighboring Dubai continues to skyrocket.

With Dubai’s economy booming, how does Sharjah compete?
When we describe Sharjah, the most important points we always highlight are the cost of doing business and then secondly, the improved infrastructure. When it comes to anything investors would require, and when it comes to cost, we have considerable [advantages] over our neighboring cities.

What is your strategy to attract investors and what kind of investors are you looking for?

Mainly our role is to promote investments, to facilitate, guide and support. To promote investment opportunities, we focus on seven different sectors:  advanced manufacturing, agritech, food security, healthcare and wellbeing, culture, tourism, and environmental sustainability.

We also look after innovation and human capital. We have done a lot of research to identify investment opportunities. Let’s talk about advanced manufacturing as an example. We have the largest area for an industrial city. We have more than 33 industrial zones and we are looking for more manufacturers.

What kind of investors approach you?

Sharjah’s economy is based on SMEs. We have more than 66,000 SMEs based in the emirate of Sharjah. When it comes to free zones, we have six different free zones. Sharjah has two main free zones that look after small and medium enterprises. We have the Hamriyah Free Zone and the Sharjah International Free Zone. We have four specialized free zones and specialized clusters. There is Sharjah Healthcare City, the Sharjah Research, Technology and Innovation Park. We also have Sharjah Media City, which looks after the creativity and media sector, so there are opportunities.

Why are SMEs based in Sharjah?

Because we have created an ecosystem for startups. We have three different entities that look only after startups. One of the main ones is the Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center, Shera, which has startup incubators and offers various incentives for startups. The second one is Ruwad, which also looks after Emirati entrepreneurs. We have one government entity that looks after women entrepreneurs, the Sharjah Women’s Business Council, and they have their own programs.

What kind of infrastructure do you have that attracts investors?

In terms of infrastructure, we have created different clusters for different areas. We have a cluster specialized for tech companies, innovation centers and research and development centers. We have a cluster specialized for media, creative industries, and studios. We have a cluster specialized for pharmaceuticals, medical devices, clinics, special clinics and hospitals.

How do you describe Sharjah’s competitive advantages?

Sharjah is in the middle of the UAE. We border all the emirates, and when it comes to logistics, it is the right and ideal location for companies. Sharjah looks after innovation, so you’ll have the right talent pool ready there for you to support. And we have a growing ecosystem, whether it’s for startups, or for small and medium enterprises.

Abu Dhabi’s annual ADIPEC conference opened on Monday, bringing cabinet ministers, oil executives and investors to the UAE capital from around the world to ponder where the energy market is headed.

Kicking off the four-day event was Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, Group CEO of ADNOC, Chairman of Masdar and COP28 President, who pointed to the growing power appetite of AI data centers.

“No single source of energy is going to be enough to meet this demand,” Al Jaber said in an address to the opening session at Abu Dhabi’s ADNEC hall. “We need to integrate renewable energy, nuclear energy and gas in the most cost and carbon-efficient way.”

On the eve of ADIPEC, Al Jaber hosted a gathering for industry leaders called ENACT Majlis that included Microsoft President Brad Smith, Mark Carney, the Chairman of Brookfield Asset Management who serves as U.N. Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance; Shell CEO Wael Sawan, BP CEO Murray Auchincloss and Princess Beatrice, founder of the U.K. advisory organization BY-EQ.

Amid OPEC production cuts and pressure to shift away from fossil fuels, CEOs from some of the world’s biggest oil companies at ADIPEC rated conflict in the Middle East and friction between the U.S. and China among their top concerns.

BP CEO Murray Auchincloss said he was worried about protecting personnel and safeguarding supplies because of the geopolitical tensions in the region, Bloomberg reports.

“The conflict in the Middle East is probably the top risk of all right now,” Auchincloss said during a panel discussion on Monday. “We operate across five or six countries in the region — we are worried obviously about the security of our people and the security of energy supplies.”

Shell CEO Wael Sawan pointed to today’s U.S. elections and Donald Trump’s campaign promise to increase tariffs on China. “Longer term, what happens on the U.S.-China axis” is a concern for oil companies, Sawan said at the conference.

Oil companies are concerned, Sawan said, about energy demand, supply chains and the impact that sour U.S.-China relations “could have on the redrawing of the energy complex globally.”

UAE Minister of Energy and Infrastructure Suhail Al Mazrouei, meanwhile, said during his opening remarks at ADIPEC that his country plans to invest up to $54 billion to meet sustainable energy demand over the next six years, aiming to “decarbonise our economy and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.”

👋 Hello from the Middle East!

In the Daily Circuit today, we’re looking at Red Sea Global’s eco-tourism resorts in Saudi Arabia, the PIF’s plans to sell shares in Diriyah Co., South Korea’s deal to store Kuwaiti oil as a hedge against supply disruptions and more widebody planes for Riyadh Air. But first, not all the FII headliners went directly home from the Saudi capital.

After gathering for Saudi Arabia’s Future Investment Initiative powerfest this week in Riyadh, a number of high-level executives headed over to Abu Dhabi and Dubai to continue their outreach to the region.

Blackstone’s Steve Schwarzman and BlackRock’s Larry Fink visited with Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, Deputy Ruler of Abu Dhabi, UAE National Security Advisor and Chairman of AI development firm G42, along with ADIA and ADQ. 

After meeting Schwarzman, Sheikh Tahnoon posted on social media that the Blackstone CEO’s “profound insights into finance and our collaborative vision can greatly advance how AI technologies are integrated within global investment strategies.” About Fink, he said, “We eagerly anticipate deepening our partnership” with BlackRock on financing AI infrastructure.

Ruth Porat, President and Chief Investment Officer for Alphabet and Google, flew from Riyadh to headline an event at Dubai’s Etihad Museum where she announced a $15 million grant to help Middle East youth develop digital skills. Porat also met with Omar Sultan Al Olama, UAE Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications.

Shou Zi Chew, CEO of TikTok, also made the short hop from Saudi Arabia to the UAE, where he met with Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai and UAE Minister of Defense. Sheikh Hamdan said Dubai is committed to “expanding partnerships with global new media technology leaders like TikTok to enhance the competitiveness of its media sector.”

Other financiers who turned up in the UAE after Riyadh included Starwood Capital’s Barry Sternlicht and Third Point founder Dan Loeb, the latter of whom fit in a session on the waves at Surf Abu Dhabi in between meetings.

Welcome to the Daily Circuit. Kindly let us know your thoughts and feedback by replying to this newsletter or emailing us at [email protected].

CIRCUIT INTERVIEW

Red Sea Global brings luxury eco-tourism to Saudi beaches

Red Sea Global is the linchpin in Saudi Arabia’s effort to turn the beaches on its western coast into a playground of luxury tourism and a beacon of sustainability.

Wholly owned by the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund, the company has opened resorts in 2024 under the St. Regis, Ritz-Carlton, Six Senses and Shebara brands, The Circuit’s Omnia Al Desoukie reports. Over the next year, it plans to launch 17 new hotels in the new AMAALA development and elsewhere along the coral-laden shores of the Red Sea.

In an interview with The Circuit on Thursday at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh, Gregory Djerejian, Red Sea Global’s Chief Legal Officer and Head of Investments, said Saudi Arabia wants to dazzle travelers with a mix of high-end leisure activities tempered by a commitment to environmental sustainability.

Click here to read the full interview.

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Dec. 5-6, Abu Dhabi: Milken Institute Middle East and Africa Summit. Corporate executives, investors, government officials, and philanthropists gather to address the globe’s most pressing issues. St. Regis Saadiyat Island.

Dec. 5-8, Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2024. World’s fastest race drivers compete in Abu Dhabi leg of the Formula One season. Yas Marina Circuit.

Dec . 9-10, Abu Dhabi: The Bitcoin Conference. The conference connects with industry leaders, and experiences a dynamic expo hall featuring a fusion of technology and art. ADNEC.

Dec. 9-12, Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi Finance Week. Market experts and entrepreneurs from all over the world discuss the latest market trends. Al Maryah Island, ADGM Square.

Red Sea Global is the linchpin in Saudi Arabia’s effort to turn the beaches on its western coast into a playground of luxury tourism and a beacon of sustainability.

Wholly owned by the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund, the company has opened resorts in 2024 under the St. Regis, Ritz-Carlton, Six Senses and Shebara brands. Over the next year, it plans to launch 17 new hotels in the new AMAALA development and elsewhere along the coral-laden shores of the Red Sea.

Under the PIF sovereign wealth fund’s umbrella, Red Sea Global works separately from Saudi Arabia’s $1 trillion-plus Neom mega-project, which staged a star-studded debut for its Sindalah Island resort last week. The lavish party brought out actor Will Smith, Grammy Award singer Alicia Keys, tennis champ Rafael Nadal and former NFL quarterback Tom Brady.

In an interview with The Circuit on Thursday at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh, Gregory Djerejian, Red Sea Global’s Chief Legal Officer and Head of Investments, said Saudi Arabia wants to dazzle travelers with a mix of high-end leisure activities tempered by a commitment to environmental sustainability.

What are Red Sea Global’s plans for transforming tourism in Saudi Arabia?

The vision for Red Sea is to offer barefoot luxury in a regenerative tourism style, where visitors experience nature in a pristine way, introducing them to the beauty of the Red Sea. This appeals to tourists who may not have associated Saudi Arabia with luxury or environmentally friendly tourism before. AMAALA is slightly different; it has a varied topography with dramatic cliffs and three natural bays, so it will offer a different vibe with a wellness focus. We’ll have a wellness hub there featuring brands like Clinique La Prairie, Jayasom, and others. So, while the Red Sea focuses on luxury tourism, Amaala will be more wellness-centered. That’s the big picture of how the next two to three years will play out.

What is the potential market for all of this?

I have been here for two and a half years, and it’s staggering to see the 1,700 kilometers (1,050 miles) of untouched coastline on the Saudi side. The vision of our chairman, His Royal Highness Crown Prince [Mohammed bin Salman], is to develop this coastline in a very environmentally-sensitive and selective way. This tourism offering is compelling as it repositions and introduces Saudi Arabia as a new tourism destination, beyond Hajj tourism and business travel.

Who do you expect to be your clientele?

We expect a lot of curiosity seekers from Saudi Arabia and the GCC, followed by European holidaymakers. The exceptional product we’ve created is also just a four-to-five-hour flight from cities like London with minimal time difference. Additionally, the China and India markets are huge, and our world-class offering will likely attract curiosity seekers from North and South America.

How will you contribute to improving the Saudi economy?

The vision of His Royal Highness is to diversify the economy beyond hydrocarbons. As tourism contributes around 10% to global GDP in many countries, it has huge potential in Saudi Arabia to build on existing Hajj and business tourism. This new tourism offering will also have multiplier effects by creating many direct, indirect, and imputed jobs… especially for younger Saudis who may not have had the chance to attend college. The leisure tourism and hospitality industry can provide opportunities for those without a college education.

What are the opportunities for investors interested in partnering with you?

We offer many investment opportunities. We’ve done two joint ventures: one with Kingdom Holding, part of Prince Alwaleed’s group, for our Four Seasons hotel on Shore Island, opening at the end of next year, and another with the Mutlaq Group for the Jumeirah Hotel. Beyond hotel partnerships, there are other opportunities in infrastructure and ecosystem investments. For example, we’ll soon be offering staff accommodation and construction village investments. Logistics, warehousing, and residential offerings also present options.

Yesterday, we held a signing ceremony for the financial close of our multi-utility concessions for AMAALA…  providing a 100% off-grid, 100% renewable energy solution. With 750,000 solar panels in use, we’ll have one of the world’s largest battery storage facilities. Investing with us also means investing in green energy.

What are the environmental implications of all this construction?

While I’m not a scientist, we conducted an extensive marine study that served as a baseline, allowing us to understand the ecosystem we’re working in. Our CEO likes to say we’re moving beyond sustainability – not just leaving the place as we found it but aiming to improve it over time.

After three days of working the vast marble halls and plush meeting rooms of the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Riyadh, corporate chiefs are shaking hands on billions of dollars in deals arranged at Saudi Arabia’s annual Future Investment conference.

With FII’s outgoing CEO Richard Attias estimating that the conference would spawn some $28 billion in investments, executives from Wall Street, the Gulf, China and elsewhere vied for attention in announcing their latest deals.

Among the most watched tie-ups was the preliminary agreement announced by the Saudi Public Investment Fund to back Brookfield Asset Management’s new $2 billion Middle East fund, boosting the Canadian investment firm’s ability to finance deals in the Gulf.

New York-based Z Capital Group pledged as much as $2 billion for investments in Saudi Arabia, Bloomberg reports. It said the bank will launch a direct lending fund with approximately $1 billion early next year that offers senior secured and asset-backed loans to small and medium-sized businesses.

The National Bank of Kuwait signed $1.6 billion in deals at the FII conference, including a $690 million agreement with ACWA Power to support the Saudi energy and desalination company’s expansion plans in and outside the kingdom, KUNA reports.