After seven weeks of grueling battle in Saudi Arabia over computer screens and joysticks, the Esports World Cup 2025 competition proclaimed Riyadh-based Team Falcons as champ from a field of more than 2,000 players representing over 100 countries.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman presided over the closing ceremony of the Esports World Cup 2025 on Sunday, presenting the trophy to the Falcons, who led the standings with 5,200 points.

The team won the $7 million grand prize from a record-breaking $70 million total prize pool, the largest in esports history.

Among prominent personalities who attended the closing ceremony were soccer star Christiano Renaldo, Crown Prince Hussein of Jordan and billionaire investor Evan Spiegel.

The tournament is part of the kingdom’s national esports strategy that aims to attract investment and achieve the goal of becoming the world leader in the $2.9 billion esports industry.

Over the course of the Esports World Cup, the site of the competition at Boulevard Riyadh City drew more than 3 million visitors, according to the Saudi Press Agency. At the same time, over 750 million viewers worldwide followed the competition through digital platforms.

HSBC’s Swiss private bank is cutting ties with more than 1,000 wealthy Middle Eastern clients, including individuals from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Lebanon and Egypt, some with assets exceeding $100 million.

The move follows scrutiny from Swiss regulators, who in 2024 said the bank had breached anti-money laundering obligations, the Financial Times reports.

HSBC confirmed its Swiss private bank is shifting strategic focus as part of a wider group reshaping announced last year.

Barry O’Byrne, HSBC’s CEO of International Wealth and Premier Banking, told Reuters the bank remains committed to its Middle East and Swiss wealth operations.

Space42, the Abu Dhabi-backed satellite communications company, is considering a new fundraising push to expand its satellite mapping project in Africa.

While the financing is in early talks and no formal target for the amount it will seek to raise has been set, the Space42 initiative aims to provide detailed maps for all of Africa’s 54 countries that can be used for logistics, disaster response and urban planning, Bloomberg reports.

Working with Microsoft and U.S. mapping firm Esri, Space42 has said it expects to license the data it collects to governments, and later make it available to businesses.

Space42’s potential funding efforts involve discussions with the African Union Development Agency and other financial institutions active on the continent, according to Bloomberg. Among Space42’s shareholders are the Mubadala sovereign wealth fund, G42 tech company and International Holding Co.

In a related development, Space42 has secured a $696 million export credit facility from European banks, backed by French export insurer Bpifrance, to develop its Al Yah 4 and 5satellites with advanced, reconfigurable payloads, SpaceTech in Gulf reports. 

The satellites are scheduled for launch in 2027 and 2028 and are part of a 17-year UAE government contract costing $5.1 billion.

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated with additional details on Space42’s mapping project published by Bloomberg.

First came news stories earlier this week about construction delays and concerns about snowmaking capacity at NEOM’s planned Trojena desert ski resort.

Now, the Financial Times reports that organizers of the 2029 Asian Winter Games are shopping for alternative countries in which to hold the competition because they fear the Saudi site won’t be ready.

One part of the project requires blasting out huge amounts of rock and installing some 3,000 tension cables, a process that could take eight years, according to the FT.

Trojena, which is 2,600 meters above sea level, is planned to have 30 kilometers of ski runs available between December and March each year.

While there is some natural snow in the area, it is rare, and so the resort will rely completely on artificial snow. 

Saudi Arabia is increasingly finding sports to be a lucrative source of cash.

The kingdom’s Ministry of Sport announced this week it has put two soccer teams, Al Najma and Al Okhdood, up for sale as part of its privatization campaign, Arabian Gulf Business Insights reports.

Last year, the Public Investment Fund bought ownership of four clubs from the government, including Al-Nassr, home to Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo.

Al-Kholood was bought last month by American investor Ben Harburg.

Egypt is planning a nationwide geological survey of mining sites that are likely to attract foreign investment.

The study will compile detailed geological data and map potential deposits of gold, copper and other minerals across the country, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Karim Badawi said in a statement.

The information will be made available to prospective investors to support bidding in upcoming exploration tenders.

As part of the initiative, the ministry plans to coordinate with international consultants and local institutions to update and digitize existing geological records.

Abu Dhabi’s Masdar green energy company is shifting gears to focus on meeting the voracious power needs of AI data centers.

After budgeting billions of dollars for developing green hydrogen into a commercial fuel, Masdar has found few buyers and decided to reallocate its resources, Bloomberg reports.

For Masdar, which is owned by the ADNOC national oil company, the TAQA national energy company, and the Mubadala sovereign wealth fund, lower-than-expected revenue figures told the story, CEO Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi says.

“Today, green hydrogen is under pressure and the market is shrinking. A lot of people who went into this venture are out. We are not,” Al Ramahi told Bloomberg. “But we also need to respect global dynamics.” 

In the renewables industry, Masdar is not alone. Many of its peers around the world have invested deeply in green hydrogen amid broad excitement over the fuel’s promise for providing clean, cheap and plentiful energy. Weak demand and high costs, however, have forced the industry to pull back.

Instead, Masdar has decided to divert the money toward an expected boom in power consumption from AI data centers, Al Ramahi said. One of the world’s biggest such projects is the $545 million facility that the UAE’s du telecom company is planning with Microsoft.

“My basic business mandate isn’t hydrogen or aluminum or whatever,” Al-Ramahi said. “It is green electron capacity.”

In another area of its business, Al-Rahimi said Tuesday that a Masdar-led consortium has secured $1.1 billion in financing from eight regional and international banks to support development of the 2-gigawatt Al Sadawi solar power plant in Saudi Arabia.

It isn’t easy to produce snow in the desert.

That basic problem surrounding Saudi Arabia’s planned Trojena ski resort is emerging as a major test of the kingdom’s $1.5 trillion NEOM development as it races to fulfill its commitment to hosting the 2029 Asian Winter Games.

Introduced in 2022 as one of NEOM’s eye-popping, futuristic projects, Trojena is building ski slopes atop luxury hotel roofs, a lake hanging over a mountain cliff and a crystal skyscraper the size of the Eiffel Tower.

Trojena, which is estimated to cost $19 billion, is already likely to miss its target completion date of 2026, Bloomberg reports.

That worries officials at the Asian Games, who generally expect key infrastructure to be in place well in advance of major events

Among concerns being raised are the challenges of pumping enough water up a mountain for a planned lake at Trojena, creating sufficient artificial snow and the difficulties of building at high altitudes in an area with complex topography.

NEOM, which is owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, maintains the project will meet its deadlines.

“The development of NEOM, including Trojena, is progressing according to a phased plan that emphasizes international standards, long-term sustainability and legacy outcomes,” the company said in a statement to Bloomberg. “Work on Trojena, Neom’s year-round mountain destination, continues.”