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Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, UAE National Security Advisor, paid a visit to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at Al-Salam Palace in Jeddah on Thursday. In a show of sportsmanship, Sheikh Tahnoon wore the scarf of the kingdom’s Al Hilal soccer team, which knocked Manchester City, the team owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, Sheikh Tahnoon’s brother and the UAE Vice President, out of the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 on Monday. (Saudi Press Agency)

The Daily Circuit: Gamers head for Riyadh + Halal tourism boom

AI HOSPITAL

Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi picks G42’s Peng as new Chairman

tech foothold

Thales advances Mideast strategy with Saudi defense projects

Archer Aviation's Midnight aircraft is tested in the skies above Abu Dhabi, with Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in the background. (Archer Aviation)

The Daily Circuit: G42’s Peng to chair Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi

bike, run, swim

Saudi Arabia’s SURJ eyes investment in pro triathlon tour

ready to eat

Saudi delivery startup Ninja reaches $1.5 billion valuation

The Daily Circuit: Saudi PIF seeks triathlon stake + Aroya launches Med cruise

DEal slowdown

Aramco, ADNOC cutting back on M&A amid decline in oil prices

laying tracks

UAE’s Etihad Rail aims to upgrade dilapidated network in Africa

Fans of Saudi soccer club Al Hilal celebrate during the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 round 16 match against Manchester City at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida, on Monday. Hilal stunned commentators when they knocked out the defending champions during extra time in the seven-goal thriller. (Waleed Zein/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The Daily Circuit: Etihad Rail eyes Africa + Oil drop curbs M&A

stoking growth

Foreign direct investment in Saudi Arabia bounces back

AVIATION REFORM

Egypt to open 11 key airports to private sector investment

Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed met Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council meeting on Friday in Minsk, Belarus. (WAM)

The Daily Circuit: Saudi FDI bounces back + PAL Cooling sold

Flying Boxes

Abu Dhabi launches test flight for drone parcel delivery service

The Daily Circuit: Kuwait’s Trolley IPO + ADQ seeks Limagrain stake

YOUNG BOSSES

Saudi Arabia bets on younger CEOs to steer new corporate era

The Daily Circuit: Mubadala’s Hong Kong IPO + Borouge teams with Honeywell

BUSINESS AS USUAL

Mideast airlines resume flights after Iran-Israel truce secured

muscle building

Saudi fitness firm Sport Clubs aims to raise $69 million in IPO

The Daily Circuit: Mideast airports resume flights + Saudi Sport Clubs IPO

Quick Hits

Trust fund

Dubai Holdings’ $584 million REIT surges 10% in IPO debut

The listing on the Dubai Financial Market, oversubscribed last week within minutes, values the trust at approximately $3.9 billion

GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP via Getty Images

A view of skyscrapers along the Dubai Marina waterfront.

By
Omnia Al Desoukie
May 28, 2025
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Dubai Holding’s $584 million residential real estate investment trust jumped 10% on its trading debut today, reflecting the strength of the emirate’s property market in the city’s first IPO of the year.

The listing on the Dubai Financial Market, which was oversubscribed last week within minutes of its launch, values the trust at approximately $3.9 billion, Bloomberg reports.

Backed by the investment arm of Dubai’s ruling family, the Dubai Residential REIT offering was managed by Citigroup Global Markets Limited, Emirates NBD Capital and Morgan Stanley.

Dubai’s residential market continues to rally, buoyed by the inflow of wealthy expatriates drawn by relaxed visa policies and low taxation.

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shopping spree

TAQA looking to acquire U.S. companies amid expansion drive

The Abu Dhabi power and water utility's Chief Executive Jasim Hussain Thabet tells Reuters he's waiting for the right opportunity to come along

Emirates News Agency

TAQA booth at World Utilities Congress in Abu Dhabi

By
Jonathan H. Ferziger
May 27, 2025
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Abu Dhabi National Energy Co., the UAE capital’s omnipresent power and water utility known as TAQA, may be getting ready for a shopping spree in the U.S.

The government-owned company, whose largest shareholder is sovereign wealth fund ADQ, will focus its current plans for international expansion in the American arena, CEO Jasim Hussain Thabet tells Reuters.

“The U.S. is a key market for us,” Thabet said. “If the right opportunity presents itself for TAQA, we would be pursuing that.”

Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, the UAE’s Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology as well as CEO of the national oil company ADNOC, told President Donald Trump during his visit two weeks ago that the government plans to boost energy investments in the U.S. over the next decade to $440 billion.

TAQA, which raised $1.8 billion from a bond sale last October, would generally prefer to acquire a fully integrated company with generation, networks and “a pipeline of growth,” Thabet said.

The company’s Masdar unit last year acquired a 50% stake in U.S. renewable energy firm Terra-Gen.

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NOT YET SUMMER

UAE sweats through record-breaking heat before Eid holiday

Some inland areas are already registering highs above 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit), prompting the government to issue health alerts

A child runs through a fountain in front of the Dubai Opera on May 24, as pre-summer temperatures soar in the UAE. (Giuseppe Cacace / AFP via Getty Images)

Giuseppe Cacace / AFP via Getty Images

A child runs through a fountain in front of the Dubai Opera as pre-summer temperatures soar

By
Louise Burke
May 27, 2025
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Two months of record-breaking temperatures in the UAE have seen residents and visitors sweltering through what is normally the cooler events season, with little relief on the way as the Eid al-Adha holiday approaches next week.

Summer does not officially begin until June 21, but some inland areas are already registering record temperatures above 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit), prompting the National Center of Meteorology to warn the public to take precautions in the extreme heat.

April was already the warmest on record in the UAE, with an average high of 42.6 degrees Celsius. “The new thing about these conditions is that they are happening really too early, before even the official start of the summer season,” Khalifa University’s head of the Environmental and Geophysical Sciences Dr. Diana Francis told The National.

“The second element is how extreme they are compared to the record,” she said.

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RIGHT TRACK

Egypt intercontinental rail plan needs go-ahead for Saudi bridge

King Salman of Saudi Arabia announced the Red Sea project in 2016, envisioning a bridge crossing the Straits of Tiran to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula

Mohammed Asad/Xinhua via Getty Images

Egypt restored rail service to the North Sinai last October after the route was suspended for more than 50 years

By
Jonathan H. Ferziger
May 26, 2025
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Egypt is aiming to link its expanding railway network with Asia and Europe, but it hasn’t yet been able to finalize plans to build a bridge to Saudi Arabia.

In the meantime, it will use ships to bring cargo across the Red Sea, Reuters reports. Saudi’s King Salman first announced the bridge project in 2016, envisioning a road that would cross the Straits of Tiran to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

If completed, the route would compete with another notional rail project that would connect the UAE to Israel’s Haifa Port through Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

Another project on the drawing board would run north from the Gulf through Iraq.

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Fun City

Joining Disney, Waldorf homes sell out on Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island

Yas is already home to Abu Dhabi’s Formula One track, Ferrari World, Etihad Stadium, the Warner Brothers theme park and Sea World Abu Dhabi

Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

Ferrari World's sports car roller coaster on Yas Island

By
Jonathan H. Ferziger
May 26, 2025
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First came Disney. Now the Waldorf is finding a home on Abu Dhabi’s fun-filled Yas Island with 133 luxury apartments being built by top UAE developer Aldar bearing the luxury hotel chain’s brand.

It was a matter of hours after Aldar launched sales of the project on Sunday that every one of the units at the Waldorf Astoria Residences Yas was snatched up – from garden apartments to penthouses – generating more than $230 million in sales, The National reports.

The success of Abu Dhabi’s first branded residence sale comes barely two weeks after Disney and the UAE’s Miral Group announced construction of the U.S. entertainment giant’s first theme park in the Middle East. Disney’s $10 billion outpost on Yas Island is expected to open sometime between 2030 and 2033.

Yas is already home to Abu Dhabi’s Formula One track, Etihad Stadium, Ferrari World, the Warner Brothers theme park, Sea World Abu Dhabi and Yas Waterworld, spread among a dozen or so five-star hotels.

Aldar said expatriates and international investors accounted for 76% of the Waldorf buyers, with the rest bought by UAE citizens. Customers from the U.K. and China led the charge.

“The sell-out of Waldorf Astoria Residences Yas marks a significant milestone for Aldar and highlights the attractiveness of Yas Island both as an investment destination and prime residential address,” Aldar CEO Jonathan Emery said.

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Gulf leader

G42 invests with OpenAI, Nvidia to build massive data center

Among other major investors in the Abu Dhabi data center, which is called Stargate UAE, are Oracle, SoftBank, Nvidia, and Cisco

Emirates News Agency

G42 CEO Peng Xiao, left, with OpenAI's Sam Altman, at the signing of a partnership agreement in 2023

By
Jonathan H. Ferziger
May 23, 2025
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G42, the UAE’s flagship artificial intelligence company, took a big step in its bid to establish regional leadership in the booming field.

The Abu Dhabi-backed tech company, whose Chairman is National Security Advisor Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, announced a partnership with OpenAI on Thursday to build an AI data center with a 1-gigawatt capacity that would make it one of the most powerful facilities in the world.

Among other investors in the Abu Dhabi data center called Stargate UAE – OpenAI’s first major project outside the U.S. – are Oracle, SoftBank, Nvidia, and Cisco.

G42 and OpenAI didn’t disclose a cost for the Abu Dhabi project, although similar projects planned in the U.S. run well over $10 billion, The Wall Street Journal reports. It said the data-center project is the fruit of months of negotiations between the UAE and the Trump administration that culminated in a deal last week to allow the U.A.E. to import up to 500,000 advanced AI chips a year.

Abu Dhabi’s Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, meanwhile, is planning next week’s graduation ceremony, where 104 students from 24 countries will get their degrees, including the six-year-old school’s first Emirati PhD graduate.

MBZUAI’s President Eric Xing told Bloomberg in an interview published today that he hopes to make his school the Stanford of the Gulf, pointing to the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship it cultivates, and its global influence.

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Launch time

Flynas IPO oversubscribed by nearly 100 times before trading

The carrier's largest shareholders are Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s Kingdom Holdings and the government’s Public Investment Fund

Nicolas Kovarik/IP3/Getty Images

Saudi Prince AlWaleed bin Talal's Kingdom Holdings is the largest shareholder in Flynas

By
Jonathan H. Ferziger
May 22, 2025
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The $1.1 billion IPO for Saudi Arabia’s Flynas low-cost airline has reached the runway and is ready for take-off after the offering to institutional investors was nearly 100 times oversubscribed.

The carrier, whose largest shareholders are Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s Kingdom Holdings and the government’s Public Investment Fund, is the latest in a slew of IPOs for Saudi companies that have also encountered high demand, including Umm Al-Qura construction, which raised more than $500 million in March.

Flynas shares, which will start trading on Riyadh’s Tadawul Stock Exchange May 28, were set on Wednesday at 80 riyals apiece, the top of the range given by the IPO’s investment bankers.

Proceeds from the offering are slated for expanding Flynas’ fleet by 225 planes and launching several new flight hubs. The budget airline flies to 59 destinations and is popular with Muslim pilgrims to Mecca and expat workers from India, the Philippines and elsewhere.

Flynas is not alone among Gulf airlines interested in going public. Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways, owned by the ADQ sovereign wealth fund, is actively preparing for an IPO while Emirates and Qatar Airways have been mulling share sales for years.

Still waiting to stretch its wings is Riyadh Air, Saudi Arabia’s new national carrier wholly owned by the PIF, which plans to start flying its stylish royal blue jetliners this year in the fourth quarter.

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Cellular Solution

Abu Dhabi researchers aim to find cure for Type 1 diabetes by 2027

The Abu Dhabi Stem Cells Center, a subsidiary of ADQ's Pure Health, is collaborating with Kyoto University and a Japanese firm on the research

PureHealth headquarters in Abu Dhabi.

By
Louise Burke
May 22, 2025
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Abu Dhabi researchers are hopeful for a breakthrough in treatment for Type 1 diabetes within two years using a method of regenerating the pancreas with engineered cells.

The Abu Dhabi Stem Cells Center, a subsidiary of ADQ-controlled Pure Health, is collaborating with Kyoto University and research company Rege Nephro on the research, which is being showcased at Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan, The National reports.

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease where the pancreas stops producing insulin, which regulates blood glucose levels.

There is currently no cure, and treatment usually relies on lifelong monitoring and daily insulin injections. It is hoped that regenerating the pancreas could provide long-term relief.

In separate research, ADSCC revealed in January it had successfully used umbilical cord-derived cells to treat a 20-year-old Emirati patient with Type 1 diabetes.

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