DAVOS, Switzerland – Anthony Scaramucci, the founder of SkyBridge Capital and record-holder for shortest tenure as White House spokesman, is all over town – from surveying Saudi Arabia’s pop-up NEOM exhibition to throwing his own wine-tasting soiree.

Speaking to The Circuit after one of multiple speaking engagements, “The Mooch” said his secret to success in 17 years of coming to Davos is “Never be afraid to crash a party.”

Scaramucci held his own 12th annual SkyBridge Wine Party on Tuesday night with a raucous crowd squeezing into the Hotel Europe Tonic Piano Bar.

The 60-year-old financier also said he was impressed with the Saudi kingdom’s efforts to establish its presence at Davos, with Investment Minister Khalid Al-Falih addressing a breakfast crowd this morning and several cabinet members appearing on the conference’s main stage in the Davos Congress Center.

The three Davos Promenade stores that NEOM rented for the week to show off its futuristic $500 milliion mega-city project, as well as pop-ups down the street taken by Saudi Digital and the ancient desert city of AlUla, carried an unmistakable message, he said.

A veteran participant in Saudi Arabia’s Future Investment Initiative, known as “Davos in the Desert,” Scaramucci said the kingdom is sending a message.

The Saudis are saying, “Our country’s open for business. We want to integrate with the democracies. We have a beautiful country and you should feel safe in our country,” Scaramucci said, adding “I think this is part of a normalization process in general, and eventually with the State of Israel.”

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – The U.S. remains the preferred destination for Abu Dhabi’s investment capital, Mubadala’s Deputy Group CEO Waleed Al Muhairi said today.

“It offers the best risk-reward,” Al Muhairi said. “I don’t see that changing for the next three to five years.”

Abu Dhabi’s second-largest sovereign wealth fund has about $280 billion in assets under management, with $100 billion, or 36% of the fund, deployed in the U.S., according to Al Muhairi, speaking at the Milken Institute’s Middle East and Africa Summit in Abu Dhabi. 

“We will likely miss the recession that some people have been predicting,” he said. “Nobody knows what’s going to happen, but it feels like there’s going to be a very soft landing in the U.S..”

“Inflation as we are seeing right now is essentially tapering down,” he added. “If we see rate cuts and if we see continued strong performance from some of the big corporations, both balance sheet-wise and obviously earnings-wise, then I think you could be poised for growth in the U.S..”

On China, where Mubadala has an office in Beijing, Mubadala is taking a “wait and see” approach.

“We’re still deploying, albeit a little more cautiously.” 

In other emerging markets like Indonesia and India, Al Muhairi said there is potential in telecoms, financial services and FinTech but these markets are “challenging to navigate.” 

Al Muhairi also took some time to pitch for Abu Dhabi Inc.: “We’ve historically had deep pools of capital. What’s a little different today is that we have deep pools of opportunity to match that capital,” he said. 

“Whether it’s private equity, the development of the markets, financing opportunities, the activities of the financial sector and banks, there is a tremendous amount of opportunity, and I could not be more optimistic about the region, the UAE, in particular, and certainly, Abu Dhabi specifically.”

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — The United Arab Emirates is working to develop a single financial strategy for its sometimes competitive constituent emirates, Investment Minister Mohamed Alsuwaidi said on Thursday.

Each of the seven local governments, which banded together in 1971 to form a federation, has historically managed its own  priorities, said Alsuwaidi, who was tapped to lead the newly formed Ministry of Investment in July.

Amid increasing competition from neighboring Saudi Arabia and a booming population – Alsuwaidi predicted a doubling to 10 million over the next decade – the UAE is positioning itself to attract multinational companies and increase opportunities domestically and globally for its homegrown entities. He was speaking today at the Milken Institute’s Middle East and Africa Summit in Abu Dhabi.

Alsuwaidi, who is also chief executive of Abu Dhabi’s strategic investment fund ADQ, said the new ministry would “not be involved in asset allocation” or “influence decisions made by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Mubadala or the Dubai sovereigns.” Instead he sees the role of the ministry as helping UAE companies enter new markets, particularly nearby, and attract foreign investment.

“Before we have to travel further than three or four hours, there are enough projects in the region to expand and take our businesses to the next level and that’s really our aspiration,” Alsuwaidi said, There is a drive, he said, for “more investments in financial services and financial institutions and attracting those family offices and asset managers.” 

Alsuwaidi cited specific examples of expansion, some in his own portfolio: the ADQ-owned energy company TAQA has opened power plants in Uzbekistan and Morocco; ADNOC is eyeing international gas projects; and ADQ-backed PureHealth, which is going public, acquired a business in the U.K. and a stake in a U.S. healthcare provider earlier this year.  

Saudi Arabia, the Middle East’s biggest economy, announced tax incentives on Wednesday to further entice multinational companies to set up regional headquarters there, a direct challenge to the UAE’s current primacy as the region’s business and trade hub.

Alsuwaidi brushed off the question of competition or the threat of conflict in the region: “Conflicts around the region has never stopped us from attracting talent from attracting people to come and set up shop has never attracted or deterred people from looking at the quality of security and life that they that we can offer in the UAE.” 

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Bucking a global trend of valuation corrections, the Gulf has its first fintech unicorn with Tabby. The Saudi “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) startup has been valued at $1.5 billion after raising $200 million in a series D funding round as it prepares to go public on the kingdom’s stock exchange. 

U.S.-based Wellington Management led the round, with participation from Hong Kong’s Blue Pool Capital and existing investors Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Capital, Saudi Arabia’s STV Ventures, PayPal Ventures and Hong Kong’s Arbor Ventures.

Tabby, founded in Dubai in 2019, relocated to the Saudi capital of Riyadh in September as part of plans to list on the Tadawul stock market. 

The company manages over $6 billion in annual transaction volume and has 10 million users across Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait. The platform works with over 30,000 brands, including 10 of the largest retail groups in the MENA region as well as Amazon, H&M and SHEIN. 

BNPL is a kind of short-term financing that lets online shoppers make purchases and pay for them in installments, with companies integrating their payment platform into e-commerce sites, an offering that has taken off in the Middle East with several players popping up: Tamara, Postpay and Cashew are among those jostling for share in the region. 

Hosam Arab, CEO and co-founder of Tabby, told TechCrunch in an interview on Wednesday that the company is profitable. “Tabby created a new industry and is transforming the way people consume and pay across MENA,” Abdulrahman Tarabzouni, founder and CEO of STV, said in a statement. 

The Middle East’s IPO boom continues, with activity holding steady after a record-breaking 2022.

Not immune to global forces, value took a big hit, however: GCC markets raised $6.8 billion through 29 offerings during the first nine months of 2023. That marked a year-on-year decline in value by 56% compared to the first nine months of 2022, when issuers raised $15.6 billion through 30 share floats, according to Markaz, the Kuwait Financial Center.

The UAE, the most active in the region for IPO activity, is catching up to the world’s biggest economy. Year-to-date, the U.S. has generated $8 billion in IPO value, while the UAE not far behind with almost $7 billion raised through IPOs. 

“This is a milestone for the UAE, with its robust financial regulatory framework, ironclad anti-money laundering protection and substantial firepower from a capital perspective,” Ryan Lemand, co-founder and CEO of Neovision Wealth Management in Abu Dhabi, told The Circuit. “Strong retail investor appetite for IPOs and high retail investor-to-population ratios, help in making most IPOs successful.”

In the pipeline: Mulkia Investment Company intends to offer 20% of its capital on the Saudi Tadawul exchange this month. And the UAE is also expecting around 11 IPOs in 2023, raising upwards of $2 billion, according to Markaz.

What to watch this quarter: “As valuation gaps narrow, investors are reviewing the post-listing performance of the new cohort of IPOs, which, if positive, could renew market confidence,” according to EY. 

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – The creator of ChatGPT is working with Abu Dhabi’s biggest artificial intelligence firm to scale up the availability of generative AI tools in the Middle East. 

Mubadala-backed artificial intelligence firm G42 will use OpenAI’s large language models to build new products for clients in sectors where it is already active – financial services, energy and healthcare – and provide infrastructure capacity to support OpenAI’s local and regional inferencing on Microsoft Azure data centers. No financial details of the partnership were disclosed.

“Leveraging G42’s industry expertise, we aim to empower businesses and communities with effective solutions that resonate with the nuances of the region,” Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO of the San Francisco-based company, said in a statement on Wednesday. 

G42 CEO Peng Xiao called the partnership  “a convergence of value and vision.” 

Since becoming available to the public last year, OpenAI’s ChatGPT has inspired a gusher of investment into vast databases and neural networks to mimic human intelligence for commercial gain. 

But the UAE was an early mover on AI. The country is set to reap the biggest economic boost in the region, with AI expected to contribute to 14% of GDP by 2030, according to a PwC study that the government often cites. In 2017 it released a strategic roadmap for integrating the then-nascent technology into its economy and regulation. In 2019, Abu Dhabi opened a dedicated AI research university.

In 2020 G42 became the first UAE company to open an office in tech-heavy Israel after the Abraham Accords were signed, and within a year formed a joint venture with Israel’s state-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems to commercialize AI and big data technologies.

G42 is also partnering with Cerebras Systems, which recently built the first of nine AI supercomputers, offering a compelling alternative to the market leader Nvidia. 

The G42-OpenAI partnership comes four months after Altman stopped through the UAE on a global tour that included India, Israel, Qatar and South Korea. During a talk in Abu Dhabi, Altman said the UAE “has been talking about AI since before it was cool.” 

Businesses and philanthropic organizations will meet at the COP28 climate conference to debate how the world can raise more than $3 trillion a year in a bid   to reach net zero emissions. 

To lead the event, the COP28 Business & Philanthropy Climate Forum has partnered with the Sustainable Markets Initiative, which was launched by King Charles III at Davos in 2020 before he ascended the throne. Also backing the initiative are the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the International Finance Corporation, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Economic Forum, the Asian Development Bank, Africa Finance Corp. and XPRIZE.

The forum will convene 500 business and philanthropy leaders alongside policymakers, hosted by COP28 president-designate Sultan Al Jaber on Dec. 1 and 2.

“We are committed to hosting a fully inclusive COP, and it would be impossible to do this without the vital input of our business and philanthropy communities,” said Al Jaber, who is also the CEO of  the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. and chairman of alternative energy company Masdar.  

On the agenda is how the private sector can help address the financing gap of over $3 trillion that scientists and policymakers say is required annually to achieve net-zero emissions, support climate adaptation, reverse nature loss and restore biodiversity.

As mandated by the Paris Climate Agreement, COP28 UAE will deliver the first-ever “Global Stocktake” – a comprehensive evaluation of progress against climate goals. The UAE will also lead a process for all parties to agree upon a roadmap to accelerate emissions reductions and the energy transition. 

The climate meeting will take place at Expo City Dubai from November 30 to December 12. 

The conference is expected to draw over 70,000 participants, including heads of state, government officials, international industry leaders, private sector representatives, academics, experts and youth leaders, according to organizers. 

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Abu Dhabi is touting a breakthrough in 3D printing for the automotive and aerospace industries at the massive technology show GITEX in Dubai this week.

Researchers at the Technology Innovation Institute, a government-backed entity for applied research, developed a new patent-pending metal alloy at its additive manufacturing lab, which they say has commercial potential for pistons in racing cars and satellites. 

The additive manufacturing market, known colloquially as 3D printing, was worth $16.8 billion in 2022 and is set to grow nearly threefold by 2027 to $44 billion, according to Research and Markets. Expanding the range of materials that can be used to print parts and withstand high temperatures and other harsh environments is a critical part of building the value of the still-niche 3D field. 

Nesma Aboulkhair, who leads the additive manufacturing team of seven at TII, said this is the first time a Middle East country has contributed a new material to the library in a research domain dominated by the United States and Europe. 

“We are now cultivating the expertise to produce metal powder and design innovative materials, empowering us to manufacture existing alloys and create new ones for both local and global markets,” she said in a statement today. 

AMALLOY, as the material has been dubbed by the TII team, solves long-standing issues faced by the 3D-printing industry to produce metal parts using lasers to melt and fuse powders. Particularly with high-strength metals, cracks and defects are common given the high temperatures of the lasers used in the printing process. The new alloy is more heat-resistant compared to what is currently available.

Venture One, which works to build commercial cases for TII’s research output, is likely to market the new alloy to car, plane and aerospace manufacturers, as well as the oil and gas industry. But these products will not necessarily be mass-produced: at TII, a 5-inch rocket engine prototype part takes about 24 hours to print.

Still, the research hub fits into Abu Dhabi’s overarching industrial strategy,  a 10-year plan that aims to double manufacturing’s contribution to the economy by 2031, which includes increasing infrastructure, bringing down operational costs and improving regulations and access to financing.