From energy, infrastructure and pharmaceuticals to iconic snack brands and baby products, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority has been pumping funds into India over the past six months.

Across five deals with Indian businesses, the sovereign wealth fund invested $1 billion during the first half of 2024 as the UAE pushes to increase non-oil bilateral trade with its second-largest trading partner.

India is becoming a magnet for sovereign investment amid growing geopolitical and economic uncertainty elsewhere.

Last month UAE Minister of Economy Abdullah bin Touq led a trade delegation of Emirati business leaders and government officials to the world’s most populous nation.

It followed reciprocal visits by UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

ADIA has been able to leverage relationships with India’s biggest conglomerates, including Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries and Gautam Adani’s Adani Group, to grow its presence.

The fund has been named among likely investors, alongside Abu Dhabi’s International Holding Co., in an upcoming $1 billion stock offering for Adani Energy.

Among the non-oil deals under pursuit, ADIA is a part of a consortium led by Blackstone which is attempting to acquire a majority stake in snack giant Haldiram in a deal worth $4.8 billion. If successful, the purchase is likely to be the largest private equity buyout in India to date.

The fund is also being sounded out by the Indian government to buy its stake in Vodafone Idea.

A new level of assertiveness by sovereign wealth funds is changing the way some of the world’s biggest money managers are seeking investment from the Gulf.

Apollo Global Management, Blackstone, BlackRock and others are being urged and sometimes compelled to set up local offices in the Gulf, hire and train Gulf nationals, arrange investor gatherings and bring more expat professionals to live in the region’s financial capitals, Bloomberg reports.

Among the funds advocating for these upgrades are the Saudi Public Investment Fund, Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala and the Qatar Investment Authority.

With the total pool of Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund assets estimated to reach $7.6 trillion by 2030, these funds want to co-invest, get a larger share of deal profits and strengthen their local economies that are largely built on oil through diversification, according to the news agency.

The largest sovereign wealth funds are focusing on fewer asset management firms, which in turn are doing away with their usual management and performance fees in order to secure commitments for their funds, Bloomberg reports.

A virtual real estate consultant powered by artificial intelligence has already closed $30 million in real estate transactions in Dubai three weeks after launching.

The AI agent, which goes by the name Jucica Brown, was launched by Realiste AI on messaging app Telegram and has so far closed 50 transactions, company founder Alex Galt told Arabian Business.

Jucica is designed to feel like interacting with a human agent, including small touches like showing when she is “typing” a reply.

“Many of the users interact with her posts unaware of her digital nature,” Galt said, adding that the company believes the technology will redefine property sales.

Companies and government agencies in the UAE have been quick to adopt AI.

Earlier this year, International Holding Co., the Abu Dhabi-owned industrial conglomerate, announced that it had created a new post on its Board for an AI observer developed by G42 in collaboration with Microsoft.

Saudi Arabia is starting from the ground up to make the kingdom “a welcoming and secure environment” for international business, in the words of Investment Minister Khalid Al-Falih.

The government announced new regulations on Sunday that scrap the bureaucracy-heavy issuance of foreign investor licenses in favor of a streamlined registration process that aims to remove roadblocks to investment.

According to the Ministry of Investment, the measures will guarantee the rule of law, fair treatment and the freedom to transfer funds without delay.

In recent years, Saudi Arabia has introduced a raft of measures to woo foreign investment, including issuing visas specifically for investors, creating special economic zones with lower tax rates, and overhauling money transfer and bankruptcy laws.

With ambitious building plans across the country, including the $1.5 trillion Neom mega-project along the Red Sea coast, Saudi Arabia seeks to attract more than $100 billion in foreign direct investment a year by 2030 as part of an effort to shift the economy from dependence on oil.

Work has started on the first homes being built at the site of Dubai’s Expo City, which is expected to become the UAE’s first “15-minute city.”

The planning concept, which has become popular in global discussions about better urban design in recent years, essentially means all the amenities of daily life will be located in close enough proximity to be accessed on foot or by bicycle.

Expo City Dubai authorities say the first apartments, which will have views of Expo landmarks including Al Wasl Plaza, are expected to be handed over in Q1 2026.

The development, Mangrove Residences, has already sold out, with prices starting at AED 2 million ($544,590) for a one-bedroom apartment.

The manner in which government and corporate business mix in the UAE’s capital has earned it the name Abu Dhabi Inc. The latest example surfaced on Thursday with the appointment of Dr. Thani Al Zeyoudi, Minister of State for Foreign Trade, to serve as Executive Chairman of Rorix Holdings.

The Abu Dhabi-based company, a new subsidiary of state-owned International Holding Co., is being set up to capitalize on the series of free-trade agreements signed by the UAE with countries including India, Indonesia, Israel, Turkey, South Korea and Chile. More than a dozen others are in various stages of negotiation.

Over the past three years, Al Zeyoudi has been the chief negotiator and globe-trotting evangelist for the pacts, known as Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements, which are designed to reduce or eliminate import fees and other tariffs between participating nations. Now he will formally steer the financial services company established to channel profits from the trade relationships into the UAE’s $500 billion economy.

Framing the company’s mission, Al Zeyoudi said in a statement that Rorix will seek to “accelerate trade volumes, attract foreign investment, and build economic partnerships that drive sustainable growth” for a range of industries across the UAE.

Saudi Arabia’s pressure on international companies to establish their regional headquarters in the kingdom has been so successful, it has eaten up virtually all the top commercial real estate in Riyadh.

Prime and Grade A office spaces are fully occupied while Grade B occupancy has hit 99.4%, according to a survey by international property firm CRBE cited by Daily News Egypt.

Jeddah and the Eastern Province cities of Dammam and Khobar have also recorded rental growth and increased occupancy rates.

“The lack of available quality stock is somewhat hampering the potential of the market,” said CRBE’s Taimur Khan, Head of MENA Research.

Dubai is taking advantage of the quieter summer time to experiment with a four-day work week and shorter office hours in an effort to promote better work-life balance.

“Our Summer is Flexible,” a pilot scheme at 15 Dubai government organizations, will see work suspended on Fridays and working days reduced to seven hours between Aug.12 – Sept. 30.

HR departments will gather feedback on the program and make recommendations on whether it should continue.

Dubai is not the first emirate to try out the idea, which is gaining popularity around the world.

Sharjah introduced a four-day work week in 2022 in order to maintain Friday, a holy day in Islam, as a full day off after the UAE government switched to a western weekend with a half-day on Fridays.