Saudi Arabia kicked off its LEAP25 conference with a flurry of billion-dollar deals and a campaign to rebrand the kingdom as a cauldron of tech innovation on par with Europe.

Opening the annual LEAP event in Riyadh on Sunday night, Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Al-Swaha ticked off a series of investments worth $14.9 billion that were due to be signed this week.

Al-Swaha attributed the kingdom’s tech growth to the Vision 2030 roadmap introduced by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2017 to diversify the economy and wean it off its longtime dependence on oil sales.

“The numbers speak for themselves,” Al-Swaha said. “As a tech force, as His Royal Highness said, this region is the new Europe.” Based on the number of startups gestating in the kingdom, he said, Saudi Arabia would be the fifth largest tech hub if it were located in the EU zone.

Touted as the biggest tech exhibition in the world, LEAP25 attracts many of the major biggest players, including Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Dell, Cisco, SAP, Amazon Web Services, Alibaba and Huawei.

More than 1,800 international and local exhibitors, including 680 startups, are populating the exhibition floor at the Riyadh Exhibition and Convention Center.

Among the deals announced at the event, Groq, a U.S.-based artificial intelligence firm, said it will invest $1.5 billion in a project developed with Saudi Aramco to launch the world’s largest AI inferencing data center in Saudi Arabia, Arab News reports.

U.S.-based Databricks pledged to invest $300 million over the next three years to upskill Saudi citizens, build the company’s business in the kingdom, and contribute to the local digital economy. SambaNova, another U.S. software firm, agreed to invest $140 million to build advanced AI infrastructure in Saudi Arabia.

Tara Brady, President of Google for Europe, the Middle East and Africa said the company will contribute $70 billion to the kingdom’s economy over the next 10 years.

Elon Musk, Sundar Pichai, Larry Ellison and Tony Blair will headline next week’s World Governments Summit in Dubai, one of the Middle East’s key annual gatherings for both politicos and investors.

Artificial intelligence, of course, is a major focus this year with Omar Al Olama, the UAE’s Minister of State for AI, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications – and summit Vice Chairman, due for an onstage chat on Tuesday with Google CEO Pichai.

Musk, the world’s richest person, is expected to make an appearance in a session called “Boring Cities, AI and DOGE.” Blair, the world-trotting entrepreneur and former U.K. Prime Minister, and Oracle founder Ellison will interview each other in front of the 6,000 registered participants.

The political line-up over the three-day conference will feature the presidents of Indonesia, Poland, Sri Lanka, and Colombia, along with the prime ministers of Kuwait, Armenia, Pakistan, Kenya, Libya, Georgia, and Bangladesh.

In Miami, meanwhile, final preparations are underway for the Saudi Future Investment Initiative’s Priority Summit, a spinoff of the annual Davos-patterned event in Riyadh.

Among those participating in the Feb. 19-21 meeting will be Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. Princess Reema bint Bandar, Minister of Investment Khalid Al-Falih, PIF Governor and FII Institute Chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan, SoftBank Group Corp Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son and Serena Ventures Managing partner Serena Williams.

Also BlackRock Co-founder and President Robert S. Kapito, Oracle  Safra Catz, Neuberger Berman Chairman and CEO George Walker, Point72 CEO and New York Mets owner Steven Cohen, Uber Technologies CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, and Bridgewater Associates CEO Nir Bar Dea.

While Silicon Valley venture capitalists continue making pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia in search of cash, the kingdom’s native startups are drawing more investment from other countries than its Gulf peers.

For the second consecutive year, Saudi Arabia was on the receiving end in 2024 of $750 million to lead the MENA region in collecting VC investments, according to a report by MAGNiTT. The UAE followed with $613 million.

On the providing end, government-owned Saudi Venture Capital Co. has committed $1 billion in investments since its inception in 2018, Arab News reports.

Adding contributions from partners raises the total to $4.8 billion over the six-year span, spread among VC, private equity, debt and private credit markets, according to SVC’s latest Impact Report.

“We are committed to further stimulating the private capital ecosystem in Saudi Arabia by launching required investment programs and developmental initiatives based on an analysis of the ecosystem’s needs,” SVC’s CEO Nabeel Koshak said in the report.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, meanwhile, is in talks for a $3.1 billion loan guarantee with Sace, the Italian insurer and export credit agency, Bloomberg reports. If negotiations reach an agreement, Sace will provide guarantees to a group of international banks for a range of Saudi projects.

The talks follow Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s trip to Saudi Arabia last month, where she met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the two countries agreed on deals worth $10 billion.

While hedge funds, law offices and wealth managers are pouring into Saudi Arabia and the UAE, other parts of the Gulf are also attracting interest from international businesses.

BlackRock, for one – the world’s largest asset manager, with holdings of about $11.5 trillion – is scouting office space in Kuwait City as it tries to deepen ties in the region, Bloomberg reports.

The New York-based firm is in discussions with Kuwaiti regulators and could make a final decision as soon as this month, according to the news outlet, which said BlackRock declined to comment.

Kuwait’s state-run KUNA news agency, meanwhile, reported that BlackRock CEO Larry Fink was in Kuwait on Monday and met with Emir Sheikh Mishaal Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah.

BlackRock has close links to Kuwait, whose sovereign wealth fund, the $1 trillion Kuwait Investment Authority, is one of its top shareholders.

Elsewhere in the Gulf, London-based private equity firm Permira plans to open an office in Dubai, issuing a statement on Mondeay that said it will seek fresh strategic partnerships with institutional and private wealth investors in the region.

Permira’s new representative office in Dubai’s financial center is still subject to regulatory approval. Among the major draws to the region are the Gulf’s sovereign wealth funds that control roughly $4 trillion in assets.

Private wealth is also an attraction. Dubai is now home to family offices that control more than $1 trillion in assets, according to Bloomberg.

Saudi Arabia has persuaded hundreds of companies to establish regional headquarters in the kingdom by making it a prerequisite for winning government contracts.

Speaking at the World Investment Conference in November, Saudi Investment Minister Khalid Al-Falih said more than 550 firms had complied with the regulation, pointing to announcements the previous week by Citibank and Morgan Stanley on their expanded Saudi offices.

Setting up headquarters in Saudi Arabia comes with perks, including a 30-year exemption from corporate income tax and access to discounts and support services.

The UAE is moving ahead with plans to transform a piece of Jordan’s Red Sea beachfront into a luxury resort.

MAG Group, a subsidiary of ADQ’s AD Ports Group that was appointed on Sunday as the project’s developer, said it will soon begin work on the Marsa Zayed property in the southern port city of Aqaba, which abuts the Saudi border.

In the first phase, MAG will begin construction on ​​what will be called the Zayed Riviera with four residential towers, a yacht club, and restoration of the Aqaba Minaret.

The Jordanian project could potentially link to similar planned resorts in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel that form a border-traversing horseshoe around the Red Sea.

Energy ministers from OPEC+ meet today as oil and gas customers around the world gird for the expected fallout from the U.S. trade war taking shape with Canada, Mexico and China.

Oil prices rose today after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on the three countries, sparked by fears that the feuds would disrupt supplies. Brent crude futures rose 78 cents, or 1.03%, to $76.45 a barrel at 1:33 p.m. UAE time after touching a high of $77.34. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were up $1.36, or 1.88%, to $73.89.

The OPEC+ members, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, will meet online for a monthly review at which they’re expected to leave production and supply plans unchanged through March and gradually lift the current quotas that were designed to keep prices from falling, Reuters reports.

While Trump has urged the petroleum producers bloc to cut prices, several OPEC+ delegates have said they won’t adjust the plan for now since crude markets remain fragile amid faltering demand in China and plentiful supply across the Americas, Bloomberg reports.

Goldman Sachs issued a report on Sunday that suggests the Trump tariffs are likely to have a limited near-term impact on global oil and gas prices.

“Potential tariff-driven decline in U.S. natural gas imports from Canada is too small to significantly raise U.S. natural gas prices,” the investment bank said.

In the world of debt finance, blue bonds are an emerging class of securities used to support maritime projects that carry potential environmental benefits.

Nasdaq Dubai announced on Thursday it will host the MENA region’s first blue bond sale as DP World seeks to raise $100 million for its seaports and logistics businesses.

The bond issue is aimed at supporting a range of DP World projects this year, including development of alternative fuels to reduce maritime carbon emissions, upgrading port infrastructure to minimize environmental damage and restoring damaged ecosystems, the company said in a statement.

“As a responsible leader in global trade, we are committed to preserving the ocean’s ability to provide for future generations,” DP World Chairman and CEO Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem said.

Based at the Dubai International Financial Centre, Nasdaq Dubai already issues green bonds, sustainability bonds and sustainability-linked bonds. The total value of its debt listings is $137 billion, of which $29 billion are linked to ESG – environmental, social, and governance – goals.

Developers of New Murabba, Neom, Diriyah and other multibillion-dollar construction projects across Saudi Arabia occupied center stage this week at the Real Estate Future Forum in Riyadh.

Until former U.S. President Bill Clinton mounted the podium Wednesday night at the Four Seasons.

Praising Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 plan that set off a torrent of building activity across the kingdom, Clinton told a packed ballroom, “It’s worth investing in.”

The 78-year-old statesman, who met with MBS earlier in the day, added: “I think that we Americans should come here and study this 2030 plan and ask ourselves what is our equivalent,” Arab News reports.

Clinton capped the final day of the conference in Saudi Arabia’s capital, where the cube-shapped New Murabba development promises to be the “most complex structure known to man or woman,” the project’s CEO Michael Dyke told a conference panel.

“We will have something like two to three Empire State Buildings on each corner, which anchor the four corners of Mukaab,” Dyke said. At the center will be a residential tower the size of the Eiffel Tower “that will be the only skyscraper in the world that lives inside another building.”

“Below the ground is enormous as well,” he said, adding, “It’s a complete cavernous labyrinth of various different asset classes” with retail space “the size of Dubai Mall that will be capable of extending to be bigger.”