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  • Saudi Aramco backs AI startup

    A venture unit of Saudi Arabian oil company Aramco is making its first U.S. AI-related investment, backing a pre-Series A round for San Francisco-based AiXplain, AiXplain is one of a growing number of startups that aim to transform generative AI from chatbots into agents who can take action. The startup also wants to ensure that Arabic languages are better represented.

  • Will growing Saudi investment in Iraq hit Iranian roadblock?

    Gulf Arab investment in Iraq has swelled in recent years, signaling a new and widening rapprochement with Baghdad. Yet, while Iran and Saudi Arabia last year agreed to normalize relations, it is unclear whether Arab investment in Iraq—without stoking Iranian ire—is tenable. Riyadh and its Arab neighbors recognize that any move against their interests by Iran-backed  Iraqi armed groups would undermine the investments that their broader strategy depends on.

  • Will Gulf Camping Survive the Tourism Boom?

    The Gulf Cooperation Council’s “Grand Tours” unified visa is expected to launch by the end of 2024, permitting intercountry travel for foreign nationals living in all six GCC states akin to the European Union’s Schengen Area. With the unified visa projected to ease travel logistics and boost tourism revenue, tourism sectors across the GCC states are strategically working to craft multicountry tourism packages in tandem with the announcement of the visa.

  • Israel bombards central Gaza as tanks advance deeper in Rafah

    Israeli forces bombarded the Gaza Strip's historic refugee camps in the centre of the enclave and struck Gaza City in the north on Thursday, killing at least 13 people, and tanks pushed deeper into Rafah in the south, health officials and residents said. One Israeli airstrike killed six people in Zawayda town in central Gaza and two other people were killed in a strike on a house in Bureij camp. An Israeli air strike killed three people in a car in Deir Al-Balah, a city packed with people displaced from elsewhere in Gaza, health officials said.

  • Saudi Arabia sees 60 million tourists in first half of 2024

    Saudi Minister of Tourism Ahmed Al-Khateeb announced that in the first half of 2024, the number of tourists reached 60 million, spending a total of SR150 billion. He emphasized the country's commitment to developing the tourism sector, which currently represents 3% of Saudi Arabia's GDP, while noting that the sector  accounts for 10% of the global economy. Al-Khateeb revealed that in 2023, Saudi Arabia welcomed approximately 109 million tourists, including 27 million international visitors, placing the country 11th globally in terms of tourist numbers.

  • VLCC rates under pressure as Saudi Arabia slashes exports

    New data from Vortexa shows VLCC utilisation for OPEC+ – excluding Iran and Venezuela – fell sharply during June and reached a record low earlier this month, as exports from the group, especially Saudi Arabia, fell sharply. “The lack of sizeable alternative routes for VLCC flows, i.e. outside of OPEC+ (mostly Middle East) to Asia, is likely to keep VLCC rates under pressure,” Vortexa warned in a tanker update this week. VLCC rates have been on the slide this month, ducking well below the $30,000 a day mark.

  • Saudi Arabia Condemns Israeli Attack on UNRWA School in Gaza

    Saudi Arabia strongly condemned on Thursday Israel’s targeting of the Al-Razi United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) school in the Nuseirat refugee camp and its attack on the Attar area in Khan Younis in Gaza.

  • Saudi Cabinet approves establishment of national minerals program

    According to a ministry statement released earlier this year, the Kingdom’s mineral wealth is valued at an estimated SR9.4 trillion ($2.5 trillion). The Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Bandar Alkhorayef thanked King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the cabinet’s approval and said the program will effectively drive growth in the minerals sector and exploit the country’s mineral wealth.

  • ‘I’ll always protect’ Saudi Arabia, former US President Trump says

    Donald Trump has vowed to “always” protect Saudi Arabia if he is re-elected as US president during the upcoming elections in November. The former president and Republican nominee, who will run against Joe Biden in a few months, made his first trip abroad to Saudi Arabia after entering the White House in 2017.

  • JinkoSolar to build 10GW n-type cell and module factory in Saudi Arabia

    The facility will be built and financed through a joint venture (JV) between JinkoSolar Middle East, the Renewable Energy Localization Company (RELC) – a subsidiary of the state-run Saudi Public Investment Fund – and Vision Industries (VI), an investor in Saudi clean energy industrial projects and supply chains. Both JinkoSolar and RELC will hold 40% equity and VI the remaining 20%.