MUST-READS

• Rory McIlroy Says New York City Meeting Between PGA Tour, Saudi PIF Is ‘Peculiar Timing’

  Rory McIlroy expressed surprise Wednesday at the timing of meetings taking place between the leaders of golf’s divided factions, but said the reason behind a December exhibition between players on both sides was to try and show the world the possibilities going forward. Speaking ahead of the DP World Tour’s Irish Open at Royal County Down, McIlroy discussed the match he disclosed last week that would see him and Scottie Scheffler of the PGA Tour play against LIV Golf’s Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka.

• After Netflix debut, banned Indian film sparks furor on Saudi social media

  An Indian film depicting the true story of a migrant worker caught in miserable conditions in Saudi Arabia is sparking an uproar in Gulf Arab states. Critics say the production tarnishes the Kingdom’s image, while others see a stark portrayal of rights abuses that migrant workers allegedly face. The controversy comes as Riyadh moves to rebrand itself under its ambitious Vision 2030 economic diversification agenda.

• UN chief says lack of accountability on UN staff killings in Gaza ‘unacceptable’

  A lack of accountability for the killing of United Nations staff and humanitarian aid workers in the Gaza Strip is "totally unacceptable," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told Reuters in a wide-ranging interview on Wednesday.

• Top Arabic chatbot title claimed by Saudi Arabia’s updated Allam

  Saudi Arabia’s Arabic language artificial intelligence (AI) chat model, Allam, is now the largest Arabic-language chatbot in the world and will be available on prominent platforms by Microsoft and IBM, officials announced this week.  Allam is a “large language model”, or LLM, that was first launched by a subsidiary of the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) in 2023. Now the SDAIA is about to roll out its most advanced versions.

• Saudi Arabia targets 12% GDP contribution from AI by 2030

  Saudi Arabia aims to have artificial intelligence (AI) contribute 12% of its GDP by 2030, with the sector projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 29%. According to the Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA) State of AI report, the Public Investment Fund (PIF) will spearhead the development of a robust AI ecosystem in the kingdom.

• Saudi Arabia’s trillion-dollar economy gains momentum, fueled by Vision 2030

  Newly-released figures from the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) show Saudi Arabia’s non-oil activities grew 4.9 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2024, fueled by strong performance in the financial and insurance sectors, while wholesale and retail trade, alongside restaurants and hotels, grew by 6.8 percent. Government consumption expenditure rose by 10.9 percent year-on-year, with a 4.3 percent increase quarter-on-quarter.

• Bahrain Offloads Stake in Key Saudi Oil Pipeline to BlackRock

  Bapco Energies, which manages the nation’s energy infrastructure including the pipeline, sold a minority ownership stake in the Saudi Bahrain Pipeline Company to a fund managed by BlackRock’s diversified infrastructure team, according to a statement, which didn’t include terms. The pipeline can transport as much as 350,000 barrels of oil per day and connects Saudi oil processing facilities at Abqaiq with the Bapco refinery in Bahrain.

• Sources of Saudi Tourism: Who’s Traveling, Who’s Spending?

  Saudis are exploring their own country in bigger numbers and foreigners are bringing the cash. That’s the takeaway from a report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the state of the Saudi economy. “The surge of visitors has been mostly domestic-driven while the surge in visitors’ spending was mostly inbound-driven (i.e., international arrivals),” said the IMF report. Saudi reported 109 million visitors in 2023, beating its initial target of 100 million visitors by 2030 – a goal it has since lifted to 150 million.

• US closer to greenlighting Nvidia chips for Saudi Arabia, Semafor reports
  The U.S. government is considering allowing Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab to export advanced chips to Saudi Arabia, which would help the country train and run the most powerful AI models, Semafor reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. The sales of the chips were a main but unofficial topic at GAIN, Saudi Arabia's global AI summit, the report said. Attendees of the summit, including some who work for the Saudi Data and AI Authority, told Semafor that the country is making efforts to comply with U.S. security requirements to expedite the acquisition of the chips.

• US closer to green lighting Nvidia chips for Saudi Arabia

  The US government is considering allowing Nvidia to export advanced chips to Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter said, which would help the country train and run the most powerful AI models. The fate of those sales was a major, unofficial topic at Saudi Arabia’s global AI summit, known as GAIN, on Thursday. Representatives from AI hardware firm Groq, Google, and Qualcomm, along with Saudi government officials, mingled and spoke at the event.

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