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  • A Blueprint For The Future: Global Lessons In Sustainability From Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030

    My team and I had our eyes on Saudi Arabia with a clear purpose: to meet the people and organizations leading the charge in conservation and sustainability. Our goal was to experience the Kingdom’s top-down approach, where leadership drives businesses and communities alike toward ambitious environmental objectives. From urban planning to marine conservation initiatives, we sought to explore how the country is positioning itself as a global model for integrating advanced science and sustainability into every layer of its rapid development.

  • The Terror Designation: Houthis Scramble While Dismissing Its Impact

    President Donald J.Trump’s decision to re-designate Yemen’s Houthi movement a foreign terrorist organization marks a full-circle moment in Washington’s oscillating approach to the Iran-backed militia. The January 22 announcement effectively resurrects Trump’s eleventh-hour 2021 designation, which former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.‘s team swiftly reversed because of its potential impact on the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Yemen. But this time, the designation arrives amid a dramatically different regional landscape caused by the Houthis’ emboldened activities against Israel and disruption of Red Sea maritime security.

  • Iran at standstill on talks with Trump

    Flummoxed by mixed messages coming from the Trump administration, historic deep distrust of the U.S. especially after Trump in 2018 quit the Iran nuclear deal, and the lack of a new US Iran envoy, Iran has retreated in the past days from earlier expressions of cautious interest in direct talks with the United States. “The US violated the very agreement itself… and withdrew from it,” Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei told Iranian air force commanders Feb. 8, referring to the 2016 Iran nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). “Therefore, negotiating with such a government is neither rational, wise, nor honorable, and should not be pursued.”

  • Opinion: Saudi Arabia should consider regional leadership as an alternative to normalisation with Israel

    Looking at the issue objectively, Saudi Arabia does not need to normalise relations with the occupation state of Israel after the collapse of the Iranian axis in the region, the end of Tehran’s influence in Syria in particular and its significant decline in Lebanon. The US and other right-wing Zionist lobbies that were pushing Saudi Arabia to normalisation no longer have an argument to continue to do so. These lobbies, successive US administrations, Netanyahu and Israeli governments are the ones begging for normalisation with Saudi Arabia, because all would benefit from it, but the biggest loser would be Saudi Arabia itself. However, policy and statements issued by Riyadh, especially in the wake of the crazy statements by the man in the White House, all indicate a firmness in the Saudi position that has strengthened the Arab position as a whole, whether about calling for the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, or on the issue of the Palestinian state.

  • AI chip startup Groq secures $1.5 billion commitment from Saudi Arabia

    The startup has an existing agreement with Aramco Digital, the technology subsidiary of oil major Aramco, through which the companies built a critical AI hub in the region in December. Groq told Reuters it will receive funds over the course of this year to expand its existing data center in Dammam. The company's chips, which specialize in fast responses from chatbots and other large language models, are subject to U.S. export controls, but Groq said it has obtained the licenses it needs to ship them to Dammam.

  • Saudi Arabian Unicorn Tabby Taps HSBC, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley for IPO

    Saudi Arabia-based Tabby, one of the Middle East’s first fintech unicorns, has hired banks to help prepare for an eventual initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter. The buy-now, pay-later firm is working with HSBC Holdings Plc, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley on the deal, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information isn’t public. The plans at an early stage, and no final decisions have been made on the timing or the size of the offer, they said. The firm could potentially look to raise additional cash ahead of the listing, according to one of the people. It was valued at $1.5 billion in its most recent funding round, in November 2023.

  • What Trump’s steel tariffs mean to the Middle East

    Donald Trump’s proposed US steel tariffs will put Turkish producers most at risk in the Middle East, while Gulf steel exporters will be sheltered from the worst of the damage, experts have told AGBI. On Sunday Mr Trump, the newly elected US president, said he would soon unveil 25 percent import taxes on all steel and aluminium imports to the United States, adding that these would be for “everyone”. Kaye Ayub, head of price analysis at the UK steel market insights company MEPS International, told AGBI: “With these new tariffs in place, a significant volume of steel will need to find alternative customers.  “Suppliers in the Middle East will find themselves competing with producers in Asia, and particularly China, as exports are redirected from the US to other markets, increasing competition in the region.”

  • Gulf telcos should ignore Europe’s fading allure

    Long-suffering investors in Gulf telecom operators would be forgiven for shuddering when reading a recent S&P Global Ratings report. Here they will learn that the region’s leading telcos “want to scale up their business and geographic footprints by increasing their exposure to stable European markets”. Why the palpitations among minority shareholders? Well, e& (formerly Etisalat), Saudi Telecom Co (STC) and Ooredoo – the former telecom monopolies in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar respectively – wasted tens of billions of dollars between them on misadventures abroad in the noughties and 2010s.

  • Deals worth $15bn on day one of Saudi Leap tech event

    Investment deals worth almost $15 billion have been announced on the first day of the Leap 25 tech event in Riyadh. The Saudi communications ministry said that deals signed on day one of the four-day event, which ends on Wednesday, totalled $14.9 billion. The deals included plans for a manufacturing plant in the Saudi capital by the Chinese computer-maker Lenovo and the Saudi Public Investment Fund-backed technology company Alat. The plant will produce millions of Saudi-made laptops and desktops from next year and create 15,000 direct and 45,000 indirect jobs, Lenovo said.  Lenovo said it will also establish a regional headquarters in Saudi Arabia.

  • LEAP 2025: NEOM, DataVolt anounce $5bln deal to establish first sustainable AI data centre in Saudi

    The second day of LEAP 2025, Saudi Arabia’s award-winning global tech event, produced further announcements totalling US$6.13 billion of investments in technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Leading the roll call of mega investments to continue the evolution of the Kingdom’s technology ecosystem, DataVolt and Saudi Arabian giga-project NEOM announced a US$5 billion partnership to establish the first fully sustainable AI data centre with a capacity of 1.5 gigawatts in Oxagon – the floating industrial city being developed in the Red Sea.