#saudi-takeover

#saudi-takeover

The ongoing conflict between the US and Israel against Iran is creating significant challenges for Gulf Arab nations, which are already feeling the economic strain from rising tensions and instability in the region.

Saudi Arabia just made its most aggressive move yet in that generational project. The kingdom announced a new $40 billion technology investment fund, developed in partnership with American venture capital heavyweight Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), aimed at positioning Saudi Arabia as a global hub for artificial intelligence, cloud infrastructure, and advanced computing.

The global impact of the Gulf countries is not limited to oil. This region is a hub of the international economy and if it decides to focus on its defense and to start pulling investments and to stop its [economic] engagement with the international community, the effect will be felt in every household in the world.

The level of accuracy in some of this targeting you can see it in our neighbours as well as the kingdom indicates that this is something that was premeditated, preplanned, preorganised and well thought out.

After a decade of big spending, Saudi Arabia is scaling back some massive Vision 2030 "gigaprojects" due to falling oil prices and budget constraints. What does this mean for the nation's big cultural projects and investments? Plus, all eyes are on the Gulf this week as the first edition of Art Basel Qatar gets underway. Plus, the NFT platform Nifty will shut down this month.

Syria and Saudi Arabia have signed a major investment package spanning aviation, energy, real estate and telecommunications as Damascus's new leadership seeks to rebuild after a devastating 14-year civil war. Syrian Investment Authority chief Talal al-Hilali announced a swath of deals on Saturday, including the development of a new international airport in Aleppo, the launch of a low-cost Syrian-Saudi airline, and a telecommunications project called SilkLink aimed at turning the country into a regional hub.

By the standards of mega arms deals, the $1.5bn deal for Pakistan to reportedly sell jets and weapons to Sudan's military isn't huge. But the deal, which the Reuters news agency reported in early January was close to being finalised, could prove pivotal in the grinding war that has devoured Sudan for nearly three years between the country's armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).