Good morning, friends. Three big events are will drive the news agenda in this final workweek before the start of Ramadan. In Riyadh, you can expect things to be very tech heavy as Leap 2024 and Deepfest kick off tomorrow. Meanwhile, the world’s largest investor conference for frontier and emerging markets, the EFG Hermes One on One, opens in Dubai tomorrow.

Let’s jump right in.

HAPPENING TODAY-

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) will hold a ministerial meeting in Riyadh today with a focus on ties between GCC countries and counterparts abroad and latest regional and international developments, it said in a statement last week. It will also separately hold separate ministerial meetings with the FMs of Egypt, Jordan and Morocco, according to the statement.

Expect Israel’s war in Gaza to be high on the agenda amid calls for airdops of aid and suggestions from Egypt’s foreign minister and the US president that there is a chance of a ceasefire by Ramadan.

WEATHER- Expect warming temperatures and scattered clouds in Riyadh and Jeddah today.

  • Riyadh: 28°C daytime / 12°C overnight
  • Jeddah: 30°C daytime / 26°C overnight
  • Dammam: 28°C daytime / 18°C overnight

HAPPENING TOMORROW-

Riyadh airspace is going to be crowded this week — and hotels impossible to book — as tech players from around the world fly in for Leap 2024,which kicks off at 10:30 am tomorrow at the Riyadh Exhibition and Convention Center.

The four-day event is expected to attract more than 1k top executives, investors and industry insiders. It will also provide a pitch and exhibition platform for 600 startups and 1.8k tech exhibitors. Investments worth USD 9 bn were announced during last year’s event, setting the stage for a promising meeting this year. As many as 172k visitors are expected to attend.

AI will take center stage:Deepfest — the AI-focused offshoot of LEAP — will be co-located with Leap and will feature speakers including the good people at Google as well as IBM, TiktTok, Zoom, NASA, and Meta to discuss how entrepreneurs can future-proof their business in an AI-first era, the rise of GenAI in content creation, the potential of the AI-powered metaverse, and the ethical frameworks for AI in media production.

The lineup for tomorrow will feature some of the biggest industry names including IBM Chairman Arvind Krishna, Zoom Video Communications CEO Eric Yuan and Google Managing Director for Global AI Caroline Yap. Sessions include panels and firechats to discuss everything from healthtech and space, to media, smart cities, 4IR, the creative economy, and startups.

Polish your 30-60 second elevator pitch if you’re looking to raise capital or find a strategic partner: Investors attending are from our friends at 500 Global as well as Impact46, Exits MENA, Raed Ventures, Clear Ventures, Elite Minds, Foundry Group, Devoteam, Green Sands Equity, along with sovereign investors from Serbia, Kenya and Pakistan.

WE HAVE AMBITIONS- CNBC picked up statements by RiseUp Saudi Co-Founder and CEO Princess Loulwa Al Saud on our ambition to become “the next Silicon Valley.” Princess Loulwa made the remarks at the Web Summit Qatar last week. “Saudi wants to be the next Silicon Valley, not only in the GCC, but in the world. We are trying as much as we can to invest and enhance the ecosystem as much as we can,” she said.

ALSO TOMORROW- The EFG Hermes One on One gets underway in Dubai. It’s the world’s largest investor conference for frontier and emerging markets and runs through Thursday.

The EFG Hermes One on One will see some 670 investors from 250 global institutions meet face-to-face with senior execs from more than 215 companies in industries spanning from food and fintech to banking and petrochemicals. Companies from 29 countries will be attending.

^^ We’ll have coverage of Leap and the One on One starting Tuesday and continuing into next week.

DATA POINTS-

#1- Some 450 foreign investors have obtained licenses to open their regional headquarters here, state news agency SPA reported last week, citing statements by Investment Minister Khaled Al Falih. He did not provide details about the companies setting regional HQs here.

Remember: The Kingdom had set a 1 January 2024 deadline for foreign firms to move their regional HQs here or run the risk of losing out on government contracts. The plan, a cornerstone of Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohamed bn Salman’s drive to build a diversified, globally significant non-oil economy, has been in the works since February 2021.

#2- The Saudi Industrial Development Fund (SIDF) provided SAR 500 mn in financing last year to support projects in energy, mining and logistics, its spokesman Khalil Al Namari told Al Eqtisadiah on Friday. Small and medium-sized enterprises came in first in total loans provided by SIFD, up 13% last year from 8% a year earlier.

OIL WATCH-

#1- Aramco may tweak April crude prices to Asian customers from March on the back of a small uptick in Middle East benchmark prices, Reuters reported on Friday, citing trade sources. A survey of six refining sources sees Aramco maintaining the official selling price (OSP) of flagship Arab Light crude or making minor upward adjustments by USD 0.1-0.2 per barrel in April. A small bump in the Middle-East’s crude benchmark prices paired with a widening backwardation in the Dubai market structure could nudge April prices up

What the traders are saying: “The market structure and product cracks didn’t change too much compared to last month, and I think now with Red Sea shipping still having uncertainty … probably they will want to push the barrels to Asia,” a source said.

#2- Milan-based energy contractor Saipem is forecasting a 20% fall in average annual orders from Aramco until 2027 on the back of the oil giant’s decision to shelve plans of investment in new production capacity, Reuters reported last week, citing statements by CEO Alessandro Puliti during a post-results conference call. Saipem has annual average orders of c. EUR 1.5 bn from Aramco between 2021 and 2023. It signed a 12-year contract with Aramco in 2020 for onshore engineering and construction activities.

IN OTHER OIL NEWS- OPEC oil output saw a 90k barrels per day (bpd) uptick in February to 26.4 mn bpd on the back of a rebound in production by Libya, according to a Reuters survey.

WATCH THIS SPACE-

#1- Sparky the Sun Devil is coming to town: The investment and education ministries signed an MoU with Arizona State University and Cintana Education to set up an affiliated university and school in Riyadh, the Investment Ministry said in a post on X on Friday. The ministry did not provide further details on the agreement or its terms.

We knew this was in the works: Education Minister Yousef Al Benyan discussed with US officials opening a branch for the university in the Kingdom during a visit to Washington earlier this month.

#2- The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will hold an extraordinary meeting in Jeddah on Tuesday to discuss the ongoing crisis in Gaza, state news agency SPA reported on Friday. The meeting comes upon the invitation of the Kingdom, Palestine, Jordan and Iran.

SPORTS-

We’re one step closer to hosting the 2034 World Cup: The Kingdom has officially kicked off its bid to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup after it was confirmed as the sole bidder, a statement by the Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF) read on Friday. The “Growing. Together.” campaign aims to “capture the parallel between Saudi Arabia’s rapid transformation and the positive impact hosting the tournament would have on both international football and FIFA’s flagship event”. A new unit dedicated to managing bid procedures in compliance with FIFA standards was also set up by SAFF. Find the full Saudi 2034 bid vision here.

REMEMBER- Saudi was confirmed in late October as the sole bidder for the 2034 FIFA World Cup after Australia said it would not be presenting a bid to host the tournament.

What’s next: SAFF will submit full bid documents to the world football governing body in July with an appointment on the hosts for both the 2030 and 2034 tournaments set to be confirmed at the Fifa Congress by the end of the year.

What they said: “Telling our football story to the world is of massive importance…We’ve made unprecedented progress in both the men’s and women’s game and our bid is an open invitation to the world to join us on this exciting journey,” SAFF President Yasser El Misehal said.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD-

In an otherwise quiet morning for business news, Elon Musk is once again in the headlines —and for once it’s not because of one of his social media posts. Three law firms that successfully argued on the behalf of shareholders that Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s USD 56 bn pay package was excessive are now seeking USD 6 bn in Tesla shares in legal fees. (Reuters | Financial Times | The Guardian | Wall Street Journal)

“We recognize that the requested fee is unprecedented in terms of absolute size,” the three law firms said in a filing.

ALSO FROM THE MUSKOSPHERE-Musk has filed a lawsuit against Microsoft-backed OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, accusing the company of abandoning its original purpose of developing artificial intelligence “for the broad benefit of humanity” and pursuing profit instead. (Reuters | Financial Times | Bloomberg | The Guardian)

CLOSER TO HOME- Rubymar, attacked by Houthis, sinks; sounds alarm on environmental crisis: Belize-flagged Rubymar which was carrying some 41k tons of fertilizers has sunk off the coast of Yemen few weeks after it was attacked by Houthi militants in February, Yemen’s state news agency Saba reported yesterday.

CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Tickets are on sale for the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, scheduled for Jeddah from 7-9 March.

Riyadh will host a World Economic Forum special meeting on 28-29 April.

Check out our full calendar on the web for a comprehensive listing of upcoming news events, national holidays and news triggers.

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