Gulf

1. Binance takes UAE coin
2. Pokémon Go to Riyadh
3. Tahnoon goes to Washington
4. Banking on Dubai’s rich
5. Riyadh’s delivery boom

How to get deals done during Ramadan.

UAE bets $2B on pro-crypto Trump

Abu Dhabi is anticipating a more crypto-friendly world order. MGX — backed by state investment vehicle Mubadala and the Emirati AI firm G42 — this week invested $2 billion in cryptocurrency stored by Binance in exchange for a minority stake in the world’s largest crypto exchange by volume.

The deal marks a change in fortunes for Binance, which last year paid over $4.3 billion in fines to US authorities as the Biden administration cracked down on crypto. Binance founder, and its largest shareholder, Changpeng Zhao spent four months in a California jail after he pleaded guilty to violating US money laundering laws.

President Donald Trump has, in contrast to his predecessor, embraced the industry, signing an executive order this month to establish a crypto reserve and tapping pro-digital currency legislators to his administration. Binance CEO Richard Teng said he expects Trump’s stance to have ripple effects globally.

Meanwhile, Trump family representatives, including his top negotiator in the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, explored taking a stake in Binance’s US arm while Zhao has sought a presidential pardon, The Wall Street Journal reported this week. Zhao denied the report.

Saudi spends $3.5B on Pokémon Go

The Public Investment Fund’s push into gaming is playing out like Pac-Man. PIF’s mobile games unit, Scopely, has gobbled up hit-maker Niantic, maker of Pokémon Go, for $3.5 billion, adding the augmented reality developer to a portfolio that includes stakes in Nintendo and Activision Blizzard, alongside events like the Esports World Cup. The kingdom sees massive potential for gaming in the Middle East, which is outpacing more mature markets for growth. Saudi Arabia has the most female professional gamers in the world and is looking to prove it can be “a real career path with no baggage,” Faisal bin Bandar Al-Saud, chairman of the Saudi Esports Federation, said on Thursday.

Abu Dhabi seeks to secure US chips

The UAE is taking steps to retain the most powerful AI chips as a US export ban looms. National Security Advisor Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed will travel to Washington next week to advocate for continued access to American technology and tout Abu Dhabi’s participation in a $100 billion AI infrastructure fund, Bloomberg reports. He is likely to meet Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz to discuss the Biden-era export restrictions on advanced chips, set to go into effect next year.

The UAE’s fast-growing AI industry is deeply intertwined with American-made technology. Abu Dhabi firm G42 has four times more computing capacity in the US than in the UAE, forged out of its relationship to California chipmaker Cerebras Systems as an investor and top customer, while Nvidia’s cutting-edge chips power data centers back home. Microsoft’s Brad Smith sits on G42’s board, following a $1.5 billion investment last year.

Standard Chartered eyes Dubai’s affluent

Standard Chartered is expanding its wealth management footprint in Dubai with a dedicated facility for rich clients looking for global investments. The new “Priority Private” center — the bank’s first in the Middle East, Europe, and Africa — targets an affluent class, one that is short of the ultrawealthy that make headlines but whose population is nevertheless growing at pace.

The UAE’s wealth boom is evident. Private deposits in the country’s banks surged 14.4%, while credit grew 9.5%, outpacing economic growth, according to central bank data. Residents are accumulating wealth, while rich expats are drawn to the UAE’s financial infrastructure, rule of law, and open business climate, according to a Standard Chartered executive. (It helps that the country has no income tax.)

Riyadh’s delivery boom, and crackdown

The surge in e-commerce, food delivery, and parcel services is boosting profits for logistics firms, and reshaping Riyadh in the process. Jahez, one of the top delivery apps, posted a 50% increase in annual profit to 187.9 million riyals ($50 million) in 2024, driven by rising orders and a nearly 10% drop in delivery costs over the year.

But external costs are piling up. Saudi Arabia’s annual motorcycle imports jumped 44% last year, and beyond the traffic, those new riders need housing. The solution? Landlords are converting garages into illegal accommodations for delivery workers, nearly doubling rental prices in some areas, Al-Eqtisadiah reported. Riyadh authorities have started cracking down on labor housing, while the government is also drafting new regulations and licensing to streamline delivery operations.

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Energy

• Qatar is getting a new market for its gas: Syria. Doha received approval from Washington to supply gas, via pipeline from Jordan, to help the Syrian government improve power supply after oil shipments from Iran stopped in December. — Reuters

Stat

• Aramco’s $124 billion dividend in 2024 is an incredible 7% of the global total payout — which hit a record $1.75 trillion last year. The Saudi oil giant’s share may fall this year: Aramco expects to cut the dividend by 30% due to lower oil prices.

Diplomacy

• Kuwait released 10 American prisoners who were jailed for years on drug-related charges, in what was described as a gesture of goodwill from Kuwait. The release followed a visit to the region by US hostage envoy Adam Boehler. — The Associated Press

Philip Bahoshy is the CEO at Magnitt, an equity capital analysis firm based in Dubai.

The CEO of IKEA’s largest franchisee has told his team to focus on cutting prices to maintain market share as it faces inflation, growing interest rates, and uncertainty — even if that ends up hitting profits, he told Semafor’s Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson in an interview.

The ability to focus on a far horizon, without the pressures of quarterly earnings reports and activist shareholders, is most CEOs’ dream. It is also core to the notion of sustainable business, a concept the flat-pack pioneer has done more than most to embody.

But even long-term strategies must come with being “very ambitious about the here and now.” IKEA is unusually willing to sacrifice profits to keep prices low, but Brodin has learned that “if you want to make change successful, make it profitable.”