Gulf

1. Mubadala Capital sells stake
2. UAE eyes US data centers
3. MGX uses Trump-linked coin
4. Gulf stocks lose steam
5. Saudi backs Chinese refinery

A Qatari jet’s path to becoming Air Force One.

Mubadala invests $10B in TWG Global

Mubadala has put a fresh spin on Gulf sovereign wealth funds’ seemingly insatiable appetite for foreign investments — by selling a piece of its asset management business to an American private equity firm. A two-way deal with TWG Global, the investment firm led by Guggenheim Partners founder Mark Walter and entertainment financier Thomas Tull, will see TWG invest $2.5 billion for a 5% stake in Mubadala Capital, only the second time an outside investor has been allowed to own a piece of the Abu Dhabi fund. Mubadala Capital, for its part, is leading a $10 billion investment in TWG’s $15 billion equity raise, the companies said.

The relationship gives Abu Dhabi’s second-largest sovereign fund exposure to TWG’s partnerships and holdings that include sports franchises like the LA Dodgers, LA Lakers, and Chelsea soccer club. “One thing is clear: the lines between allocator, manager, and owner are blurring fast,” Global SWF said of the deal.

The deal is also one of many signs to come of the UAE’s decade-long commitment to invest $1.4 trillion in the US.

UAE’s largest data center firm eyes US

Dubai data center firm Khazna is considering investing in the US, the latest UAE company looking to build out AI infrastructure there. “We can’t compete without a presence” in US artificial intelligence infrastructure, Hassan Alnaqbi, Khazna’s chief executive officer, said during an interview at the firm’s Dubai headquarters.

Washington is a crucial ally in the UAE’s AI ambitions. Ahead of US President Donald Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE this month, his administration is considering scrapping a Biden-era executive order that limited chip distribution to the Gulf, seen as a potential security risk for Chinese intrusion, Reuters reported. The UAE has worked to not let such restrictions curtail their ambitions in AI, and is developing an ecosystem of investments and infrastructure — including in the US — in an increasingly two-way flow of dollars, software, and hardware between the nations.

Trump-linked coin used in Binance deal

Abu Dhabi AI fund MGX will use a stablecoin from the Donald Trump-backed World Liberty Financial to make its $2 billion investment in crypto exchange Binance. MGX made the minority investment in the world’s largest crypto exchange in March, but the stablecoin that would be used for the transaction had not yet been disclosed: World Liberty Financial co-founder Zach Witkoff, the son of Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, said while on a panel alongside Eric Trump at a crypto conference in Dubai that the firm’s USD1 will be used.

Changpeng Zhao, Binance’s founder and former CEO, stepped down from his role as part of a $4.3 billion settlement with the US over illicit financing charges in 2023, and later served prison time after pleading guilty to money laundering. He remains a major shareholder of Binance and is seeking a pardon from the Trump administration. USD1 is issued on Binance’s blockchain.

Foreign investors cool on Gulf stocks

Gulf markets’ lackluster first quarter — with six of seven indexes declining — had foreign investors committing the least amount of capital to the region’s stocks in a year. Trading volumes dropped 25% from the fourth quarter, according to KAMCO Investment Co., a Kuwait-based asset manager. The retreat came amid growing concern over US trade policies and a global economic slowdown. March marked a turning point, with foreign investors starting to sell across the region — except Kuwait, which continued to draw inflows.

Aramco, Sinopec form refinery services firm

The size of a joint investment between a unit of Aramco and Chinese state-run firm Sinopec to create a new company at a refinery and petrochemicals complex in China’s southeast. Aramco will contribute a quarter of the capital to Fujian Petroleum Chemical Industry Co., which will oversee port operations, crude oil transportation, and other activities supporting the refinery that began construction in November in the Gulei Port Economic Development Zone.

Demand for petrochemicals — used to produce plastics, medicine, and other goods — is expected to grow over the coming decades, even as use of oil for transportation declines. Aramco has been investing in refineries in Saudi Arabia, China, and globally to secure long-term customers for its crude. Nearly 15% of Saudi oil production is exported to China.

Checking In

• We’ll take ’em: That’s the message Riyadh Air CEO Tony Douglas has for Boeing as the company may have to find new buyers for dozens of planes locked out of China by tariffs. — Reuters
• Facial recognition technology will soon be used to speed up check-in at some of Abu Dhabi’s five-star hotels. The initiative is also aimed at maintaining the city’s ranking as the world’s safest.

Finance

• BNY (formerly the Bank of New York Mellon) is the latest firm to receive a license to set up a regional headquarters in Saudi Arabia, as one of America’s oldest banks looks to land more work from projects related to Saudi’s Vision 2030.
• US private equity firm I Squared Capital is also planning a push into the kingdom with a new office in Riyadh and a target of $1 billion invested into the country’s infrastructure in the next three years. — Bloomberg
• Wealth management firm Azura will move its headquarters from Monaco to the UAE capital after Abu Dhabi’s Lunate acquired a stake in the firm, which has $5 billion in assets under management.

Diplomacy

• Kuwait has released 10 more US citizens — bringing the total to 23 in just two months — in what US officials are calling an extraordinary show of goodwill from a key Gulf ally. The releases followed visits by Trump’s envoy for hostage affairs, Adam Boehler, and were not part of a swap. — AP
• The UAE and Lebanon agreed to form a joint business council, ease travel restrictions, and send UAE delegations to Beirut to explore development projects. The pledge to strengthen ties followed a state visit by Lebanon’s president to Abu Dhabi.

Fed up with Boeing’s delays on a $3.9 billion upgrade for Air Force One, Donald Trump is pushing ahead with a backup: retrofitting a former Qatari 747 into a presidential plane by the end of the year. The contract went to defense firm L3Harris, according to The Wall Street Journal, after it became clear that the Boeing presidential jets — commissioned by Trump in his first term — won’t be ready before 2035. They were scheduled to be delivered in 2024.

In February, Trump spent 72 minutes touring a Qatari-owned 747 in West Palm Beach, Fla. The plane — used by former prime minister and billionaire Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani — could sell for up to $100 million, with an extra $25 million for the interior which includes “custom-made Tai Ping rugs, sycamore and wacapou wood fixtures, and artwork by Alexander Calder,” Bloomberg reported.

Quarterly earnings reports from oil and gas companies suggest the industry is already feeling the impact of US President Donald Trump’s trade wars, pointing to headaches ahead for its shareholders, Semafor’s Tim McDonnell reports.

As much as Trump and his team are rhetorical boosters of Big Oil — “If I’m not president, you’re f*cked,” he reportedly told execs at Mar-a-Lago after the election — his unpredictable deployment of tariffs and enticement of OPEC countries to drill more have weighed down the oil price. It’s too soon to see the full toll that dip has had on the industry, since price falls began in earnest after the end of the first quarter. But red flags are going up, Tim noted.