Gulf

1. UAE’s good COP
2. … and nuclear ambitions
3. NEOM’s hydrogen progress
4. Trillionaire allocations
5. Smokers welcomed
6. Netflix, habibi

Not really worried, actually.

Masdar expands map in Baku

COP29 in Baku has provided Masdar ample opportunity to cut deals in support of its aggressive global expansion plans — and help its chairman Sultan Al Jaber cement his legacy as the COP president who got the world to agree to a tripling of renewable energy capacity by the end of the decade.

Despite rising costs and thinner margins in the renewables sector, the Abu Dhabi alternative energy firm is forging ahead with plans to co-develop offshore wind along Azerbaijan’s coast on the Caspian Sea. Masdar signed an agreement with SOCAR Green and Saudi-listed ACWA Power to develop 3.5 gigawatts of capacity, marking the first offshore project for Azerbaijan, a natural gas powerhouse that analysts say can be a net exporter of clean electricity.

Masdar also signed agreements with Albania Power Corp. and Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Energy. A new Uzbek wind farm developed by Masdar is slated to deliver clean energy to 300,000 homes, with two others in the pipeline as the country aims to be 40% powered by renewables by 2030.

Analysis: Abu Dhabi’s nuclear bets

Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) are emerging as the UAE’s next big push in alternative energy even though they are still in development, Tareq Alotaiba, a former Emirati official, writes in a Semafor column.

“The UAE’s environmental commitment and its industrial ambitions — from electrifying oil, gas liquefaction, and chemical production, to manufacturing and tech infrastructure — will require a stable and sustainable source of clean energy,” Alotaiba wrote.

NEOM green hydrogen on track

The massive green hydrogen production facility at NEOM is 60% complete and on track to begin production in December 2026, the facility’s CEO Wesam Alghamdi told Semafor’s Climate & Energy Editor Tim McDonnell on the sidelines of the COP29 climate summit in Baku.
The mega construction project near the Red Sea has faced a number of setbacks, most recently with its longtime CEO abruptly leaving his post. But its hydrogen efforts have had positive early returns: Demand is reportedly exceeding production capacity, driven by interest from energy companies like TotalEnergies and “hard-to-abate” sectors like steel and shipping, the head of the company that owns and is building the green hydrogen plant itself recently said.

ADIA boosts private markets exposure

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority — the first in the Gulf to surpass $1 trillion in assets under management — is boosting its share in private markets, making it one of the most “aggressive allocators in the space,” according to consultancy GlobalSWF. In 2023, private equity and private credit accounted for 14% of its total allocation, according to ADIA’s annual review. This could rise to 17% of the portfolio it said, driven by a slowdown in private equity dealmaking and growing demand for new lenders to to fill the gap in buyout debt. ADIA said this created an opportunity to invest in direct lending platforms like Jefferies Credit Partners and Overland Advisors.

Smoke ’em if you got ’em

Smoking isn’t going out of fashion in the region — even as vaping surges — reflecting persistent demand for nicotine that is a global outlier. Cigarette consumption is holding steady in Saudi Arabia and growing in the UAE, according to market research firm Euromonitor International. Sales of smokeless tobacco and vapor products are expected to more than triple by 2028, with Saudi Arabia matching Egypt, a market that dwarfs the kingdom.

A Euromonitor research analyst said demand is driven by a “strong smoking culture” and “relatively lower health awareness,” creating “opportunities for the industry” in the Middle East and Africa. Even as habitual consumption declines globally, tourists to the UAE are driving growth in cigarette and alcohol sales. Euromonitor predicts these vices will see a further boost with the opening of the first casino in the Emirates in 2027.

Love is blind, not free

“Ana [I] don’t do coffee dates.”

You have to be living offline to not recognize the single most memorable line from Love Is Blind: Habibi, the UAE-based spin off of Netflix’s popular dating show. Millions gave into the guilty pleasure of watching a Saudi power couple host a show where Arabs from the region and abroad compete for dates. It topped Netflix’s top 10 most watched non-English TV shows globally in the first two weeks after its release.

The viewership emphasized what 2022’s hit show Dubai Bling first demonstrated: There is a huge appetite for watching Arabs (speaking different dialects) in reality shows. And Dubai, a pseudo melting pot for Arabs, was a great choice for a backdrop. Where else would Lebanese-Senegalese Chafic propose, again, to Saudi-Moroccan Dounia besides a Dubai luxury hotel — “the idyllic setting of Banyan Tree Dubai.”

SWFs

• In signs of a maturing capital market in Riyadh, the Public Investment Fund pulled off the first accelerated bookbuilding in the kingdom, giving investors less than a day to snap up the 2% stake it sold in telecoms firm STC. The sale, five-times oversubscribed, brought in $1 billion for the PIF as it looks to bankroll the country’s ambitious giga-projects. — Reuters
• Ghanem Al-Ghenaiman, managing director of the $970 billion Kuwait Investment Authority, is out, one year shy of his four-year term, marking the second leadership shakeup this week at a Gulf sovereign fund. — Bloomberg

Courts

• The former CEO of Saudi real estate developer ROSHN, David Grover, is suing the PIF-backed company for unfair termination and over $100 million in unpaid bonuses and payments. ROSHN said the executive was dismissed for not declaring a conflict of interest, which Grover denied. He lost the first stage of his court case in Riyadh, but an appeal is set for later this month. — FT

Sports

• After extreme heat at the Qatar Grand Prix in 2023 led some drivers to pass out or vomit in their helmets, a new driver cooling kit is being introduced on the grid when temperatures rise.

In a global survey of what people are worried about, “nothing” ranks high in the Gulf. Around a quarter of respondents in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia said no risks worried them in particular, when given options like the economy, climate change, road accidents, or threat of war. Around 15% of those living in the UAE and Kuwait also declined to name a worry in the World Risk Poll 2024, from safety charity Lloyd’s Register Foundation and conducted by polling firm Gallup.

The region’s big oil exporters are sanguine on climate change, too, reporting some of the lowest levels of worry over the environment. Residents in Saudi (46%), UAE (38%), and Bahrain (30%) say that climate change is not a threat at all to their countries in the next 20 years.

A lobbying group representing the tech industry is urging the incoming Trump administration to broadly review existing federal authorities and rules regarding artificial intelligence, writes Semafor’s Morgan Chalfant, to single out regulations that may be “unnecessarily impeding AI adoption.”