Gulf

1. Israel markets its weapons
2. Israeli investor eyes Saudi
3. Dubai’s Dubizzle bulks up
4. Qatar slashes company fees
5. Trends reshaping charity

Israel’s top diplomat in Dubai on deepening UAE ties.

Welcome back to Semafor Gulf, where the maxim that war secures peace has been on full display this week.

The doves were out in Riyadh, where high-level US-Russia talks on Ukraine and other issues took place, followed by an Arab summit today to agree on a plan to rebuild Gaza without displacing Palestinians. That the kingdom was the venue for both was unsurprising to our columnists Hadley Gamble and Faisal J. Abbas: Saudi Arabia’s balancing act to become a trusted mediator in regional and global conflicts is decades in the making, helping it emerge as a crucial partner for US strategy in the Middle East and beyond.

Meanwhile, in Abu Dhabi, the focus was on the price of peace. The biannual International Defence Exhibition & Conference (IDEX) showcased every variety of guns, rockets, drones, and tanks imaginable, drawing participants from across the globe. Even though Israel attended in 2023 — after normalizing ties in 2020 — its presence in an Arab defense expo still feels striking. Equally unexpected was seeing Russia and Ukraine, two nations locked in war, exhibiting their latest military technology within a short walk of each other.

Deals weren’t the main event. About $6.5 billion in contracts was signed, most of them UAE government purchases from local manufacturers. But trade shows like IDEX aren’t about immediate spending. Countries survey the latest tech, then go home to map out their defense priorities.

Curious about prices, I asked about different systems — mostly out of my budget. Drones, however, are a different story. Long-range surveillance models run in the hundreds of thousands, while small suicide drones cost as little as $500. Robotic warfare is getting cheaper, and the ability of low-cost drones to wreak havoc on expensive infrastructure and human lives will accelerate the race to build better air defenses.

Israel pitches missile shield for US, Gulf

Israel Aerospace Industries, one of the country’s top defense firms, plans to market its Arrow missile defense system — which proved successful against multiple Iranian attacks — as part of a proposed US shield, CEO Boaz Levy told Semafor.

“We believe President Trump means he needs something Arrow-like,” Levy said, referring to Trump’s recent executive order to create the system. “We’ve learned a lot from recent attacks, and we are improving our capabilities.”

The Arrow system, developed over decades, consists of multiple layers: Arrow 2 for medium- to long-range threats and Arrow 3 that can destroy ballistic missiles outside Earth’s atmosphere. Gulf countries facing similar threats to Israel are interested, Levy said in an interview in Abu Dhabi. IAI is open to selling Arrow and other air defense systems to the UAE and potentially other Gulf countries, he added, contingent on normalization agreements and approval from Washington, given its role in developing the technology.

Liron Zaslansky is Israel’s Consul-General in Dubai.

Analysis: Israeli investors ready for Saudi

While a normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia faces short-term challenges, investors in both countries stand to gain if an agreement is struck, writes Jon Medved, founder of Jerusalem-based venture investment platform OurCrowd, in his debut Semafor column.

“When Israel made peace with the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco in 2020, I compared it to the fall of the Iron Curtain,” Medved wrote. “The collapse of the Sand Curtain has already generated more than $3.3 billion in annual trade between Israel and the UAE. If Trump can extend the Abraham Accords to Saudi Arabia, the sky’s the limit.”

Dubizzle revs up for IPO

Classified ads platform Dubizzle Group acquired a major Egyptian portal as it prepares for a planned share sale this year. The company bought Hatla2ee, which attracts more than 2 million monthly visitors across its website and mobile app, building on its portfolio of auto platforms, including DriveArabia. Dubizzle, which achieved unicorn status in 2020 after a funding round led by Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners, operates its namesake platform, as well as property sites Bayut and Zameen, and multiple auto sites. The company plans to raise between $500 million and $1 billion in an IPO, with Emirates NBD, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, and Morgan Stanley advising on the deal.

Qatar slashes fees to attract startups

The application fee to become a licensed company at Qatar Financial Centre, down 90%. Qatar is slashing fees and providing incentives to lure businesses and startups. The move is part of broader efforts aimed at reversing a trend of divestments outpacing foreign direct investment inflows. Officials last month said they were reviewing business regulations across 17 ministries and drafting new bankruptcy, public-private partnership, and commercial registration laws.

Venture capital firms are taking notice. San Francisco-based Builders VC opened its first Middle East office in Doha, tapping Qatar Investment Authority’s $1 billion Fund of Funds initiative. The move follows the sovereign wealth fund’s multimillion-dollar investment in London’s UTOPIA Capital Management, which also established a presence in the Qatari capital.

$1T wealth transfer will transform charity

As global aid declines and UN funding falls short, private philanthropy is evolving rapidly, driven by a massive wealth transfer, data-driven giving, and AI-enabled impact tracking, UAE special envoy for business and philanthropy Badr Jafar told Semafor.

More than $1 trillion in Gulf wealth is set to change hands by 2030, part of an $80 trillion global intergenerational shift over the next two decades. Islamic philanthropy already generates at least $400 billion annually through Zakat (alms) and other givings, exceeding global humanitarian aid budgets, Jafar said. Deploying these funds effectively is the challenge for donors and charities. “We need to build much better infrastructure for philanthropy across many regions of the world,” he said.

Finance

• The biggest financial hub in the Gulf had a record year. Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) said revenue is up by a third and profit by 55% — with more than half of the 75 hedge funds registered there managing over $1 billion each in assets.

Checking In

• Dubai doesn’t just attract money; people are flocking here too. Some 824,000 Chinese tourists visited in 2024, a 31% annual increase, which industry experts attribute to introducing easier payment options, expanding Chinese-language tour guides, and organizing special events during the Chinese New Year. — AGBI
• Airlines are also growing. Airbus and Boeing may sell as many as 500 jets this year as some of the region’s biggest carriers Etihad, Qatar Airways, and Riyadh Air expand and replenish their fleets. The Middle East was the only region last year where passenger yields rose, driven by strong demand for premium long-haul travel. — Bloomberg

Media

• SURJ Sports Investment, backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, agreed to buy a minority stake, valued at a reported $1 billion, in sports broadcaster and streaming service DAZN. The two will launch DAZN MENA, a service that will distribute the best of Saudi sport through both live and on-demand content. — SportsPro

Large corporations are shopping for underground bunkers that can survive a nuclear blast to protect their data centers and C-suite employees as geopolitical tensions rise. The first adopters are primarily cryptocurrency firms, companies that build the facilities told Semafor’s Rachyl Jones.

Larry Hall, owner of Kansas-based Survival Condo, said he recently priced an underground data center and executive suite space to a crypto company for $64 million. The pitch is the apocalypse. “The nuclear clock is moving closer to midnight,” he said.