Gulf

1. Trump to visit Saudi
2. ADNOC’s African gas deal
3. Push for a global AI policy
4. Qataris’ private bank and…
5. … Edinburgh Airport bets
6. Post-Assad Captagon trade

Not just Saudi: The UAE’s currency also gets a symbol.

Welcome back to Semafor Gulf, and Eid Mubarak.

Every Ramadan, many worry that work will grind to a standstill — that there will be no news, no deals, just iftar feasts followed by lethargy. And yet, every year, the opposite proves true.

This Ramadan, news in the Gulf didn’t slow down: Sovereign wealth funds deployed capital globally, oil executives flocked to Houston to “Make Energy Great Again,” and the UAE committed $1.4 trillion in US investments. Diplomatically, Riyadh hosted talks between the US, Ukraine, and Russia, and Doha continued to mediate between Hamas and Israel while bringing together the presidents of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda. All the while, conflicts raged, with the Sudanese army retaking the capital, a massacre in Syria, and Israel launching airstrikes on multiple fronts.

Amid the whirlwind, I hope those celebrating Eid find a few days to unwind. Thank you for reading: Please recommend or forward us on to anyone who might benefit from our coverage. And if you have ideas, tips, or feedback, write to us or reply to this email — we’d love to hear from you.

Trump to visit Saudi: report

US President Donald Trump will reportedly visit Saudi Arabia in mid-May, his first foreign trip since returning to office. The decision mirrors a move he made at the beginning of his first term, Axios noted, and cements Riyadh’s growing heft in global diplomacy. The kingdom has hosted ceasefire talks between the US, Ukraine, and Russia, and has played a role in efforts to end the Gaza war, with a potential normalization of relations with Israel still on the table — though Riyadh says this depends on the creation of a Palestinian state.

The visit also points to the importance Trump himself attaches to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, and the region’s growing influence in Washington. The president this month said he would go to Saudi as the first foreign trip of his second term, linking the visit to Riyadh’s decision to invest $1 trillion over four years with American companies. Saudi Arabia isn’t the only Gulf nation opening its checkbook to garner the White House’s attention: The UAE this month committed to invest $1.4 trillion in the US over a decade, the Trump administration said, following a visit by the Emirates’ national security adviser to Washington.

Abu Dhabi invests in Mozambique gas

XRG, the international investment arm of Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., has acquired a 10% stake in a liquefied natural gas project in Mozambique, expanding an LNG portfolio that includes assets in Azerbaijan, Egypt, and the US. Mozambique discovered substantial gas reserves in the deepwater Rovuma Basin in 2010 and began exporting fuel last year. XRG’s acquisition is in the Area 4 concession, which is being developed by ExxonMobil and Eni.

Mozambique has attracted some of the largest energy investments in Africa. Another LNG project — stalled since 2021 due to militant attacks — is likely to resume soon after the Trump administration approved a $4.7 billion loan from the US Export-Import Bank. XRG plans to double its assets over the next decade by capitalizing on the energy transition and fast-growing power demand driven by artificial intelligence.

‘Global South’ wants a say on AI policy

The Global South should have a stronger voice in digital policymaking, currently dominated by tech giants and major powers, the head of the Riyadh-based Digital Cooperation Organization said in an interview. Artificial intelligence, data flows, and the fight against misinformation are key focus areas for the group, Secretary-General Deemah AlYahya told Semafor: “We still don’t have harmonized policies or regulations when it comes to tech… There is nobody on a global level that is actually providing that.”

The organization — whose 16 members include Bangladesh, Greece, and Nigeria, and represent a combined population of 800 million people — is drafting an AI treaty that goes beyond ethical principles to include infrastructure, capacity-building, and practical applications. AlYahya said discussions have already begun with the Council of Europe and the African Union to expand the initiative.

Qatari royals’ private bank plans expansion

The 2024 profit growth of Quintet, the Luxembourg-based private bank owned by Qatari royals. It’s the third consecutive profitable year for Quintet after it posted significant losses between 2019 and 2021 — caused by a combination of factors including the unexpected death of its CEO, as well as the pandemic.

Founded in 1949 and acquired by members of the Al Thani family in 2012 for €1 billion, Quintet now manages over €100 billion in client assets, and is looking to expand in Europe. It has plans to hire 20 private bankers, adding to several senior executives it has already brought over from competitors last year, the bank’s CEO — himself an HSBC veteran — told Bloomberg.

Qatari bank buys into Edinburgh Airport

Qatar’s Lesha Bank has bought a minority stake in Edinburgh Airport, adding to its growing aviation portfolio. While the 210-million-riyal ($55-million) investment is the bank’s first big overseas infrastructure deal, it adds to the $537 million it spent on a fleet of planes that are leased out to commercial airlines. Gulf investors are already well represented in British airports, with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and the Qatar Investment Authority both shareholders in the country’s biggest hub, London’s Heathrow Airport. Edinburgh is far smaller, serving around 15 million passengers a year, compared to the 84 million that use Heathrow. QIA also has a stake in France’s Vinci Group, the majority owner of Edinburgh Airport.

Assad flees, Captagon stays

Almost four months after the collapse of the Assad regime, remnants of the drug networks it created remain. Captagon, an amphetamine popular among users in the Gulf, is back in the news following a record seizure by Iraqi officials this month. Syria’s interim government has cracked down in areas it controls, but labs are active in northern and southern Syria, while allied groups like Hezbollah and Iraqi militias are involved in smuggling operations, according to experts. Complicating eradication efforts are the weak state institutions and struggling economies of Lebanon and Syria, which make their underpaid soldiers and border agents easy targets for traffickers.

Technology

• Oman’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority has given its approval to Elon Musk’s satellite broadband company Starlink to offer internet access services, almost two years after the company was granted a license to operate in the Sultanate.

Defense

• The US government has approved a request from Qatar to buy eight armed MQ-9B Predator drones. Along with munitions and other parts, the deal is worth almost $2 billion.

Diplomacy

• After multiple delays, Lebanon and Syria’s new defense ministers finally met — not in Beirut or Damascus, but in Jeddah. The sit-down is the latest sign of how Saudi Arabia is shaping regional diplomacy. The two sides agreed to begin work on border demarcation and to jointly address security threats.

The UAE has become the second Gulf country in weeks to unveil a dedicated symbol for its national currency, the dirham. The country’s central bank released details of the new glyph — a capital D in a serif font with two parallel horizontal bars through the middle, which are meant to denote stability. Last month, Saudi Arabia announced a similar move for its riyal.

In both cases, the authorities have argued the symbols embody the visions of their countries’ leaders and will strengthen their efforts to be global financial hubs. The UAE is taking a further step though, with plans to launch a “digital dirham” this year. This will have its own symbol, using the colors of the UAE flag and with a circle around the stylized D.

Elon Musk’s move to combine the social media company X with his xAI puts an official corporate stamp on a de facto combination in which both companies already shared talent and resources in a drive to catch up in the hypercompetitive AI industry, Semafor’s Reed Albergotti writes.

The all-stock deal valued the firehose of conversation once known as Twitter at $45 billion and the maker of the chat bot Grok at $80 billion, Musk announced on X.

The transaction effectively turns anyone who invested in Musk’s bid for Twitter (it later changed its name), into a shareholder of xAI, which will use the social media company’s data for training AI models and as a distribution pipeline for Grok.