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  • PIF becomes title sponsor of Saudi Ladies International

    Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) is the new title partner of the renamed PIF Saudi Ladies International, a partnership which also sees the prize money for the tournament being increased to match that offered for the equivalent men’s tournament. The PIF Saudi Ladies International returns February 13-15 at Riyadh Golf Club and will also see a new format with tour professionals taking part in both an individual and team competition.

  • Trump says he might meet Putin in Saudi Arabia after call on Ukraine

    Trump made the comment a few hours after speaking with Putin in their first publicly disclosed call since Trump took office. Trump said they had agreed on "starting negotiations immediately" to end the war in Ukraine, which is approaching its third anniversary. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump floated the idea of meeting Putin in Saudi Arabia, along with the Saudi crown prince. He did not lay out a timeline and said he would deal with Putin on the phone in the meantime. In an interview with the Economist published on Wednesday, Zelensky had said he'd had little contact with Trump's team and raised concerns about "any decision-making" on Ukraine taking place without Kyiv's involvement.  

  • Trump says he and Putin expect to meet, probably in Saudi Arabia

    US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he did not think it was practical for Ukraine to join NATO and that it was unlikely Ukraine will get back all of its land. Trump discussed the war in Ukraine on Wednesday in phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in the US president’s first big step toward diplomacy in a conflict he has promised to end. Trump said he and Putin expect to meet in the future, probably in Saudi Arabia.

  • Secretary Rubio’s Travel to Germany, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates

    Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Munich on February 13 to participate in the Munich Security Conference, where he will discuss a range of U.S. priorities with international partners. While in Munich, Secretary Rubio will also participate in the G7 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting. He will then travel to Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates from February 15-18. Secretary Rubio’s engagements with senior officials will promote U.S. interests in advancing regional cooperation, stability, and peace. The trip will center on freeing American and all other hostages from Hamas captivity, advancing to Phase II of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, and countering the destabilizing activities of the Iranian regime and its proxies.

  • Why Saudi’s Formula E race has moved – and what its future holds

    Saudi Arabia will host Formula E for a seventh time this week, but it'll be the first E-Prix weekend to be held anywhere other than Riyadh as it hits a shortened version of the Jeddah Corniche Formula 1 track. The change has come about through the previous Diriyah street track, rightly lauded for its challenge and complexity, being consumed by rapid development in the area. In fact, the original plan had been for Diriyah to be replaced in 2023 but space and legislative granting was found to ensure two further editions of the races could take place that year and again last season. The building work on various infrastructure projects around the historic Diriyah site was unmissable, and even the residual dust was a talking point as it took several sessions to clean the newly laid track.

  • 60 Saudi relief trucks cross Hail en route to Syria

    Sixty relief trucks crossed Hail region, heading to Syria, as part of the Saudi relief land bridge for the Syrian people, which is operated by the King Salman Center for Relief and Humanitarian Aid (KSrelief). The relief convoy carries food and shelter supplies to alleviate the effects of the difficult conditions that Syrian people are going through. Under the direction of the Emir of Hail Region, Abdulaziz bin Saad, the relief convoy was received jubilantly on the way.

  • How LEAP 2025 is Driving AI Investment Across Saudi Arabia

    Michael Champion, CEO of Tahaluf, states: “The massive volume of new investments announced on day one builds on the progress made at LEAP and across the Kingdom in previous years, reaffirming Saudi Arabia’s undisputed status as the primary digital accelerator in the Middle East and North Africa.” Arvind Krishna, Chairman & CEO of IBM, took to the stage to predict quantum computing breakthroughs are “three to five years away”, for significant impacts for pharmaceuticals, energy and AI. Quantum computing emerges as a prominent topic of discussion, exploring how this will solve problems rapidly to drive efficiency and innovation.

  • Saudi puts $15bn into AI as experts debate next steps

    Saudi Arabia is placing big bets on IT, datacentre capability and AI in particular, with the latter a massive focus of the show and an agenda packed out with discussions around applications of AI and its next steps, particularly agentic AI. Projects announced in AI included a $1.5bn agreement between AI infrastructure provider Groq and Aramco Digital – a subsidiary of long-established state oil company Aramco – to expand AI-powered inference infrastructure and cloud computing. Also, Saudi state-owned manufacturing conglomerate ALAT and Lenovo committed $2bn to establish an advanced manufacturing – including semiconductors – and technology centre that integrates AI and robotics.

  • Saudia and Saudi Research and Media Group Announce a Strategic Partnership

    Saudia, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's national flag carrier, has announced a strategic partnership with Saudi Research and Media Group (SRMG), the largest integrated media group in the Middle East and North Africa. This collaboration aims to offer a selection of the group's curated and premium content, including original productions, exclusive documentaries, and cultural and entertainment programs tailored for guests worldwide, to Saudia's BEYOND in-flight entertainment system.

  • Esports Olympics to debut in Saudi Arabia later than expected in 2027

    The first Olympic Esports Games will be hosted in Riyadh in 2027, two years later than expected when a 12-year deal with Saudi Arabia was signed last year. The International Olympic Committee said Tuesday its founding partner for the event will be the kingdom’s Esports World Cup Foundation. The first annual Esports World Cup was held last July and August in Riyadh with tens of millions of dollars in prize money paid for games including Call of Duty, Fortnite and Street Fighter. It is unclear which, if any, shooter games the IOC will allow on the Esports Olympics program, which it has repeatedly said must align with Olympic values.