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  • Saudi Arabia Achieves Record Number of Venture Capital Deals, Maintains First Rank Across MENA

    The 2024 Saudi Arabia Venture Capital Report revealed that Saudi Arabia achieved a record number of 178 venture capital (VC) deals in 2024, accounting for 31% of the MENA region’s total number of deals. The Kingdom also maintained its first rank across the MENA region in terms of VC funding for the second year in a row. The report published today by the venture data platform MAGNiTT and sponsored by SVC also reveals a 34% increase in funding for VC deals in the Kingdom valued at less than $100 million (SAR375 million) in 2024 compared to 2023. This growth indicates a positive trend towards supporting early-stage startups, enhancing the opportunities for the Kingdom’s VC ecosystem to progress to later stages.

  • Hans Zimmer to reimagine Saudi Arabia’s national anthem

    Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer is working on a new interpretation of the Saudi national anthem. Turki Al Sheikh, chairman of the General Entertainment Authority, said talks had also been held with Zimmer over a concert and an original composition called Arabia, inspired by the kingdom’s culture and heritage. In a post shared on X, Al Sheikh called Zimmer “one of the greatest musicians of the modern age” and said they discussed several projects that could see the light of day soon. Zimmer was also offered the chance to create the soundtrack for coming Saudi film, The Battle of Yarmouk. Zimmer is a 12-time Oscar nominee and two-time winner, taking home the golden statuette for his work on The Lion King and Dune. Earlier this month, Zimmer performed at Dubai Opera alongside the Limitless Orchestra.

  • Saudi dates exports surge to 1.5b tons

    Global demand for Saudi palm dates have increased, propelling the product’s exports to rise from 579 million tons in 2016 to about 1.5 billion tons in 2024, official figures have shown. Saudi Arabia boasts about 300 different types of dates, with more than 37 million palm trees producing more than 3 billion tons of dates annually, the Saudi news agency SPA reported, citing the National Centre for Palms and Dates. The number of factories of date products and processing industries has reached 137. Al Qassim in central Saudi Arabia tops the kingdom’s regions in terms of date production with more than 578,000 tons and having 10.7 million trees, the Saudi Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture has recently said.

  • Saudi films to debut in India this month

    Saudi films will hit the screens in India for the first time as part of a roving festival starting in late January, the kingdom’s cinema authorities have said.  The “Saudi Film Nights” will be launched in India on January 31 and run through February 5 after large success earlier achieved by the roving festival in Morocco, Australia and China, the Saudi Film Commission has added. The event will open at the National Museum of the Indian Cinema in Mumbai along with showings planned in Delhi and Hyderabad. A select group of long and short films will be shown followed by panel sessions with filmmakers and the cast crews.

  • Oil turns lower after Trump says he’ll ask Saudi Arabia and OPEC to bring the price down

    Crude oil futures fell Thursday after President Donald Trump urged Saudi Arabia and OPEC to cut their prices. U.S. crude oil fell 82 cents, or 1.09%, to close at $74.62 per barrel, while global benchmark Brent dropped 71 cents, or 0.9%, to close at $78.29 per barrel. Oil was higher on the session before Trump began speaking. Trump accused the Saudis and OPEC of fueling the war in Ukraine through high oil prices, claiming the fighting would end if they allowed global crude prices to fall. Russia is one of the largest oil exporters in the world and the revenues from those sales support its war. “I’m also going to ask Saudi Arabia and OPEC to bring down the cost of oil,” Trump said in a virtual address to the World Economic Forum. “If the price came down, the Russia-Ukraine war would end immediately.”

  • Saudi crown prince says kingdom intends to invest $600 billion in U.S. over next 4 years

    Saudi Arabia’s crown prince said Thursday the kingdom wants to invest $600 billion in the United States over the next four years, comments that came after President Donald Trump earlier put a price tag on returning to the kingdom as his first foreign trip. Trump’s 2017 trip to Saudi Arabia upended a tradition of U.S. presidents first heading to the United Kingdom as their first trip abroad. It also underscored his administration’s close ties to the rulers of the oil-rich Gulf states as his eponymous real estate company has pursued deals across the region as well. “The crown prince affirmed the kingdom’s intention to broaden its investments and trade with the United States over the next four years, in the amount of $600 billion, and potentially beyond that,” the report said. The readout did not elaborate on where those investments and trade could be placed. The U.S. in recent years has increasingly pulled away from relying on Saudi oil exports, which once was the bedrock of their relationship for decades. Saudi sovereign wealth funds have taken large stakes in American businesses while also looking at sports as well. .

  • Trump holds first foreign leader call with Saudi crown prince

    President Trump held his first official call with a foreign leader since being sworn in for his second term with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a controversial figure who Trump on Thursday praised as a “fantastic guy.” Trump spoke with the crown prince Wednesday, according to a readout from the White House. The two discussed security concerns in the Middle East and stabilizing the region, as well as planned investments by Saudi Arabia in the United States.  The president, addressing political and business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, highlighted reports that Saudi Arabia plans to invest at least $600 billion in the U.S. in the coming years.  “I’ll be asking the crown prince, who’s a fantastic guy, to round it out to around $1 trillion,” Trump said. “I think they’ll do that, because we’ve been very good to them.”

  • Saudi Arabia weighs global mining deals as sector consolidates

    Saudi Arabia is looking for mining deals in a push to secure supplies of critical minerals for its industrialization plan, just as a wave of attempted consolidation sweeps the sector. Joining the consolidation drive “could be a good way of entering the market or getting at least access to different assets in a more structured way,” Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Bandar Alkhorayef said in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos. He didn’t elaborate whether this would be buying stakes in assets or buying companies outright. Deals have been on Saudi Arabia’s radar for a while as it pushes through with an ambitious economic transformation plan. The overseas drive has had limited results so far with just one major completed deal and another in the works in Pakistan, but recent dealmaking efforts by major companies may give the Saudis an opportunity to deploy their cash.

  • Climbing a Saudi ‘treasure’: Video

    Saudi climbing instructor Makki Alkurdi takes CNN to Treasure Island, a rock located just 20 minutes from the capital city Riyadh.

  • Floating solar could reach LCOE of $0.053/kWh in Saudi Arabia

    Scientists from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) in Saudi Arabia have conducted a techno-economic analysis to assess the country’s potential for floating PV (FPV) development and have found that the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of floating PV project could be as low as $0.053/kWh. The study assessed techno-economic feasibility at three distinct locations with varying climates and topographies: the King Fahad Dam, a gravity dam on Wadi Bisha, 35 km south of Bisha in the ‘Asir Region; the Wadi Namar Dam, located south of Riyadh; and the Hali Dam, situated 14 km east of Keyad in Mecca Province. The scientists reported that the King Fahd and Wadi Hali sites offer greater depth, likely improving cooling and boosting efficiency. Maximum solar irradiation at King Fahd reaches 2.38 MW/m²/year, compared to 2.19 MW/m²/year at Wadi Namar and 2.07 MW/m²/year at Wadi Hali.