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  • Saudi Arabia Launches Mobile ‘Craftsman Bus’ Showcasing Traditional Arts

    Saudi Arabia’s Royal Institute of Traditional Arts is currently offering amazing cultural and creative experiences through ‘Craftsman Bus,’ the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported. The institute has recently launched a platform on wheels to celebrate and revive Saudi traditional arts through an important tour across the Kingdom. Set to run until November 23, the event features live performances, professional workshops and community art displays. Crucially, the bus stops every week at King Faisal Park (Education Park) in Hafr Al-Batin governorate and the historic market in Dumat Al-Jandal governorate. Moreover, it will conclude its journey at the heritage village in Jizan.

  • Saudi Arabia’s industrial production holds steady in September: GASTAT

    Saudi Arabia’s industrial production held steady in September, showing a slight year-on-year decrease of 0.3 percent due to a modest decline in manufacturing output, official data showed.  According to data from the General Authority for Statistics, the Kingdom’s manufacturing sector decreased by 0.5 percent in September, bringing the Industrial Production Index to 105.6 points. This decrease was largely attributed to a 12.3 percent drop in the production of coke and refined petroleum products.

  • Iran and Saudi Arabia pursue cautious rapprochement

    After decades of rivalry, Iran and Saudi Arabia have understood that it is in their mutual interest to normalize their relations. However, a few sticking points remain. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi's visit to the Saudi capital Riyadh at the beginning of October indicates that relations are developing. He also met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia.

     

  • Saudi Arabia to increase renewable energy capacity

    The Saudi Energy Procurement Company (SPPC) has begun selecting bidders for the construction of four energy storage systems with a total capacity of 2 gigawatts (GW). The winners will have to commission grid-scale batteries in three regions located in the western (Mecca), northern (Hail) and central parts of the country (Al-Qassim). The four complexes will need to store a total of 8 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity, equivalent to 15% of Saudi Arabia's hourly electricity consumption.

  • Sotheby’s Will Host Saudi Arabia’s First-Ever International Auction in 2025

    Sotheby’s will host the first-ever international auction in Saudi Arabia on February 8 2025. The exact location of the two-part evening sale has not yet been disclosed but it will be somewhere in the historic town of Diriyah on the outskirts of the capital, Riyadh. Diriyah is the original home of the Saudi royal family and has a UNESCO heritage site. Artworks by international and Saudi artists – including a diptych from Ahmed Mater’s The Illumination Series – Islamic objects, jewelry, watches, cars, sports memorabilia, and handbags will go under the hammer for the sale, titled “Origins.” It will coincide with Sotheby’s opening an office in the Al Faisaliah Tower in Riyadh, which is the first skyscraper in the country and designed by Norman Foster.

  • Beyond oil: Google’s big bet on Saudi Arabia’s AI future

    In a landmark move signaling the growing importance of the Middle East in the global tech landscape, Google has entered into a strategic partnership with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund. Google Cloud and PIF announced the agreement, which would see the establishment of a new artificial intelligence (AI) hub in Saudi Arabia, on the sidelines of the Future Investment Initiative 8th Edition (FII8) conference in Riyadh. The hub, to be located near Dammam in the Eastern Province, will feature the latest Google Cloud infrastructure, including tensor processing units (TPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs). The partnership aims to position Saudi Arabia as a global AI leader, drive advancements in Arabic language AI models, and create thousands of jobs in the technology sector. The partnership underscores the “growing interlink” between AI and energy, as Saudi Arabia — along with the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf states — uses its energy surplus to power data centers, a critical pillar of AI infrastructure. This energy advantage makes the region increasingly attractive to tech giants like Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Amazon.

  • Saudi Arabia Bets $10B on Green Hydrogen

    “Green hydrogen is currently more expensive,” said the chief executive of Emsteel Group,  Masdar’s partner in the green hydrogen venture in comments on the news. “This highlights the need for alignment with regulators, suppliers, steel producers and customers,” Saeed Ghumran Al Remeithi added. When a business executive talks about the cost of a technology and “alignment with regulators,” he most probably means state fund support, also known as subsidies. Indeed, green hydrogen is several times as expensive to produce as the cheaper versions of the element that feature natural gas. This appears to be an obstacle that is increasingly looking insurmountable.

  • Saudi Arabia’s grain output hits 1.7M tons in 2023

    Production of grain crops in the Kingdom amounted to 1.75 million tons in 2023, the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) revealed in its recently issued report on agricultural statistics. According to the report, the total area planted with grain crops in 2023 amounted to about 331,000 hectares, of which around 323,000 hectares in harvested area. The wheat crop topped the list with 63.4% of the total area planted with grains, with a production volume of 1.31 million tons.

  • Google’s new AI hub in Saudi Arabia aims to add $71 billion to local economy

    The establishment of the hub is anticipated to contribute as much as $71 billion to Saudi Arabia’s economy. This projection underscores the significant economic potential tied to embracing advanced AI applications. The agreement is anticipated to speed up the integration of AI—specifically in Arabic—within major sectors such as healthcare, retail, and financial services across Saudi Arabia, the Middle East, Africa, and “around the world,” Ruth Porat, president and chief investment officer of Google and Alphabet, stated. “As part of Saudi Arabia’s rich technology ecosystem, we aim to create highly skilled jobs for Saudis and opportunities for global businesses to fuel growth through cloud adoption,” she added.

  • Sotheby’s Plans Its First-Ever Auction in Saudi Arabia

    The sale will take place on February 8, 2025, and is titled “Origins.” It will feature art by both Saudi artists and internationally known names, as well as a range of luxury items, including jewelry, watches, cars, sports memorabilia, and handbags. The auction and a related pre-sale exhibition will be held in the historic Diriyah, where the First Saudi State was inaugurated in 1727. Sotheby’s leaders said the company was officially incorporated in the country at the end of last year. The auction house plans to open an office in the Riyadh landmark Al Faisaliah Tower, which was designed by Norman Foster.