Category: Semafor

Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund is investing $500 million with General Atlantic as part of a deal to deepen their partnership, in the latest sign that the Gulf’s biggest funds are still actively seeking deals even as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz hits state revenues. The Qatar Investment Authority ...

Access to chips is not the only bottleneck in the UAE’s AI ambitions, according to executives involved in Abu Dhabi’s multibillion-dollar push into advanced technology. While GPUs have been a focus for Gulf states, other factors are also delaying progress, Paul Bloch, co-founder of data storage provider DDN, told Semafor. ...

The News Republican senators who visited China last week left optimistic that President Donald Trump can clinch deals on aerospace and key agricultural goods when he lands in Beijing on Wednesday. The leader of the latest Hill delegation, Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., on Monday summed up his goals for Trump’s ...

Spain called for the creation of an EU army, part of a broader shift toward European sovereignty. “We cannot be waking up every morning wondering what the US will do next,” the country’s foreign minister told Politico. Calls for European armies date back to the 1950s, but the wars in ...

Airlines are lowering prices for some European flights after customers hesitated to book tickets amid the Iran war. Fears of a jet fuel shortage — and subsequent flight cuts and airfare hikes — have led many to hold off on booking summer travel. But a Financial Times analysis of flights ...

The AI boom is pushing East Asian stock markets to record highs even as their economies feel the pain of wartime supply disruptions. JPMorgan Chase on Monday lifted its target for South Korean stocks on surging AI-related demand for semiconductors. Asia’s three most valuable firms are chipmakers: Some investors are ...

The Scene Gulf officials have been at pains to state that the Iran war won’t create any distance between the region and its most important economic and security partner, the US. The reality is more nuanced: Washington remains the dominant player in the Gulf, but the conflict is providing an ...

The News President Donald Trump’s $1 billion in White House security funding for his ballroom project must survive both a political and procedural gauntlet over the next two weeks for the Senate to approve it. Senate Democrats argue that the money violates the strict budget reconciliation process, which could lead ...

More than a dozen CEOs, including top tech and finance leaders, will join US President Donald Trump on his visit to China this week, according to a White House official. The delegation includes Apple’s Tim Cook, Tesla’s Elon Musk, and Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon, along with the CEOs of Boeing ...

Policymakers gathering at the Africa Forward Summit will focus on ways to rethink how to price risk on the continent and unlock investment, Kenya’s foreign minister told Reuters. African leaders have long argued that global ​credit rating agencies overstate the ​continent’s risk, pushing up ⁠borrowing costs and deterring investment. Musalia ...