Monday, October 19
US President Donald Trump’s hopes of securing as much as $1 trillion in investment commitments from Saudi Arabia might clash with another costly ambition - transforming the kingdom’s own economy.Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plans to diversify the oil-dependent country are likely to cost close to $2 trillion, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg News. The sheer scale of domestic commitments — calculated by Bloomberg based on interviews with people familiar with the plans, US government projections, Saudi estimates and data from the researcher MEED — are transforming the kingdom’s role in the global economy.Decades of earning more money than it spent at home once left Saudi Arabia with huge surpluses to invest abroad. High domestic spending and falling oil pri
U.S. President Donald Trump secured a $600 billion commitment from Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to invest in the United States after the oil power accorded him a gala welcome at the start of a tour of Gulf states. A slate of high-profile business deals across Riyadh, Doha and Abu Dhabi were being unveiled this week, with artificial intelligence and emerging technologies taking centre stage as Gulf nations race to secure a foothold in the global AI economy. Here is an overview of major deals and announcements made on the sidelines of Trump's Gulf visit: * Amazon Web Services and Saudi Arabia's AI startup Humain announced plans to invest $5 billion-plus in a strategic partnership to build an "AI Zone" in the kingdom. * U.S. chip firm AMD and Humain announced plans to build AI infrastructure that
India's top paint maker, Asian Paints, has lost more market share than analysts expected to rival Grasim Industries in the year since billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla's ambitious paints venture was launched, according to Elara Securities data shared exclusively with Reuters. Asian Paints' market share fell to 52% from 59% in the 12 months ending March 31, Elara Securities data shows, raising the pressure on the industry leader to spend more on marketing and discounts to retain its crown. Birla Opus' market share reached 6.8% in the latest quarter. "Whenever a new entrant comes, its strategies are aggressive. But this time, the scale is much bigger," said Geojit Financial Services analyst Antu Thomas, who had expected Grasim to gain only 1%-2% in market share from Asian Paints. Birla Opus,
