Section

Business

Markets, industries, and the forces reshaping the region's economy.

Business

The Gulf's Next Decade Will Be Decided by Capital, Not Barrels

Roughly six trillion dollars of sovereign wealth now sits behind the region's funds. What that money buys, and where it is deployed, matters more to the next ten years than the oil price does.

Aug 8, 2026/4 min read

A modern Gulf financial district skyline at dusk

Business

Kingdom Holding's Profit Slips, and the Reasons Are Instructive

Weaker dividend income, higher operating costs and a bigger tax line pushed the Saudi investment house lower in the first half. Each of those pressures applies well beyond one company.

Aug 7, 2026/3 min read

Printed financial statements on a desk beside reading glasses

Business

Aramco's $67.2bn Half Year Was Built on a Supply Shock

Profit rose 29 percent as Hormuz disruption pushed crude to $108 a barrel in the second quarter. The number says more about the strait than about the company.

Aug 6, 2026/4 min read

A crude oil tanker alongside a refinery loading terminal

Business

Saudi Arabia and US EXIM Sign a $15 Billion Understanding

The kingdom's sovereign fund and America's export credit agency have agreed a memorandum worth up to fifteen billion dollars. What it is not is a committed investment.

Aug 6, 2026/4 min read

Two document folders and pens on a boardroom table

Business

The UAE Now Earns Four Fifths of Its Economy Outside Oil

Non-oil activity reached 79.4 percent of national output in the first quarter, growing at 4.8 percent while the overall economy grew 3. The gap between those figures is the story.

Aug 6, 2026/4 min read

Business

Gulf Builders Keep Awarding Work While the Risk Premium Rises

Shipping, insurance and construction costs are all higher because of the Iran conflict. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are pressing ahead with project awards anyway, and the reasoning is deliberate.

Aug 4, 2026/4 min read

Construction cranes rising over a Gulf city skyline

Business

England Had 8 Percent of Its Normal July Rain. Now Come the Bills.

Wheat and oat yields are poor, livestock farmers are eating into winter feed in August, and growers are running out of irrigation water. The Farmers' Union calls this the third drought in five years.

Aug 4, 2026/4 min read

Cracked dry soil in a parched farm field

Business

Most of Tesla's Quarterly Profit Came From SpaceX

A stake Musk's carmaker holds in his rocket company produced more paper profit last quarter than building and selling cars did. On the earnings call, he stopped short of denying a merger.

Aug 3, 2026/2 min read

A rocket standing on a launch pad at dusk

Business

Bahrain's Manama Declaration Puts Women-Led Businesses at the Center of Growth

The latest World Entrepreneurs Investment Forum connected women-led enterprise with green, blue, creative and digital industries, producing investment commitments as well as policy language.

Aug 3, 2026/2 min read

Business

Egypt's $5 Billion Clean-Energy Pipeline Is Bigger Than Solar Farms

Scatec's proposed two-year investment program spans batteries, desalination, wind, solar and green data centers, revealing how Egypt wants clean power to support industry.

Aug 3, 2026/2 min read

Large solar and battery-storage infrastructure operating in the Egyptian desert

Business

Morocco Is Building a Giant Water Battery for Its Renewable Grid

A $265 million World Bank package for the 300-megawatt Ifahsa pumped-storage project could unlock more solar and wind while making Morocco's grid more dependable.

Aug 3, 2026/2 min read

Mountain reservoirs and hydropower infrastructure representing Morocco's Ifahsa storage project