Good morning, ladies and gents. Real estate is the talk of the town this morning, after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman issued the long-anticipated decision to freeze Riyadh’s rents for 5 years. We unpack the decision and what it means for the rental market, and we take stock of Saudi’s accelerating push to reform real estate in a conversation with Coldwell Banker Saudi Arabia CEO Youssef Khattar.

BUT FIRST- Humain barged into the AI-native personal computing field, unveiling its Horizon Pro lineup at Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit in Maui on Thursday. The announcement was made during a fireside chat between CEO Tareq Amin and Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon.

Touted as the first Saudi-designed laptop, the device will utilize Humain’s soon-to-be-released OS, Humain One, built on top of Windows and designed specifically to manage AI workflows. It will also be integrated with its Arabic-first large language model ALLaM, which will run locally on the device, while switching to hybrid cloud modes when more complex processing is required.

Beefy specs: Humain claims the Snapdragon X Elite processor family powering the device enables computing performance “up to 100 times faster than human thought.” The laptop also boasts up to 32 GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, a 14-inch 2.8K OLED panel, and battery life exceeding 18 hours, promising an ambitious 40% reduction in power usage compared to competing systems.

Concrete pricing and shipping dates have not yet been revealed, but we know Humain plans to sell the Horizon Pro to enterprises and retail consumers, with flexible models including subscriptions, leasing, and free hardware refresh options for enterprise users. The PIF-owned company will distribute 500 units of the Horizon Pro to students as part of its launch initiative.

Humain wants to do it all: “We have seen that AI innovation is often fragmented with compute, cloud, and models, and is more spread across organizations, which creates unnecessary complexities. Humain was created to solve this fragmentation by integrating the entire value chain”, CEO Tareq Amin told us in an interview earlier this month.

HAPPENING TODAY-

#1- Eastern Province to inaugurate projects today: Governor Prince Saud bin Nayef will today inaugurate 122 completed environmental, water, and agricultural projects worth more than SAR 28.8 bn, the Eastern Province said on X yesterday. The projects include 63 new initiatives for environmental, water, and agricultural systems with a total cost exceeding SAR 20.8 bn, along with 59 new projects valued at over SAR 8 bn.

#2- Jeddah Construct kicks off today at the Jeddah Superdome, convening over 13k professionals and 200 exhibitors from more than 25 countries. The three-day expo will showcase over 3.5k products, solutions, and prospects in the Western Province’s USD 692 bn construction market.

WEATHER- The thunder alert is gone, but heavy showers still persist over Asir, with moderate to light rain pouring on Jazan, Makkah, and Al Baha. Riyadh is expected to see temperatures as high as 39°C and as low as 28°C, while Jeddah’s mercury will go up to 37°C before cooling down to 29°C, and Makkah will witness a 43°C high and a 31°C low.

PSAs-

The Transport General Authority opened up applications for companies to join its regulatory sandbox for testing autonomous vehicles, it said on X yesterday. The program is designed to support innovation in transport, raise service quality, and build a framework to regulate future mobility rights.

WATCH THIS SPACE-

#1- The Public Investment Fund is reportedly among investors acquiring videogame maker ElectronicArts (EA) in an estimated USD 50 bn leveraged buyout, alongside private equity firm Silver Lake and Affinity Partners, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources it said are familiar with the matter. A final take-private agreement is expected to be reached as soon as next week, making it the largest leveraged buyout in history.

The PIF already owns 10% of EA, and aims to increase its stake in videogame makers. Its gaming and esports unit, Savvy Games Group, acquired US-based Scopely in 2023 for USD 4.9 bn, which subsequently purchased rights to Pokémon Go and several other titles from Niantic in a USD 3.5 bn transaction that closed inMarch.

Market reax: The California-based firm saw its stock hike some 15% on Friday, closing the session at a record high of USD 193.35 apiece, raising its market value to USD 48 bn from USD 43 bn.

#2- PIF-owned AviLease is reportedly in talks with JP Morgan and Citigroup to prepare its first-ever USD-denominated bond issuance, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing two sources it said are in the know. The aircraft lessor could raise at least USD 500 mn from its initial bond under its USD 2 bn program, which is set to hit the market by year-end, one of the sources said.

ICYMI- Launched three years ago, AviLease aims to be one of the top 10 in the industry by more than doubling its balance sheet to USD 20 bn by 2030, CEO Ted O’Byrne said last month. With USD 8 bn portfolio, of up to 200 aircraft leased to 50 airlines in 30 countries, it targets expanding its footprint to include the US, India, and Asia, focusing on Saudi Arabia, which holds 20% of its booked aircraft.

[wwtt4] #3- The Kingdom eyes widening the local debt market from to 28% of GDP by 2030 to be “the cornerstone for financing for the gigaprojects,” CMA board member Abdulaziz Abdulmohsen Bin Hassan told Bloomberg on Thursday. “We want to move away from the traditional method of financing, which is borrowing from banks, to have debt instruments to fill that gap and to fill the financing needs of the kingdom,” Bin Hassan added.

IN CONTEXT- The Kingdom has raised some USD 228 bn to date, and is planning to issue new instruments and boost foreign investments. Investments in projects reached some USD 1.3 tns in 2016, becoming a major global construction market, with the aim of diversifying the economy away from oil and in line with Vision 2030.

#4- Keenan Holding Group plans to establish a EGP 2 bn industrial complex for copper and metal products in Egypt, Egypt’s Trade Ministry said in a statement. The roughly USD 41.4 mn project is expected to create more than 1k jobs. The location and timeline for the development were not disclosed.

The complex will comprise several factories, including one for copper water fittings, faucets, and valves, another for accessories and zinc and stainless steel handles, and a third specializing in copper water mixers in various designs and finishes.

#5- Japanese banks are looking to extend loans to Saudi companies and develop financial products tailored for the Kingdom’s capital markets, Al Arabiya quotes Investment Minister Khalid Al Falih saying at the Saudi-Japanese Investment Forum in Osaka. The Kingdom is also exploring options to integrate Japanese companies in its special economic zones, Al Falih added.

ICYMI- Falih was in Japan last week leading a Saudi delegation to Japan for the Saudi-Japanese Vision 2030 meeting in Tokyo, roundtables with officials, and the Saudi-Japanese Investment Forum in Osaka, which saw 19 MoUs signed and investment opportunities discussed in clean energy, healthcare, biotech, gaming, and sports.

DATA POINTS-

The Kingdom produced a little over 1 mn tons of crude steel in August, up 64.1% y-o-y, bringing output in the first eight months of 2025 to 6.9 million tons, an 11.9% increase from the same period last year, according to the World Steel Association data reported by Arab Iron & Steel Union. The Kingdom’s output accounted for 49.5% of total steel production in Gulf countries and 24.5% of production across Arab nations, Al Arabiya reported.

OIL WATCH-

Opec+ will potentially agree on a modest production hike of about 137k bbl / d for November at its meeting on Sunday, 5 October, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing a survey of oil traders and analysts. The cartel has been increasing production quotas since April, adding some 2.5 mn bbl / d in total, and will continue monthly hikes through September 2026, fast-tracking the return of 1.65 mn bbl / d that was previously set to stay offline until end-2026.

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THE BIG STORY ABROAD-

The foreign pages are leading with US President Donald Trump’s order to deploy troops in Portland and immigration detention facilities nationwide, authorizing what he called “full force, if necessary” in a bid to confront what he described as “domestic terrorists” targeting federal immigration sites. Trump’s move comes days after a deadly shooting in an ICE field office in Dallas and marks his most aggressive domestic security escalation to date. (Reuters | Politico | Washington Post | Wall Street Journal | The Guardian | Financial Times | Bloomberg)

FROM THE REGION- UN sanctions on Iran came back on Saturday after European powers triggered the so-called “snapback” mechanism, accusing Tehran of breaching its 2015 nuclear commitments. The move restores bans on uranium enrichment, missile-related activity and arms sales — and has already sent Iran’s IRR to record lows. Tehran recalled its ambassadors to the UK, France and Germany for consultations and warned of a “harsh response.” (Reuters | BBC | New York Times | AFP | Financial Times | Bloomberg)

ALSO FROM THE REGION- Syria’s post-Assad authorities issued an arrest warrant for the ousted leader on charges including premeditated murder and torture, saying they’ll circulate the order to Interpol to enable international action, Bloomberg reports. The move, tied to lawsuits filed by families of victims in Deraa, marks a dramatic turn for a country still reeling from 13 years of civil war that displaced more than half its population and drew in multiple foreign powers.

ALSO WORTH READING THIS MORNING- South Korea is facing a demographic cliff that threatens to undo decades of postwar economic gains, with its fertility rate stuck at just 0.75 in 2024 — the lowest in the OECD countries and far short of the 2.1 replacement rate, writes CNBC. Economists warn that without breakthrough reforms, the “silver tsunami” of an aging population could shrink the workforce, drain pension funds, and tip Asia’s fourth-largest economy into a permanent slowdown by the 2040s.

CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Global Industry Summit comes to Riyadh on 23-27 November 2025 at the King Abdulaziz International Conference Centre. Organized by the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the event will discover themes like harnessing the power of AI, empowering women in industry, and elevating the youth’s inclusion in industrial growth. The summit will also feature the 21st UNIDO General Conference, gathering government leaders, UNIDO representatives, and global industry figures to define the Organization’s guiding principles and policies and approve budgets and work programmes.

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