Knowledge Economic City is gearing up for foreign demand

Good morning, friends. We have two big stories for you this morning — analysts tell us what the framework agreement between the US and Iran means for investor sentiment, and we dive into the foreign ownership map and what it tells us about non-Saudi real estate ownership.

KEC is getting ready for foreign demand

For the developers named in the real estate foreign ownership zones, the regulations turn a long-term bet into a live opportunity. Knowledge Economic City — one of the Madinah zones — was built from the start as a destination for institutional investment anchored by hospitality, COO and acting CEO Hazem Elbanna tells EnterpriseAM. The framework, he says, “strengthens confidence in Madinah as a promising investment destination and provides greater certainty for long-term investment.”

Three KEC developments are foreigner-ready. The Islamic World District, a hospitality-led destination of hotels, branded residences, and retail aimed at Madinah’s year-round pilgrim traffic; Al Alyaa, an established residential community with homes, schools, and green space pitched at both investors and end-users; and the Hilton-branded residences at Multaqa AlMadinah, an internationally branded mixed-use play.

The back-end work is already underway. KEC is realigning its sales, legal, and customer-journey processes to verify investor eligibility and clear transactions under the new rules — the operational lift every developer in the zones now faces. Elbanna's advice to peers is to build a “simple, compliant and customer-centric ownership journey” early, because that will be a differentiator in competing for international buyers.

What KEC wants next: Continued clarity on how the regulations are implemented across the designated zones, and a fully digital ownership journey from eligibility through to registration — the same end-to-end execution gap that will determine how quickly any of this converts into transactions.

SPEAKING OF CLARITY- We have a beefy explainer on the newly announced foreign ownership zones in the news well, below.

Beverage and coffee firms eye Ethiopia for expansion

Dammam-based Jo Drinks Factory and Soil Roasters are eyeing Ethiopia for manufacturing and sourcing, the Ethiopian News Agency reported following a visit by Ethiopian Deputy Head of Mission Ambassador Awel Wegris Mohammed to their production facilities in the Second Industrial City.

The plans: Jo Drinks is looking to manufacture in Ethiopia for local and export markets, with Ethiopian Airlines as a target client. Meanwhile, Soil Roasters, which imports Ethiopian specialty beans, plans to cut out intermediaries and source directly from Ethiopian producers and cooperatives. Both companies have been invited for a pre-investment visit.

Data point

SAR 71.3 bn — that’s the q-o-q increase in the Kingdom’s services exports in 1Q 2026, a 7.9% increase, according to Gastat’s latest report (pdf). Meanwhile, services imports fell 6.9% q-o-q to SAR 111.4 bn.

The drivers: Growth was driven by travel services, which accounted for 62% of the total at SAR 44.3 bn, with personal travel making up 96.6% of the category. Transportation services ranked second at SAR 10.9 bn, with air transport representing 39.9% of that total. On the import side, transportation services held the largest share at 29% (SAR 31.8 bn), followed by travel services at 19% (SAR 21.3 bn).

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The big story abroad

With no fresh update on the US-Iran talks, no single story is dominating the front pages this morning.

Cook stays: The US Supreme Court ruled to block President Donald Trump’s attempted sacking of Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook. While the 5-4 decision is being billed as a victory for Fed independence, the court ruled in a separate decision that Trump may axe members of independent federal agencies.

Another high-profile shakeup in the media world: Mass media giant Comcast has plans to spin off its media and entertainment arm NBCUniversal and its European media business arm Sky. The split reportedly aims to increase investor appeal by letting shareholders choose between Comcast’s steady broadband business and the new media group.

Meanwhile, in the AI world: The rush to fund energy infrastructure for data centers has triggered a massive surge in US power and utility dealmaking. Data center growth is driving “a seemingly unstoppable trend line” in power demand. So far in 2026, data center investment skyrocketed to USD 151.5 bn, more than doubling y-o-y.

And, in a first, the Dow Jones Industrial Average surpassed the 52k mark yesterday, as tech companies start off the week strong. This coincided with Google-owner Alphabet’s debut on the index — its shares jumped 4.8% to lead gains.