THIS MORNING: Houthis claims attacks on Riyadh, Khamis Mushait amis Saudi-Iran talks

Good morning, everyone. The WPC Energy Congress is moving ahead in Riyadh, the first time the Kingdom is hosting the event. It’s coming together two quarters later than planned and is widely seen as a litmus test for the rest of Saudi Arabia’s fall business event calendar.

The talk from the congress floor is about logistics rather than output. Export routes, storage abroad, how long it takes to put barrels back on the shelf — a producers’ gathering spending its week on the plumbing says more about the last seven months than any production number would. Amin Nasser’s timeline for rebuilding inventories is below, with Washington’s estimate of how much Gulf export volume is back alongside it.

Riyadh, meanwhile, is being entered on monthly terms. International firms are arriving in a city with almost no conventional space left to lease and taking flexible desks instead, which gets a company into the market years before a building would. JLL’s read on who is filling KAFD and Olaya runs further down.

War watch

The Houthis have claimed responsibility for attacks on Riyadh and Khamis Mushait amid Saudi-Iranian talks to ease tensions. The group’s spokesperson Yahya Saree said the Houthis fired a ballistic missile at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh yesterday, describing the strike as “accurate,” and targeted Khamis Mushait Air Base with a drone, which he said scored a “direct hit.” Meanwhile, the Saudi-led coalition intercepted and destroyed two ballistic missiles fired toward Riyadh and Khamis Mushait, coalition spokesperson Major General Turki Al Maliki announced yesterday in two separate statements, without giving further details.

Saudi Arabia has opened its first publicly reported talks with Iran since the Houthi escalation began, a move toward cooling a conflict that is still grounding flights and keeping its main airport shut. Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud spoke with his Iranian counterpart about the regional escalation and efforts to ease tensions, SPA reported. Tehran’s foreign minister said Iran is ready to help facilitate a dialogue between Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

The outreach comes as the damage to Saudi aviation widens. The US Federal Aviation Administration told American carriers to exercise caution flying to or over Saudi Arabia, citing safety threats from military activity and navigation-system interference. The notice to airmen runs until 10 December and covers operators of US-registered aircraft. Delta Air Lines was due to launch direct Atlanta-Riyadh flights on 23 October and has yet to say whether that holds. Qatar Airways has temporarily suspended flights to and from Dammam and Riyadh. Saudi civil aviation authorities, meanwhile, extended the suspension of operations at King Khalid International.

Saudi, meanwhile, is questioning how the attack got through at all. The Kingdom is investigating how its air defenses missed the Saturday barrage on King Khalid International Airport, two regional officials told AP. The initial probe points to a staged assault: the Houthis launched a wave of drones to clear the way for cruise and ballistic missiles, some with warheads that can change course in flight and complicate interception by Patriot batteries and other defense systems Saudi relies on. The investigation is also asking why the defenses gave no earlier warning, given that the weapons flew more than 1k km to reach Riyadh.

Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, stressed the need to “revive collective Gulf action” in response to attacks against Saudi Arabia, in a post on X. Gargash argues the bloc has fallen short so far on security and defense coordination, which led others to “overreach against [the GCC].” He referred to GCC security as “indivisible” and “a shared responsibility” and stressed the need to strengthen the bloc’s collective security framework.

On the mend: The statement, issued in the wake of Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, is another sign of improving ties between the UAE and Saudi after a strained stretch. The two already named defense a priority for cooperation after UAE Vice President and Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan met Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman last month.

Power push

Siemens Energy is trying to reserve scarce turbine capacity for Saudi Arabia, with its order book running through 2032 and global demand outpacing what it can build, CEO Christian Bruch told Asharq Business. The company is in talks on new gas-fired power projects in the Kingdom, although production schedules and component availability will determine whether additional capacity can be allocated before 2030.

The pitch is data centers: Saudi Arabia could supply them with electricity at a “highly competitive cost,” Bruch said, making it a suitable place for operators to build. The US, he added, “will not always be the only destination.”

On the ground: The German energy technology company is investing around USD 150 mn to expand its Dammam hub, adding 60k sq m and building a factory for the large power transformers used in high-voltage networks, including the Kingdom’s 380 kV transmission grid. It wants local capability to handle around 80% of service cases without flying in specialists from abroad.

The gas crunch gave Egypt every reason to speed up its energy transition, and the question now is who builds it and who pays for it.

Power Trip, our four-part signature series, turns this week to the transition and the private developers now building much of Egypt’s new power.

Issue II looks at how the deals behind these projects work, who is lending to them, and why the country is building a nuclear plant at El Dabaa alongside its solar and wind farms. We also look at whether the regional crisis has finally pushed industry toward renewables, and at the factories Egypt is counting on to build its own panels, batteries, and turbines.

Tap here to subscribe to the Egypt edition and get Power Trip delivered straight to your inbox.

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The big story abroad

French President Emmanuel Macron said a major agreement on EU car policy would be finalized soon to protect the bloc’s automotive industry against fierce Chinese competition. Paris and Berlin are jointly working on the agreement, which is expected to delay the gradual end of combustion engines and support car production in Europe.

Tech investment firm Ithaca Holdings is in talks to take dating-app company Bumble private for around USD 1 bn. Bumble — whose market value stood at around USD 335 mn last Friday — has seen its shares drop over 90% since going public in 2021. Ithaca plans to use advanced technologies, including AI, across its investments.

Meta has launched Muse Wonder and Muse Wonder Full, describing them as its “most capable AI models yet”, as it ramps up its efforts to compete with Anthropic and OpenAI. Subscribers will be the first to see Muse Wonder, while the higher-capacity Muse Wonder Full model is currently available only to Muse Code subscribers.

The Gulf’s sovereign funds and largest companies are committing billions to AI infrastructure at home and to AI companies in the US and beyond. EnterpriseAM AI + Innovation reports on where that capital goes, who controls it and what it is actually buying.

Every Tuesday and Thursday, we also cover the startups and established firms across MENA putting AI to work, and how it is changing jobs, education and the way business runs.

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