ENERGY-

Energy Department partners with Goldman Sachs: The Abu Dhabi Energy Department signed an agreement with Goldman Sachs to explore financing models to improve water security in the UAE, Abu Dhabi Media Office reports. Under the agreement, the two will look to attract foreign direct investment and public-private partnerships to the emirate, explore joint water infrastructure projects, and work on advanced technologies for desalination and reducing network losses. The agreement follows an Energy Department delegation visit to the US, looking to bolster international cooperation on energy security.

REAL ESTATE-

Mair, Al Jazira Club to develop area near MBZ Stadium: ADX-listed Mair Group inked an MoU with Emirati soccer team Al Jazira Club to transform the area surrounding Mohammed bin Zayed (MBZ) Stadium — the club’s home ground — into a commercial destination, according to an ADX disclosure (pdf). The two will form a JV to develop the project, with Mair’s real estate arm Makani Real Estate set to head up development works.

The details: Some 80k sqm of land adjacent to MBZ Stadium will be allocated to Makani to develop into an integrated commercial center featuring entertainment, healthcare, and lifestyle amenities. An investment value for the project wasn’t disclosed.

FINANCIAL SERVICES-

Bahrain’s AFS certified to support Jaywan cards: Bahraini digital payment solutions provider Arab Financial Services’ (AFS) card-issuing platform is now certified to support Jaywan, the Central Bank of the UAE’s (CBUAE) national card scheme, according to a press release. AFS’ client banks and financial institutions will be able to issue Jaywan prepaid and debit cards across the UAE.

ICYMI- Astra Tech-backed platform Botim became the first fintech certified to issue Jaywan cards earlier this year. Introduced by the CBUAE’s digital payments arm Al Etihad Payments, Jaywan is also mulling launching a credit card to add to its existing debit card offering.

Botim + Ethiopia partner on remittance services: UAE-based fintech platform Botim partnered with the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) to launch digital remittance services for Ethiopian nationals living in the UAE, according to a press release.

The details: Ethiopians residing in the UAE can now transfer money directly to CBE accounts — as well as other banks in Ethiopia — and send funds for pick-up at over 1.9k CBE branches or to Ethiopian mobile wallets in ETB.

BUSINESS-

Inveniam opens Abu Dhabi office in ADGM: New York-headquartered Inveniam, a digital middle office for private assets, launched its regional office in Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) through its subsidiary Inveniam Mid East, according to a press release.

REMEMBER- Inveniam already partnered with state AI firm G42 and invested some USD 20 mn in a Hong Kong startup to tokenize real-world assets in the UAE earlier this year.

AI-

Another homegrown AI model: Abu Dhabi’s Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence and state-backed AI firm G42 launched K2 Think — an open-source reasoning system with 32 bn parameters that they say performs on par with models 20x larger, according to a statement (pdf). The model is built for complex reasoning tasks at higher efficiency and will be deployed on US-based chipmaker Cerebras’ wafer-scale AI hardware.

REMEMBER- G42 invested USD 335 mn in Cerebras in April after restructuring the transaction to buy non-voting shares. The UAE firm already accounted for 87% of Cerebras’ revenues in 1H 2024 through multi-bn-USD contracts for data center and computing services.

The new release adds to a growing portfolio of UAE-built, open-source models, including Arabic-focused Jais, Hindi-language Nanda, and Kazakh-language Sherkala.

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