Inside Gems’ domestic (and global) expansion push

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WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TODAY

THIS MORNING: Sports events are coming back + TotalEnergies to invest in more Fujairah pipeline capacity?

Good morning, friends. The dominant theme in today’s issue: everyone’s building outward. Gems is delivering 5k new school seats this month and lining up 20k more over the next three years — construction delays and all — just as it expands globally through its school management arm, Gems School Management.

Worth sitting with, though: Varkey’s line on Gems’ cost base is a more honest read on where things stand than most of what we hear from executives about the conflict's economic impact — costs are up and timelines have slipped, but the good news is that changes like these are mostly priced in. We have everything on Gems’ expansion plans and Varkey’s read on demand in the UAE post-conflict in the news well below.

PLUS- Parkin is likely heading to Bahrain, Adnoc Drilling is eyeing Egypt, and Masdar has switched on a battery plant in Rochdale. Also, Fasset just joined the UAE's unicorn club.

The EnterpriseAM Egypt Forum is back — and we’re devoting the full day to the singular set of questions on everyone’s mind: What does AI actually mean for your company, your people, your economy, your own job — and your kids’ future?

Every session on stage answers one question: “So, what do I actually do about it?”

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The Hormuz workaround’s newest investor?

TotalEnergies is putting its own capital behind the UAE’s Hormuz bypass. The French energy giant is set to invest in expanding Abu Dhabi’s export pipeline capacity through Fujairah, as the UAE works to roughly double the amount of crude it can move to the Gulf of Oman without crossing Hormuz, Reuters cites TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne as saying at a Norwegian energy conference on Monday.

What we know: The existing Habshan-Fujairah pipeline can currently carry up to 1.8 mn bbl / d. Adnoc is currently accelerating work on a second pipeline to Fujairah that it says was already 50% complete in May, targeting its delivery in 2027. The additional line would add around 1.5 mn bbl / d, lifting the UAE’s bypass capacity to roughly 3.3 mn bbl / d. It’s not clear if TotalEnergies would invest in the new pipeline or a different expansion.

Watts to come

Abu Dhabi is planning to double its installed power capacity — from 25 GW today to 50 GW by 2050 — as population growth, economic expansion, and AI-driven data-center demand reshape the emirate's energy math, Abu Dhabi Department of Energy Director General for Regulatory Affairs Abdulaziz Alobaidli told The National. The forecast tracks IEA projections, and more than AED 300 bn is earmarked for generation, transmission, and distribution to get there.

Renewables will carry most of that growth: Their share of the generation mix is set to rise from 45% to 60% within five years — a steep climb for a grid built on gas, and one that puts Abu Dhabi's clean-energy timeline ahead of where most Gulf peers are today.

PSAs

#1- Two sports announcements this week are giving us hope that the region's event calendar is filling back up again. F1 confirmed over the weekend that its season will end exactly where it was always supposed to — Yas Marina on 6 December, with Qatar the week before on 29 November — after March's cancellations in Bahrain and Saudi left the back half of the calendar looking distinctly wobbly. “The calendar is confirmed, and we stay focused on delivering the calendar we promised at the beginning of the year,” Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali said. Abu Dhabi is down to limited ticket availability, with an entertainment lineup that includes Andrea Bocelli, Lewis Capaldi, Zara Larsson, and Imagine Dragons.

Separately, Abu Dhabi will host the league's inaugural Basketball SuperCup on 18-19 September at Etihad Arena, bringing Olympiacos, Fenerbahce, Real Madrid, and Dubai Basketball together for the four-team season opener, state news agency Wam reports. That’s just months after the NBA shelved preseason games in Abu Dhabi and Doha over the regional conflict, though the league said at the time games would return to the UAE eventually.

#2- Emirates is gradually restoring Gulf services after weeks of disruption — though at reduced capacity. The airline has resumed one daily Dubai-Kuwait flight, down from four previously, and one daily Bahrain service, down from three, The National reports. The carrier extended select cancellations to both destinations in July as regional hostilities disrupted Gulf air travel.

Still flying high: The reduced Gulf schedule hasn’t knocked Emirates off the top spot globally. The carrier ranked first for international capacity in August with more than 31.1 bn available seat kilometers, around 21% ahead of Ryanair, even as capacity fell 5.4% y-o-y amid regional disruption, according to OAG data.

WEATHER- The mercury is rising to 44°C in Abu Dhabi and 43°C in Dubai today, with the capital seeing a low of 32°C and Dubai seeing a low of 34°C, according to our favorite weather app.

Destination Sahel Issue IV, the final issue in the series, drops this week, and we’re exploring how Egypt’s North Coast could become more than a summer story.

Living in Sahel year-round is moving from a seasonal idea to a serious question; an industrial push is reshaping the Coast’s economic base, and Egyptian homebuyers are weighing Sahel against Dubai, London, and other Mediterranean markets for where to put their money.

In this issue, we get into what it would take for Sahel to work beyond the summer, how industry fits into the Coast’s next chapter, and the numbers behind the Sahel-vs-everywhere debate.

Click here to subscribe to the Egypt edition, coming straight to your inbox tomorrow.

The big story abroad

Washington has announced its latest attempt to squeeze Iran’s economy. Operation Economic Outcast includes sanctioning more than 60 entities, individuals, and vessels on a global level. Secondary sanctions may target entities doing business with Iran across several sectors, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, warning Tehran’s trade partners to sever ties or face being expelled from the USD-based financial system.

Iran’s response? Tehran threatened military action and further cuts to Gulf oil exports before the US sanctions announcement, but Economy Minister Ali Madanizadeh later said the country was “fully prepared.” An IRGC spokesperson warned Iran would strike US vital interests and energy chokepoints if its infrastructure is threatened.

Washington’s ire toward Ottawa is also making waves, as US President Donald Trump threatened to raise tariffs on Canadian cars to 50% by 1 January and lock existing steel levies at the same rate. Last-minute trade talks collapsed over the weekend, triggering a new wave of US tariffs on USD 20 bn worth of Canadian goods and reigniting a trade war between the two nations.

A hedge fund under the microscope: The US Securities and Exchange Commission subpoenaed major Wall Street banks over trading activity at AI-focused hedge fund Situation Awareness. The fund narrowly avoided collapse after last month’s tech sell-off by selling the majority of its holdings to Citadel — a US hedge fund — in just 24 hours. The regulator will look into the timing of trades between Situation Awareness and its lenders, including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Citigroup, and Bank of America.

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Check out our full calendar on the web for a comprehensive listing of upcoming news events, national holidays and news triggers.

Gems Education is opening 5k new school seats this September despite conflict-driven construction delays

Dubai-based school operator Gems Education is delivering 5k new seats this September despite construction delays earlier this year due to the conflict, forming part of a AED 2 bn investment to develop 20k new seats across Dubai and Abu Dhabi over the next three years, Gems CEO Dino Varkey tells EnterpriseAM. Gems is launching a new school, its latest Gems Founders School, in Nad Al Hammar, and is also adding capacity through expansions of existing schools, Varkey says.

“Elements of [our expansion plan] have slowed down a little bit, but none of it has stalled,” Varkey says on the impact of the conflict’s supply chain disruptions to construction timelines. Besides the impact on the timeline, costs have also gone up, Varkey adds. “There's been an inevitable escalation in the underlying cost base [...] but the project feasibility studies that we do for any school that we want to invest in usually have an appropriate level of contingency built in anyway, so these are costs that we can frankly absorb,” he says.

REMEMBER- We reported yesterday that Gems — along with other school operators in the UAE — is actually in for a better start to the school year than expected. Retention is strong, and teacher attrition is solid. If you've missed it, read more on how things are shaping up ahead of the school year here.

In terms of funding, the firm’s capital expenditure needs for the next three years are “fully covered,” Varkey tells us. The firm had raised USD 3.25 bn from four Emirati lenders back in 2024, facilitating asset manager Brookfield and its consortium’s acquisition of a majority stake in the Dubai-based school operator — one of the largest private equity transactions in a business in the Gulf.

His read on domestic demand? “[The growth momentum] will come back,” he says as he notes that his expectations of the year ahead in terms of growth are more conservative than the past few years. “The fact that we're still able to grow [despite the headwinds], I see as an incredible positive,” Varkey says. “Would I like to be growing at the pace that we have historically grown at? Of course [...] but these circumstances are temporary, and the way that we've looked at the UAE has always been long-term, and none of this impacts the long-term trajectory of the nation,” he adds.

The domestic expansion angle

The school operator is focusing 75% of its investment on the affordable segment, and Varkey tells us that comes down to a very strong and “resilient” demand base across that segment, as opposed to premium schools which are prone to more volatility during periods of instability.

Take GSRI: The school operator recently invested USD 100 mn in building Dubai’s most expensive school, Gems School of Research and Innovation (GSRI), which opened its doors last school year. “If it wasn't for the conflict, GSRI would be at incredible numbers at the start of year two,” Varkey tells us. “It certainly exceeded our expectations when we opened it,” he says, adding that the decision to build a school that caters to the ultra-wealthy segment — its fees are projected to reach up to AED 206k — with features like robotics labs and a helipad, came as the market in Dubai “matured.”

The ambition is to open more of that type of school in the future, but that’ll come down to “the market and the broader economy,” he explains. For now, the focus is mostly on mid-market, and still largely on British curriculum, which Varkey says has the broadest appeal across many countries. Varkey is also keeping an eye on IB, which he says is growing in demand, and American-curriculum schools as well.

On a global scale…

The company is still eyeing “both organic and inorganic acquisitions in adjacent markets like Saudi Arabia,” and those remain a priority for Gems, Varkey tells us. The school operator had submitted a bid last year to acquire Saudi school operator Ajialuna Educational, with Ajialuna’s majority owner, Sulaiman Alrajhi Holding, said to be seeking a full exit. No updates on the acquisition have been made public yet.

The firm is also expanding through its school management arm, GEMS School Management (GSM), which currently has 17 schools under its belt and is expected to grow to about 20 schools, with several slated to open in Zanzibar, Georgia, and Cyprus, Varkey says. The point of GSM is to “diversify” the business geographically, he adds.

Fasset reaches USD 1 bn valuation after USD 68 mn Series C round

Dubai-based fintech Fasset joined the unicorn club after raising USD 68 mn in Series C funding, pushing its valuation to USD 1 bn as it expands its stablecoin-based financial network and AI capabilities, the company said in a post on Facebook.

The nitty-gritty: The round was led by Japan’s SBI Group and follows a USD 51 mn Series B in May, bringing its total funding raised this year to USD 119 mn, Khaleej Times reports. The fresh capital will help expand Fasset’s Own Network, a regulated financial infrastructure connecting banks, telecom companies, and payment and liquidity providers across international markets. The company also plans to increase investment in agentic AI for cross-border banking corridors, stablecoin settlement, and tokenized asset infrastructure.

Who are they? Established in 2019 and co-founded by Mohammad Raafi Hossain (LinkedIn) and Daniel Ahmed (LinkedIn), Fasset looks to democratize access to global assets through its application, enabling people to invest in digital and real-life assets. It says it currently processes more than USD 40 bn in annualized transaction volume, serving more than 3 mn wallets and 1k enterprises across 125 countries.

IN CONTEXT- The company went live in the UAE in 2024 after securing a Virtual Asset Service Provider license from the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority.

SBI seeks a timely in: SBI said Fasset could serve as a financial bridge between Japan and high-growth markets, supporting stablecoin-based remittances and settlement infrastructure connecting Asia-Pacific with the Middle East and Africa. Through the SBI tie-up, Fasset gains access to a network supporting bank-account remittances in about 200 countries.

GO DEEPER- For a deeper dive into why stablecoins have become a strategic priority for the UAE — and how firms like Fasset fit into the bigger picture of AED-backed and cross-border stablecoin infrastructure the country is trying to build, read our recent explainer here.

ADIB taps AI veteran Pedro Uria-Recio to scale AI deployment across the bank

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) has named Pedro Uria-Recio (LinkedIn) chief AI officer, tasking him with rolling out AI across customer experience, risk management, and operations as part of its Vision 2035 strategy, the bank said in a statement. He joins from Malaysia’s CIMB Bank, where he served as chief data and AI officer and led the deployment of generative AI, agentic AI, and advanced analytics across Southeast Asia. He also held senior roles at True Corporation, Axiata Group, and McKinsey & Company.

Adnoc Drilling eyes Egypt, Parkin eyes Bahrain, and Masdar makes headway in UK. Plus: More local defense manufacturing

Adnoc Drilling eyes Egypt for expansion

Adnoc Drilling is in talks to expand into Egypt, with CEO Abdullah Ateya Al Messabi meeting Egyptian Petroleum Minister Karim Badawi to discuss a potential role in the country’s onshore and offshore well drilling program, according to two separate statements (here and here). Al Messabi also flagged interest in partnering directly with the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) and its subsidiaries. Talks remain early-stage, with no term sheet or contract announced.

Why Egypt? Egypt is targeting 160 new wells this fiscal year, backed by at least USD 7.2 bn in planned foreign partner investments to offset declining domestic gas output. Meanwhile, Adnoc Drilling has been positioning itself as the execution arm for Adnoc’s broader upstream ambitions, standing ready to help the parent company scale output beyond 5 mn bbl / d if called upon, following the UAE’s exit from Opec.

ALSO- Adnoc unit XRG’s Arcius Energy joint venture (with BP) is already developing the Harmattan gas field and Atoll West exploratory well in Egypt’s Mediterranean basin — building on the ground the wider Adnoc Group has already started to stake out there.

The firm is on track to deploy some 70 rigs domestically by year-end and operates the largest drilling fleet in the MENA region at 170 rigs across the UAE, Oman, Kuwait, and Bahrain. It recently expanded to Oman and Kuwait after completing its acquisition of an 80% stake in MB Petroleum Services (MBPS), a Muscat-based drilling and oilfield services provider, following an earlier agreement to take over SLB Land Drilling.

Parkin eyes Bahrain after Egypt entry

Dubai’s Parkin is stepping up its expansion outside the UAE, signing an MoU with Bahrain’s Amakin to explore smart parking and mobility prospects in the Kingdom, according to a press release. The Bahrain push comes just days after the parking operator announced its first move into Egypt, where it signed a similar MoU covering assets owned by Modon Misr, Mwasalat Misr, and Redcon Properties.

Powerus starts building drone interceptors in the UAE

The UAE is getting more of its drone defense made at home, with US firm Powerus giving an Emirati contractor the parts, software, and training to assemble its Guardian interceptors locally, The New York Times reports. The facility is producing around 30 interceptors a day for now, with plans to ramp up output to 100.

Why this matters: This fits right into the defense strategy we’ve been tracking. The UAE wants to buy from more suppliers, but it also wants more of the manufacturing and know-how at home.

The cost logic: Cheap, locally made interceptors matter most against cheap threats. Drone swarms are a volume problem, and importing a USD-denominated interceptor for every low-cost drone doesn’t scale the way a domestically assembled one does.

REMEMBER- Building more of its own hardware doesn’t mean Abu Dhabi is diversifying away from Washington. The UAE just added new THAAD launchers under a USD 211.4 mn Lockheed Martin contract. Abu Dhabi is building out its own defense manufacturing base while keeping the US at the center of its missile defense architecture.

Masdar launches operations at second UK battery project

Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar) kicked off commercial operations at a 35-MW / 70-MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) in Rochdale, its second such project in the UK as it advances a planned GBP 1 bn investment program in the country, state news agency Wam reports. The facility can supply enough clean power for about 35k homes per day while providing grid-balancing services that respond to changes in electricity supply and demand within milliseconds.

Building a 3-GWh pipeline: The Rochdale project follows Masdar’s 20 MW / 40 MWh Welkin Road facility in Stockport, which came online in December. Projects in Chesterfield and Cardiff — with a total capacity of 150 MW / 300 MWh — are also underway. Masdar committed to building a 3 GWh UK BESS pipeline after its 2022 acquisition of Arlington Energy. The investment supports the UK’s target of building up to 27 GW of battery storage by 2030.

The AI trade and the Fed are sitting the same exam this week

Markets get two verdicts this week, and they’re really the same verdict twice. AI chipmaker Nvidia is scheduled to release its financial results tomorrow in what’s already being read as a referendum on the AI trade itself. Then Kevin Warsh is set to deliver his first keynote as Fed Chair on Friday, which is officially about payments innovation, though nobody on a trading desk believes that’s where the real news sits, Bloomberg reports.

The rotation away from AI has persisted, even as some tech shares recovered. Bloomberg’s data show the 40-day correlation between a Goldman Sachs broad AI basket and the S&P 500 excluding AI swung to roughly -0.6, deeply negative for the first time. That points to money rotating out of AI: semiconductor and data-center names were deeply in the red over the past five trading days, while AI-victim, inflation-sensitive, and stagflation-sensitive baskets — including miners and energy — outperformed.

The AI thesis still has legs: AI-linked infrastructure companies are still responsible for about half of the index’s earnings growth, and Anthropic’s latest revenue topped USD 11.6 bn in 2Q against OpenAI’s roughly USD 6.7 bn. Meanwhile, Anthropic’s annualized revenue run rate topped USD 65 bn, compared with about USD 40 bn for OpenAI, according to Bloomberg. However, the market has stopped pricing AI as the only trade in town. There are now clear winners and laggards inside it, and that’s arguably driving as much of the rotation as any Fed signal.

Behind all of it sits the slower fuse: yields. US public debt hit a record USD 40 tn this week, and long bond yields are at 19-year highs, the FT reports, even after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent committed to at least double long-end Treasury buybacks in the roughly USD 30 tn US government debt market, according to The Guardian. The 30-year yield had touched 5.30% before the Treasury’s buyback announcement pulled it back slightly, Bloomberg notes.

Warsh’s communication style is now part of the story. Warsh has signaled a distaste for forward guidance and said he wants to frame broader questions rather than focus narrowly on near-term policy. A survey of academic economists run for the FT by the University of Chicago’s Booth School suggests the experiment isn’t landing well: three-quarters call the pullback in Fed communication the single biggest shift since Warsh took over, and six in ten blame credibility worries for a meaningful share of this year’s climb in long yields. “The communication strategy is driving a loss of Fed credibility,” former Boston Fed president Eric Rosengren told the salmon-colored paper.

A reversal of the old playbook: What former Fed Chair and Nobel Economics Prize winner Ben Bernanke once named a “global savings glut” (cheap money chasing safe assets) has evolved into a global savings squeeze, Reuters reports, as rising government debt, fractured trade and supply chains, population aging, and AI investment compete for available capital. “Both the bond market and the FOMC have clearly decided to wake up,” Adam Posen of the Peterson Institute told Reuters, calling it the start of a multi-year uptrend in rates instead of a blip.

Positioning suggests traders don’t expect Warsh to keep this narrow either way. In the week marking mid-August, hedge funds bought US equities every day — Goldman’s prime desk called it the strongest three-week run since March 2020 — while global stocks were net sold at the fastest pace in two months last week, according to Goldman Sachs Prime Desk. Some 96% of the S&P 500 is in its corporate stock buyback window, with more than USD 1 tn in authorizations providing a steady bid; trend-following funds hold roughly USD 140 bn of global equities that could flip into USD 150 bn of selling in a sharp drawdown, with the first stop-loss triggers about 4% below current levels.

OUR TAKE- If Warsh wanted to prove the Fed doesn’t need to talk markets down anymore, this is a bad week to test that theory. Nvidia’s results are likely to remain a key test for the AI trade, while Warsh’s remarks could shape the market’s reading of rates and Fed policy. What Nvidia cannot resolve is the separate concern around long-term yields, where investors are weighing inflation, Treasury policy, government borrowing, and uncertainty about the Fed’s policy outlook.

(** Tap or click the headline above to read this story with all of the links to our background as well as external sources.)

MARKETS THIS MORNING-

Asian markets opened in the red earlier today, with South Korea’s Kospi down 2.3% and Japan’s Nikkei down 0.6%. Meanwhile, Wall Street equities are broadly trading at a loss as futures remain flat.

ADX	10,048	+0.4% (YTD: +0.6%)
DFM	5.866	+0.2% (YTD: -3%)
Nasdaq Dubai UAE20	4,856	+0.5% (YTD: -0.7%)
USD : AED CBUAE	Buy 3.67	Sell 3.67
EIBOR	3.6% o/n	4.2% 1 yr
TASI	11,174	+0.9% (YTD: +6.5%)
EGX30	55,165	-0.3% (YTD: +31.9%)
S&P 500	7,653	-0.3% (YTD: +11.8%)
FTSE 100	10,854	+0.4% (YTD: +9.3%)
Euro Stoxx 50	6,448	-0.2% (YTD: +11.2%)
Brent crude	USD 92.17	-2.4%
Natural gas (Nymex)	USD 2.78	+0.3%
Gold	USD 4,698	+0.4%
BTC	USD 78,875	+1.7% (YTD: -10.0%)
Lunate JP Morgan UAE Bond UCITS ETF	AED 3.58	-0.6% (YTD: -4.0%)
S&P MENA Bond & Sukuk	150.64	-0.2% (YTD: -0.8%)
VIX (Volatility Index)	15.86	+4.8% (YTD: +6.0%)

THE CLOSING BELL-

The DFM rose 0.2% yesterday on turnover of AED 686.2 bn. The index is down 3% YTD.

In the green: United Foods (+10.6%), Ekttitab Holding (+5.9%), and National Cement Company (+4.2%).

In the red: National International Holding (-4.5%), Al Mazaya Holding (-2.4%), and Tecom Group (-2.4%).

Over on the ADX, the index rose 0.4% on turnover of AED 919 mn. Meanwhile, Nasdaq Dubai rose 0.5%.

CALENDAR

SEPTEMBER

1-3 September (Tuesday-Thursday): Middle East Energy, Dubai World Trade Center, Dubai.

7-9 September (Monday-Wednesday): AIM Congress, Dubai World Trade Center.

7-9 September (Monday-Wednesday): International Property Show, Dubai World Trade Center, Dubai.

12-13 September (Saturday-Sunday): Emirates International Congress on AI & Visionary Leadership in Transforming Healthcare, Adnec Center Abu Dhabi.

14-17 September (Monday-Thursday): Arabian Travel Market, Dubai World Trade Center, Dubai.

15-16 September (Tuesday-Wednesday): Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting.

17-19 September (Thursday-Saturday): International Real Estate & Investment Show (IREIS), Adnec, Abu Dhabi.

18-19 September (Friday-Saturday): EuroLeague Basketball SuperCup, Etihad Arena, Yas Island, Abu Dhabi.

29-30 September (Tuesday-Wednesday): AFCM Annual Conference, Abu Dhabi.

OCTOBER

4-10 October (Sunday-Saturday): World Space Week, Abu Dhabi.

5-7 October (Monday-Wednesday): AI Everything Global, Adnec Center, Abu Dhabi.

12-14 October (Monday-Wednesday): Airport Show, Dubai World Trade Center, Dubai.

14-15 October (Wednesday-Thursday): Sharjah Investment Forum, Jawaher Reception and Convention Center, Sharjah.

13-15 October (Tuesday-Thursday): Annual Meeting of Global Future Leaders, Dubai.

20-22 October (Tuesday-Thursday): Future Health Summit, Adnec Center Abu Dhabi.

21 October (Wednesday): Reuters NEXT Gulf, St. Regis Saadiyat Island Resort, Abu Dhabi.

27-28 October (Tuesday-Wednesday): Arab Competition Forum, Dubai.

27-28 October (Tuesday-Wednesday): Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting.

30 October (Friday): Large businesses achieving annual revenues equal to or above AED 50 mn must appoint an accredited service provider for e-invoicing implementation.

Signposted to happen sometime in October 2026:

Abu Dhabi Space Week, Abu Dhabi.

NOVEMBER

2-6 November (Monday-Friday): Dubai Future Finance Week, Dubai.

4 November (Wednesday): Digital Transformation Summit, Sofitel, Abu Dhabi.

9-10 November (Monday-Tuesday): Annual government meetings, Abu Dhabi.

9-12 November (Monday-Thursday): EMEA Council on Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Education Conference, Dubai College of Tourism, Dubai.

10-12 November (Tuesday-Thursday): Dubai International Electric Vehicle Exhibition & Conference, Dubai World Trade Center.

16-18 November (Monday-Wednesday): World Police Summit, Dubai World Trade Center, Dubai.

18-19 November (Wednesday-Thursday): Touchdown Middle East 2026, Conrad Abu Dhabi Etihad Towers, Abu Dhabi.

25-26 November (Saturday-Sunday): Doers Summit, Dubai Silicon Oasis, Dubai.

DECEMBER

2-4 December (Wednesday-Friday): UN Water Conference, UAE.

4-6 December (Friday-Sunday): Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Abu Dhabi.

8-9 December (Tuesday-Wednesday): Capital Market Summit, Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai.

8-9 December (Tuesday-Wednesday): Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting.

7-10 December (Monday-Thursday): Abu Dhabi Finance Week, Al Maryah Island, Abu Dhabi.

8-10 December (Tuesday-Thursday): Abu Dhabi Water & Power Week, Adnec Center, Abu Dhabi.

8-10 December (Tuesday-Thursday) Middle East & North Africa Business Aviation Association Show, DWC, Dubai Airshow Site.

Signposted to happen sometime in 2027:

1 January: Deadline for large businesses to implement e-invoicing;
1Q 2027: Completion of the first phase of Hassyan seawater desalination project;
1-3 February (Monday-Wednesday): World Governments Summit;
31 March: Small businesses with annual revenues of less than AED 50 mn are obliged to contract with an accredited service provider for e-invoicing implementation;
31 March: Government entities are required to appoint an accredited service provider for e-invoicing implementation;
21-22 April (Wednesday-Thursday): Token2049, Dubai;
1 July: Deadline for small businesses to implement e-invoicing;
1 October: Deadline for governments to implement e-invoicing;
Abu Dhabi’s solar and battery energy facility, combining 5.2 GW of solar capacity and 19 GWh of battery storage, is set for commissioning.

Signposted to happen sometime in 2028:

Artificial Intelligence Summit.

Signposted to happen sometime in 2029:

Sibos 2029 organized by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), Dubai;
Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund, Abu Dhabi;
The commissioning of the seventh phase of Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park.

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