Daily Briefing
Wednesday, 4 November 2026
181 stories published on this day, grouped by section.
The day in brief
- Democrats Win Control of Both Houses of US Congress, Ending Republican Trifecta: Associated Press projections give Democrats at least 51 Senate seats and a House majority, which means divided government from January for the technology, energy and AI agenda in Washington.
- Uber President Jill Hazelbaker to Join OpenAI as Chief Corporate Affairs Officer: The hire fills a communications post that has been empty since early 2026, as OpenAI deals with turnover among senior staff and growing attention on a possible IPO.
- Meta Launches Shayek Anti-Scam Campaign in Saudi Arabia With Media Regulator Gmedia: The campaign asks users to stop and check before clicking, sharing or sending, while Meta says its AI detection systems are catching about 5,000 scam attempts a day that its review teams had previously missed.
- Stanford Study Finds 44% of Widely Cited LLM Research Findings Have Already Expired: Retesting 50 well-known claims on 20 models released between July 2024 and September 2026, the researchers found that findings about what models cannot do become outdated fastest, with an average lifespan of 15.7 months.
- OpenAI Staff Warned Leaders About Security Lapses for Years, Reuters Reports: Sources told Reuters that code access was broad and internal tools went unreviewed, and OpenAI says it has since tightened controls and moved a quarter of its production engineers onto security work.
AI
OpenAI Staff Warned Leaders About Security Lapses for Years, Reuters Reports
Sources told Reuters that code access was broad and internal tools went unreviewed, and OpenAI says it has since tightened controls and moved a quarter of its production engineers onto security work.
OpenAI Says GPT-6 Astra Designed a Codex Hardware Device in Under a Week
The model handled the enclosure, circuit board, firmware and interface, OpenAI says, though prototypes needed several revisions because it missed some manufacturing constraints.
Baidu Launches Apollo World AI Model to Train Robotaxis in Simulated Road Environments
Baidu says the world model can generate up to 100,000 km of simulated driving a day and is already training its Apollo Go fleet, which runs fully driverless services in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
Tampered Claude Code Extension on Cursor Marketplace Opened SSH Backdoor for Attackers
Cursor says up to 5,000 users installed the altered extension during an 11-hour window. Anthropic says its own systems were not breached, and researchers warn that updating to the fixed version does not remove a backdoor already planted.
Anthropic Blocks Claude Code From Cloning Existing Video Games
Two new lines in the coding tool's system prompt for Opus 5.5 stop it from recreating other people's games, after a wave of AI-built browser ports of titles such as Halo and GTA Vice City.
Valve Tightens Steam Build Review Rules as AI-Made Games Swell the Backlog
Developers must now run their games through Steam for at least five minutes before submission, as reviews that should take three to five days stretch to as many as 12 business days.
Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy Signs Agentic AI Agreement With Alibaba Cloud
The memorandum, signed at a Dubai Chambers forum in Shenzhen, covers staff training, support for startups and enterprise pilots, and is part of Sheikh Hamdan's drive to move Dubai's private sector onto AI agents.
UAE Vibe Coding Drive With Microsoft Draws 200,000 Participants and 90,000 Platforms
The UAE Artificial Intelligence Office says more than 65 government, corporate and academic bodies took part in the UAE Codes Day initiative, which let people with no coding experience build websites and apps.
Altman Says the Need for Human Control Should Ultimately Constrain AI Progress
In a post on X, the OpenAI chief executive said people should not hand control of the future to superintelligence, which adds to his recent backing for pacing frontier development.
ADIPEC Day Three Turns to Data Sovereignty and Scaling AI Across Energy Operations
Executives from Siemens, SLB, DP World, AIQ, Inception42 and Bechtel said governance, trust and community support will decide how far AI spreads through the energy industry.
Altman Says PC Memory Remarks Were Taken Out of Context as RAM Shortage Persists
The OpenAI chief briefly renamed himself 'Ram Altman' on X after criticism of his podcast comment that DRAM in personal computers was a poor use of scarce supply.
Uber Says Third-Party AI Agents Booked Just Four Rides Last Quarter
In its first disclosure of agent-driven activity, Uber said bots also placed about 500 Uber Eats orders in Halloween week, out of 320 million rides and deliveries, which suggests fears of AI disintermediation are premature for now.
OpenAI Regional Policy Chief Says UAE Partnership Grew From 2023 Talks on Chips and Power
Speaking to WAM at ADIPEC, Rod Soleimani said energy supply is central to OpenAI's plans and pointed to four agreements recently signed with Abu Dhabi entities in government, energy and investment.
ADNOC Becomes First Energy Company to Deploy OpenAI Frontier in Deal With G42
The multi-year agreement, signed at ADIPEC in front of Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince, starts with AI agents for oilfield development planning and for valuing crude while it is still underground.
Business
UAE Trade Kept Growing at Double-Digit Rates in First Nine Months, Al Gergawi Says
The foreign trade under-secretary told Dubai FinTech Summit that trade reached about $1 trillion last year and that the ministry is expanding its use of AI.
Dubai Launches Nad Zaabeel Research Complex Aiming to Host 30,000 Researchers a Year
The Dubai Future Foundation will oversee the complex, which will be built next to Zabeel Park and is expected to be running within five years, with a focus on AI, robotics and health, urban and environmental technology.
Ted Schlein's Ballistic Ventures Seeks $490 Million for Two New Cybersecurity Funds
SEC filings show the firm targeting $360 million for its third flagship fund and $130 million for a separate vehicle, as AI drives both new attacks and demand for defences.
AI Data Centres Turn to Converted Jet Engines as Grid Waits Stretch for Years
xAI and the builder of OpenAI's Abilene Stargate site are among the users of rebuilt aircraft engines that burn natural gas, which can get a site running in about two years but are less efficient and more polluting.
UAE Central Bank Fines Reach Dh222.92 Million in 2026, All on Foreign Bank Branches
A single Dh200 million anti-money laundering penalty in October makes up most of the total, and three senior compliance and management officials have also been fined personally.
UAE Firm Prometheus Medical Says Its Evacuation Flying Hours Have Tripled
The chief executive of the UAE-based medical evacuation and security provider said at ADIPEC that its teams have flown about 1,000 hours in three to four months as conflict raises demand from energy companies and others.
Alpha Dhabi Looks to Hospitality to Grow Abroad as Overseas Revenue Hits Dh7.7 Billion
The IHC-controlled investor's strategy chief also said its new $1 billion commitment to an Alpha Wave fund holding OpenAI, Anthropic and SpaceX is a long-term bet on AI.
Georgia County Tables Site Plan for OpenAI's Project Camellia Data Centre
Commissioners in Effingham County put off a decision on the six-building campus near Savannah, which county staff had recommended for approval, as residents, lawsuits and wetlands concerns weigh on the project.
UAE Non-Oil Firms Raise Prices at Record Pace as October PMI Stays Strong
The S&P Global index fell to 54.8 from 55.3, but selling prices rose at the fastest rate since the survey began in 2009 and business confidence reached its highest level since January.
Ducab Chief Says Geopolitical Tensions Leave the World Short of Energy
Speaking at ADIPEC, Charles Edouard Mellagui said rising raw-material costs could reach consumers' bills, and that the UAE cable maker kept its factories running by buying more than 40 per cent of its inputs locally.
North Korea Rejects US Allegation That It Carried Out the $6.3 Billion Binance Hack
Kim Yo Jong called the FBI's attribution to the TraderTraitor unit a "grave political provocation", as Binance reported billions of dollars in withdrawals after reopening.
UAE Employers Chase Agentic AI Engineers as Senior Pay Reaches Dh200,000 a Month
Michael Page's UAE Salary Guide 2027 covers 18 sectors and says agentic AI engineers can earn up to Dh70,000 a month, with AI skills now expected in finance, energy and consulting roles too.
Dubai Access Club Offers Repeat Visitors Five-Year Visas by Invitation Only
Membership costs Dh4,032.50, comes through airline, hotel and employer partners such as Emirates and Marriott, and includes up to Dh2,000 in spending credit.
Etihad Keeps Riyadh and Dammam Flights Suspended Until November 19
The Abu Dhabi carrier will restore four Jeddah flights from November 6, but passenger and cargo services to two of Saudi Arabia's main business cities stay grounded for another two weeks.
DIFC Says Its AI, Fintech and Innovation Community Has Passed 2,000 Firms
Chief executive Arif Amiri announced the figure at the Dubai FinTech Summit, where DIFC and Asia House also published a report forecasting a $1.5 trillion global fintech market by 2030.
Dubai to Pilot nol Cards Linked to UAE's Jaywan Payment Scheme From November
The Roads and Transport Authority and the central bank's Al Etihad Payments will merge Dubai's transit card with the national card scheme, starting with metro, bus, taxi and parking payments.
Hackers Hit Connected Supermarket Freezers Across Europe, Forcing Food Write-Offs
Attackers reportedly pushed refrigeration temperatures as high as 50°C at stores in at least six countries, and retailers including ICA and Carrefour are now cutting equipment off the open internet.
Mastercard, uwallet and Jordan Post Launch BareedPay Co-Branded Card in Jordan
The card will be offered through Jordan Post's more than 400 branches and is aimed at underserved communities, small businesses and expatriates who use few digital payments.
Google to Invest $15 Billion in Malaysia Data Centres Over 2027 and 2028
The plan is more than seven times the $2 billion Google committed in 2024, and covers new campuses in Selangor and Negeri Sembilan, more than 1 gigawatt of clean power and a training programme the company says will reach 800,000 Malaysians.
Brookfield and Qatar's Qai Back AI Data Centre Plan Worth Over £20 Billion at UK's Drax Site
The first £2.5 billion phase would bring up to 100 megawatts online in early 2028 at the North Yorkshire power station, but it still needs planning approval and a tenant.
Abu Dhabi Infrastructure Agency Signs Five Agreements With German Firms Including Siemens
The Abu Dhabi Projects and Infrastructure Centre signed with Siemens, HENN, Patrizia, Partners Group and the German-Emirati chamber in Munich, as it looks for foreign capital and know-how for its $56 billion capital projects programme.
DIFC Passes 600 Wealth and Asset Management Firms During Dubai Future Finance Week
The Dubai financial centre says that is three times as many as any rival centre in the region, and it also launched Islamic finance training, an innovation challenge and a planned innovation centre with four banks.
TA'ZIZ Closes AED5.1 Billion Financing for Ruwais Ammonia and Terminal Projects
The oversubscribed deals, announced at ADIPEC, take funding across the Abu Dhabi chemicals platform past AED12.44 billion when April's methanol loan is included.
UAE Energy Workers Rank AI Skills as the Top Future Need, Survey Finds
Penta Global's 2026 resilience index finds that 36 per cent of respondents think technology is moving faster than their organisations can adopt it, and that 69 per cent say work pressure has affected staff wellbeing.
Abu Dhabi Airports Q3 Passengers Rise 1.4% to 8.61 Million as Cargo Climbs 11.4%
Freighter cargo jumped 28.2 per cent and Zayed International now serves 124 destinations, up from 112 a year earlier, the operator said.
DIFC Partners With Mizuho to Open Its Innovation Hub to 6,000 Japanese Start-Ups
Start-ups registered with the Japanese banking group will get market-entry support and access to DIFC's Ignyte platform as Dubai courts Japanese capital and technology.
Mitsubishi Power Sees UAE Electricity Use Rising More Than 75% by 2033
Speaking at ADIPEC, the company's EMEA chief said data centre capacity in the UAE and the region will roughly quadruple within four to five years, and that solar needs backup generation to supply it.
UAE Steel Demand Reaches About 10 Million Tonnes in 2026, Emsteel Chief Says
The head of the Abu Dhabi-listed producer told an Arab steel summit in Cairo that UAE construction and infrastructure work is holding up demand, even though Middle East crude steel output fell 9.2 per cent in the first nine months of the year.
ADNOC Links Over AED60 Billion in Local Manufacturing Openings to Future Procurement
At its tenth Business Partners Forum during ADIPEC 2026, the energy group told suppliers how opportunities covering more than 200 core products will map onto its purchasing plans, and said it is using data and AI to chart national industrial capacity.
Rotterdam Courts UAE Investment in Hydrogen and Carbon Capture at ADIPEC
Mayor Carola Schouten, who leads a delegation of more than 50 mainly Rotterdam-area companies, told Gulf producers to start with blue hydrogen instead of waiting for green, and said the port already has CCS infrastructure in place.
Sharjah's SNOC Says Hadiba Phase Two Will Lift Gas Output to Four Times Earlier Levels
Agreements signed at ADIPEC 2026 support the next stage of the field, which came online last month, along with a third phase at the Mahani field and more strategic gas storage.
Intersec Global 2027 Reorganises Dubai Security Show Into Five Domains Including Cyber
The January 2027 event at Dubai World Trade Centre will open with a new Global Readiness Summit, and Italy will take part as country partner for the first time.
Companies
Meta Launches Shayek Anti-Scam Campaign in Saudi Arabia With Media Regulator Gmedia
The campaign asks users to stop and check before clicking, sharing or sending, while Meta says its AI detection systems are catching about 5,000 scam attempts a day that its review teams had previously missed.
AI Inference Startup Fal Doubles Valuation to $16 Billion in $1.3 Billion Round
Bessemer led the Series F with Nvidia and T. Rowe Price taking part, as demand grows for hosted video, image and audio models.
Reddit Tests Ads in Search Results as AI Search Cuts Its Traffic
The test with a select group of advertisers follows a weaker-than-expected revenue forecast and a fall in US daily users that Reddit tied to Google's shift to AI-powered search.
Fujifilm to Raise Data Tape Capacity Fivefold as AI Drives Archiving Demand
The Japanese company will spend about 10 billion yen at its Odawara site through fiscal 2028, mainly on its latest-generation LTO cartridges, which it calls its largest investment yet in dedicated tape facilities.
Fireworks to Add European Inference Capacity on Nvidia Vera Rubin From 2027
Announced at its first user conference, the expansion follows a partnership with Era4 in England, and comes with new features aimed at cutting the cost of running AI agents.
Apple Warns in Annual Filing That AI Agents Could Act in Unpredictable Ways
New risk factors in the iPhone maker's 10-K say autonomous agents could expose it to lawsuits and reputational damage, and that its ability to police third-party agents may be limited.
Revolut Says Self-Hosted Chinese GLM Model Cut Its AI Coding Costs by 90%
The neobank moved about 2,000 engineers off Claude Code and Codex as their default tool and now runs Z.ai's open-weight GLM model on 56 Nvidia B200 chips in the US.
Itch.io Deletes Terabytes of AI-Generated Content and Adds a 'No AI' Search Filter
The indie games store says daily new game pages have doubled in two months while purchases and downloads have not, and it now requires AI disclosures for books, comics, tabletop games and soundtracks.
Salesforce to Buy Customer Service AI Start-Up Cresta for a Reported $2.7 Billion
This is Salesforce's second multibillion-dollar customer service deal this year, after Fin, as it builds AI agents into its service platform.
Canva to Cut or Relocate 1,271 Staff in Its First Major Restructure
The Australian design company says 22% of its workforce will lose their jobs, move to central hubs or change roles, after a year in which growth slowed and backers reportedly marked down its valuation.
Nexus Mods Makes AI Disclosure Mandatory for New Mod Uploads
The largest PC game modding site will not ban AI-generated mods, but authors must now declare AI use, explain how it was used, and bring existing mods into line by January 2.
Applied Compute Raises $350 Million at $3.25 Billion Valuation in Round Led by Elad Gil
The AI training and inference startup says its annualised recurring revenue has passed $100 million less than 18 months after launch, with Microsoft and DoorDash among its customers.
NMDC Chief Says Safety Is Where AI Shows Clearest Results on Energy Projects
Speaking around ADIPEC, Group CEO Yasser Zaghloul said the Abu Dhabi marine contractor now runs more than 70 AI agents, including a camera system that flags hazards in its yards and on its vessels.
Chinese Buyers Expect Just 1% of Nvidia RTX Pro 5500 Orders in Next Four Months
Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance and others have ordered about 6 million of the export-compliant cards, Bloomberg reports, but expect only tens of thousands to arrive by early next year as Nvidia struggles to raise output.
Gecko Robotics Brings Raptor Inspection Robot to ADNOC and Weighs Making Robots in UAE
The US company says its new wall-climbing robot can find structural damage at energy sites without taking them offline, and it expects to announce an agreement with ADNOC Onshore on Wednesday.
Aramco Completes Deal for 49% Stake in PIF's AI Company HUMAIN
The oil giant will move AI, compute and digital assets into HUMAIN and put in about SAR 9.9 billion ($2.6 billion) in cash this year, while the Public Investment Fund keeps 51 per cent.
PureHealth Buys Six Aspen Clinics Facilities in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain
The clinics will become part of the SEHA CLINICS network once the deal completes, adding outpatient capacity in residential areas, though no price was disclosed.
Oracle Cancels $7 Billion AI Chip Lease With Tencent After US Officials Raise Concerns
The five-year deal would have given the Chinese tech group access to about 100,000 advanced AI chips in Oracle data centres in Southeast Asia, according to the Financial Times.
ADNOC Gas and EtihadWE Agree to Explore Gas Supply for New Northern Emirates Power Plants
The agreement would give ADNOC Gas a new domestic customer for the extra gas volumes from its growth programme, as the UAE's electricity demand rises.
Jio Platforms Explores Tech-for-Equity Talks With Comcast and Charter
Reliance's digital arm has reportedly discussed licensing its wireless home broadband system to the two US cable operators in return for possible stakes, but there is no timetable for a deal.
ADNOC Says It Runs More Than 200 AI Applications and 70 Robotics Projects
ADNOC Offshore's chief executive gave the figures at ADIPEC a day after the group's multi-year deal with OpenAI and G42, while the heads of SLB and Halliburton warned that AI creates new data and cyber risks.
Ad Data Startup Journify Raises $12 Million at Four Times Its Previous Valuation
The Series A was led by Al Mada Ventures and co-led by Silicon Badia, with Du Ventures and Oraseya Capital joining, and will fund expansion from the Gulf into the US and Europe.
NetApp Completes Acquisition of UK AI Storage Firm PEAK:AIO
The Manchester company's metadata and parallel file technology will go into NetApp's ONTAP platform and its Novus storage product for AI clouds and GPU-as-a-service providers, though the price was not disclosed.
Libya's Wahda Bank Picks Backbase for Arabic-First Digital Banking Platform
Business banking on the new platform is due to launch in 2027 and retail services will follow, as Libya's central bank pushes for wider use of electronic payments.
Singapore's Terra Invest Backs Abu Dhabi Agentic AI Firm AIREV in Strategic Round
The amount was not disclosed. Alongside the investment, AIREV will put its OnDemand agents into two Terra Invest portfolio companies, one in wealth management and one in healthcare.
Oman's Mamun Raises $3 Million Seed Round to Expand AI-Based Gulf–Asia Trade Finance
The round was led by Phaze Ventures' Oman Fund, with the UAE's Jasoor Ventures taking part, and will expand the Shariah-compliant platform's lending along the Greater Bay Area–Oman–UAE corridor.
Alef Education Nine-Month Net Profit Rises 5.7% to AED385.4 Million
Revenue at the Abu Dhabi-listed learning technology company grew at the same 5.7 per cent rate to AED605.3 million, driven by its support and services business, while its core education solutions segment was almost flat.
SK Hynix's New York Chip Plans Stall as US Holds Back Licences for Its China Plant
Reuters reports that Washington has not approved the US equipment SK Hynix wants for its Dalian NAND plant in China, which the company says would help pay for up to $100 billion of investment in New York.
Aramex Launches Logistics Service for AI Data Centre Builds in GCC, Asia and US
The Dubai-listed company says it will act as the single party responsible for moving transformers, cooling equipment and multimillion-dollar AI racks from factories to the data hall floor.
Mubadala-Owned Moeve Sells Algerian Oilfield Stakes to Pertamina, Completing Upstream Exit
The Spanish energy group, formerly Cepsa, did not disclose a price for its minority stakes in three Berkine Basin fields as it shifts toward hydrogen and biofuels.
EDGE Launches Second Angolan Navy Corvette, the First of Its Class Built in the UAE
NRA Nimi-ya-Lukeni was launched at the Abu Dhabi Ship Building yard under a €1 billion programme, and EDGE presents it as proof that technology transfer from France's CMN Naval has worked.
Supermicro to Build and Sell SambaNova Inference Systems Paired With Nvidia GPUs
The deal starts with 10,000 SN50 chips sold first to neoclouds and sovereign clouds, and gives the start-up a large server vendor to sell through as it challenges Nvidia in inference.
Nvidia Tells Cloud Partners to Cap Chinese Customers at 49% of Business, Reports Say
The guidance, passed on verbally and applied to new contracts worldwide, targets the remote-rental route that Chinese AI developers have used to reach chips they cannot import.
Alphabet's Search Revenue Growth Slows to 12% as AI Mode Queries Earn Less
Google says AI is driving the fastest growth in search queries in five years, but paid-click growth has dropped to 8 per cent and advertisers cannot yet measure how its AI ad placements perform.
OpenAI to Acquire Developer Tools Startup Pierre Computer as It Takes On GitHub
The startup's git hosting technology already runs inside Codex, and the deal puts OpenAI in more direct competition with Microsoft, its largest outside shareholder.
India's NPCI Forms Technology Subsidiary NTSL to Push Into AI and Blockchain
The operator of India's UPI payments network has named its chief technology officer, Vishal Kanvaty, to run the new unit, which will also serve other digital public infrastructure programmes.
Borouge International Raises 2030 Capacity Target to 13.8 Million Tonnes
The Abu Dhabi and Vienna polyolefins group has hired Linde Engineering for work on two of its UAE ethane crackers, and says Borouge 4 and new European plants are moving ahead.
Titan OS Raises $46 Million to Take Its Smart TV Operating System Abroad
The Barcelona start-up, which Philips picked over Google TV for its 2026 models, now counts 30 million users and plans to use AI for content discovery and ad targeting.
HUMAIN Absorbs Saudi Cloud and AI Services Firm CNTXT to Push Into Enterprise Deployment
The PIF-backed AI company did not disclose terms for CNTXT, an Aramco-linked Riyadh firm that resells Google Cloud in the kingdom, and says the deal will help it carry its models and compute into customers' operations.
Abu Dhabi's TII and France's Naval Group Agree to Work on Autonomous Underwater Vehicles
Announced at Euronaval 2026 in Paris, the deal pairs TII's extra-large uncrewed underwater vehicle with Naval Group's experience in underwater combat drones and covers possible joint development and marketing.
EDGE's Abu Dhabi Ship Building Explores Fitting Engines From Italy's CMD to Its Vessels
The memorandum signed in Paris follows EDGE's purchase of a controlling stake in the Italian propulsion specialist in October 2026.
DP World's Callao Terminal in Peru Handles Record 200,000 TEU in October
The month's volume is the highest the Muelle Sur terminal has handled since it opened, and at that rate it would be running at nearly 89 per cent of its 2.7 million TEU capacity.
Agthia Nine-Month Revenue Rises 9.6% to AED 3.9 Billion as Net Profit Nearly Triples
Third-quarter revenue rose 14.4 per cent, helped by AED 104.7 million of one-off sales, while the Abu Dhabi food group said input and logistics costs are rising.
Context Labs Takes Investment From Abu Dhabi's 22/x and Sets Up Regional Headquarters
The amount was not disclosed, and the deal includes a long-term agreement for the AI data infrastructure company to run its Gulf and wider MENA business from Abu Dhabi, starting with energy, utilities and critical infrastructure.
Markets
Shopify Shares Fall After AI Spending on Sidekick Squeezes Subscription Margins
Third-quarter revenue grew 32% to $3.74 billion, but subscription revenue, subscription gross profit and gross merchandise volume all came in below analyst estimates.
AMD Forecasts $17 Billion Quarter as Data Centre Sales Nearly Double
Third-quarter revenue rose 45% to $13.38 billion and the fourth-quarter outlook beat estimates, sending the shares up 7% after hours, though AMD guided gross margin slightly below expectations.
Palantir's US Commercial Revenue Overtakes Government Sales for the First Time
Quarterly revenue nearly doubled to $2.31 billion, but US commercial contract signings fell from the previous quarter's record and customers are signing shorter deals.
Super Micro Revenue Nearly Quadruples to $19.9 Billion as It Raises Full-Year Outlook
The AI server maker now expects $72 billion to $82 billion in fiscal 2027 sales, though its operations used cash in the quarter and analysts are asking how long spending by neocloud customers will last.
KOSPI Falls 3.6% as AI Funding Worries Hit Samsung and SK Hynix
Foreign investors sold about 1.5 trillion won of South Korean shares as Big Tech bond sales and Anthropic's $895 billion in commitments renewed doubts about returns on AI spending.
AMD Books $1.07 Billion Charge for Warrants Tied to OpenAI and Meta Chip Deals
The non-cash charge in the third quarter puts a number on the cost of giving AMD's two largest AI customers the right to buy up to about 10% of the company each.
Nasdaq Futures Fall 1.9% and Asian Stocks Slide as Democrats Gain in US Midterms
Investors are weighing whether a Democratic-controlled Congress would bring tighter oversight of technology and AI companies, and chip-heavy markets in South Korea and Japan fell more than 3 per cent.
DIP Holding Prices UAE's First IPO of the Year at Dh1.12 a Share
The offering of a 20 per cent stake by Dubai Investments totals Dh1.9 billion and values the Dubai Investments Park owner at Dh9.7 billion ahead of its expected listing on the Dubai Financial Market.
Emaar Offers Dh15 a Share to Take Full Control of Emaar Development
The proposed voluntary cash offer for the roughly 21 per cent of the listed unit Emaar Properties does not own could cost up to Dh12.6 billion, according to Bloomberg, and still needs board approval.
Oil Slips as Markets Weigh US Midterm Results and a Tanker Attack Off Oman
Brent fell below $103 a barrel in early Wednesday trade after the AP reported Democrats had taken the Senate, while attacks on shipping near the Strait of Hormuz continued.
AI Stocks Slide as Texas Elects Data Centre Moratorium Backer Gina Hinojosa
Texas holds 27 per cent of planned US data centre capacity, according to Wells Fargo, and investors had singled out the governor's race as the biggest political risk to the AI trade.
Fitch Affirms Abu Dhabi at AA With Stable Outlook as Oil Revenue Holds Up Through War
The agency expects a 2026 budget surplus of 7.1 per cent of GDP and puts the emirate's net sovereign foreign assets at about 300 per cent of GDP, far above its peers.
Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum's Pearl Petroleum Raises $500 Million in Bond Sale
The five-year secured bond pays a 10.375 per cent coupon and was increased from $400 million after orders came in at 1.7 times the amount on offer.
Korean Brokerages Sit Out Anthropic IPO After Being Left Without SpaceX Shares
None of the 22 financial institutions named in Anthropic's filing is Korean, so local retail investors may only be able to buy once the stock trades on Nasdaq, while Japanese firms aim to raise a record $3.5 billion at home.
China Robotics Funding Slows to $1.6 Billion in October as Shakeout Fears Grow
The drop follows informal guidance from China's securities regulator that humanoid robot companies need steady revenue and narrowing losses before they can list.
UAE Gold Rises Dh11 a Gram as US Midterm Results Weaken the Dollar
The 24-carat rate reached Dh484 a gram on Wednesday as spot gold rose 2.42 per cent to above $4,025 an ounce, following falls in US Treasury yields and the dollar after early returns favoured the Democrats.
EQT, Pantheon and Eurazeo Open Abu Dhabi Offices as Secondaries Market Hits Record
Private-asset secondary deals reached a record $121 billion in the first half of 2026, according to Evercore, and global managers are setting up in the emirate to work with its sovereign wealth funds.
ADIA and I Squared Back Avolon's New $1.4 Billion Aircraft Leasing Platform
Constellation Aviation will start with 22 aircraft on lease to 17 airlines in 15 countries, with Avolon keeping a minority stake and managing the fleet.
Animoca Brands Wins Final ADGM Permission to Manage Investment Funds From Abu Dhabi
The Hong Kong digital-asset group's Abu Dhabi unit can now run collective investment funds under FSRA supervision, nearly a year after it received in-principle approval.
Oaktree-Backed Pure DC Secures $780 Million Debt Facility, Expandable to $1.9 Billion
First Abu Dhabi Bank is one of the new lenders backing the data centre developer as it raises money for land and power in Europe and the Middle East.
ADIB Rights Begin Trading on ADX as Bank Raises AED1.75 Billion
Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank is offering new shares at AED16.45 each, a 28.8 per cent discount, and the rights can be traded until November 16, with subscription open from November 10 to 24.
Tokyo AI and Data Centre Stocks Fall on US Midterm Fears as Japanese Bond Yields Rise
Advantest, Tokyo Electron and SoftBank Group each lost 3 per cent and cable makers Fujikura and Furukawa Electric fell more than 5 per cent, while the Nikkei pared an intraday slide of as much as 4.8 per cent.
Saudi Arabia Stays Top Middle East Gold Jewellery Market as UAE Demand Falls 29%
World Gold Council data show Middle East jewellery demand fell 22 per cent in the third quarter to 26.2 tonnes, as average gold prices rose 23 per cent to $4,262 an ounce.
Anthropic's IPO Filing Shows $895 Billion in Compute Commitments Backed by Supplier Financing
The updated prospectus shows that much of the company's data centre build-out depends on leasing deals, residual-value guarantees from Broadcom and hardware-linked investments, all of which pass part of the risk to its suppliers.
Clean Energy Shares Jump, AI Data Centre Stocks Slip as Markets Weigh Democratic Congress
The dollar fell to a one-month low and Treasuries rallied, while data centre operators, SpaceX and Tesla lost ground because investors expect closer scrutiny of the AI build-out.
Google Backstops TeraWulf's $19 Billion Anthropic Data Centre Lease in Kentucky
Google's credit support lets lenders to TeraWulf's Kentucky campus rely partly on Google's balance sheet, and TeraWulf has signed Fluor to build the first three buildings.
Dubai Stocks Post Biggest Daily Gain in Seven Months as Market Value Tops Dh1 Trillion
The DFM index rose 3.96 per cent on Wednesday, its third straight advance, as foreign investors bought a net Dh237.6 million and Emaar shares took more than half of the day's turnover.
Neocloud Shares and CoreWeave Bonds Fall as Wall Street Rallies on Democratic Sweep
The main US indices opened higher after the midterms, but investors sold debt-funded GPU cloud providers with exposure to Texas, where the incoming governor backs a moratorium on data centres.
Dubai Studio Entry Price Holds at Dh660,000 as Launches Move to Cheaper Areas
A Reidin study of 1,961 off-plan projects finds studio prices rose in every part of the market, and the median entry price stayed flat only because developers shifted launches to lower-priced districts.
Oil Falls 8% to $95 as Traders Weigh Iran War Talks After US Midterms
Brent lost $7.50 a barrel on Wednesday as investors bet a Democratic Congress could change Washington's approach to the region, while Bloomberg reported the UAE is studying a third export pipeline that would avoid the Strait of Hormuz.
People
Uber President Jill Hazelbaker to Join OpenAI as Chief Corporate Affairs Officer
The hire fills a communications post that has been empty since early 2026, as OpenAI deals with turnover among senior staff and growing attention on a possible IPO.
Claude Code Product Lead Cat Wu Leaves Anthropic as Company Prepares to List
Her exit follows the departures of two other prominent Claude Code figures on October 24, and neither she nor the reports give a reason or say where she is going.
UAE's Maryam Al Balooshi Re-Elected to Chair ICAO Aviation Environment Committee
The General Civil Aviation Authority official will serve a second consecutive term leading CAEP, the technical body that shapes global standards on aircraft noise, emissions and sustainable aviation fuel.
Al Etihad Payments Appoints Former Al Hilal Bank Digital Chief Aref Al Ramli as CEO
The UAE central bank subsidiary behind the Aani instant payments platform and Jaywan cards has named Al Ramli to drive adoption of its national payment systems.
Policy
Hinton Says Humanity Might Have Been Better Off Never Developing AI
The Nobel laureate told the Guardian an AI-enabled incident that takes down a power grid or the financial system could come this year or next, and said he does not trust OpenAI's Sam Altman "at all".
Judge Refuses to Dismiss NAACP Clean Air Suit Over xAI's Mississippi Gas Turbines
The federal court ruled that the trailer-mounted turbines powering the Colossus 2 data centre are not exempt from air permits, and rejected xAI's argument that citizen suits are unconstitutional.
Google Defends Schools AI Policy After Criticism From Sanders, Mamdani and Khan
Google says Gemini and search are off by default and schools are in control, but its response did not directly address a report that schools rejecting AI would lose access to search.
G42 Faces an April 2027 Deadline That Could Push It Toward US Ownership
A US Commerce Department rule gives the Abu Dhabi AI group licence-free access to top-end chips only until next April unless it becomes a US company or wins renewed approval, and experts say nobody is sure what that would require.
California's Billionaire Tax Trails in Early Returns After $300 Million Opposition Drive
Proposition 40 would impose a one-time 5 per cent levy on the net worth of California's billionaires, and two rival measures on the same ballot could cancel it even if it passes.
Abu Dhabi Uses OpenAI Models to Check Food Imports in Machine-Readable Government Pilot
The pilot is one of four agreements OpenAI signed in the emirate on November 2, and OpenAI's regional policy lead said on Wednesday that the deals grew out of talks with UAE officials that began in 2023.
Democrats Win Control of Both Houses of US Congress, Ending Republican Trifecta
Associated Press projections give Democrats at least 51 Senate seats and a House majority, which means divided government from January for the technology, energy and AI agenda in Washington.
UAE Government Star Ratings Show 13% Gain at Contact Centres and 4% on Digital Channels
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid approved the sixth cycle of the rating system, which assessed 179 service channels across 27 federal entities and gave Fujairah's traffic and licensing centre the top seven-star grade.
UAE Energy Ministry and Abu Dhabi Customs Link Systems for Hazardous Petroleum Imports
A service level agreement signed at ADIPEC sets up electronic data exchange to speed approvals and customs clearance for restricted petroleum materials.
Etihad Credit Insurance Board Approves New Strategy to Support UAE Exporters
Foreign Trade Minister Thani Al Zeyoudi, who chairs the federal export credit agency, said the plan will widen credit and insurance cover so that firms can take on new buyers and markets with less risk.
Musk Jokes About Republican Midterm Defeat After Record Spending for the Party
The Tesla, SpaceX and xAI chief gave nearly half a billion dollars to Republican efforts, and that money did not stop Democrats from winning both chambers of Congress.
UAE Opens Applications for Dh1 Billion Interest-Free Industrial Resilience Fund
Emirates Development Bank will lend up to Dh100 million per group at zero interest, plus a 0.75 per cent annual fee, to factories that make critical products such as medicines and food in the UAE.
UAE's Balalaa Warns AI Will Drive Data Centre Water Use Toward 9.32 Trillion Litres
Writing as ADIPEC opened, the assistant foreign minister for energy and sustainability said energy investors who overlook water risk put the long-term viability of their projects at stake.
Exit Polls Rank AI and Data Centres Last Among Five Issues in US Midterm Vote
In NBC News and SSRS exit polling, 56 per cent of voters said AI and data centres mattered to their decision, well behind corruption, living costs, the Iran war and immigration.
US Voters Back Data Centre Curbs as Democrats Prepare to Question Tech Chiefs
About two dozen local measures to restrict data centres appear to have passed, Texas has elected a governor who backs a construction moratorium, and incoming committee chairs are promising subpoenas for technology executives.
UAE Central Bank Sets 2027 Supervisory Priorities, Flags AI and Digital Asset Reviews
At a roundtable with bank and insurance chief executives, the CBUAE presented its 2027 to 2029 strategy and covered cyber resilience, fraud prevention and thematic reviews of artificial intelligence and digital assets.
UAE-Japan Forum in Tokyo Proposes Joint Industrial Project Within 12 Months
Officials and researchers at the TRENDS-organised DAS Dialogue called for cooperation that goes beyond oil into AI, advanced manufacturing, critical minerals and water technology.
Brazilian Court Bars Meta From Using Local News Content to Train AI
A São Paulo judge suspended part of Meta's new commercial terms for members of three national media associations, with fines of R$1 million a day for non-compliance.
Abu Dhabi Planning Centre Signs Digital Simulation Agreement With Arup in London
The memorandum, signed during a Department of Municipalities and Transport visit, covers integrated planning, advanced technologies and better coordination of land use with transport networks.
India's AI Regulation Consultation Paper Is Nearly Ready, Reports Say
The paper, which will cover safety, deepfakes and psychological harm to users, could be the basis for India's first dedicated AI rules, but it has already slipped past the one-month timeline the IT minister set in October.
UAE Opens 2026 IMF Article IV Talks as Growth Is Forecast to Slow to 1.6% This Year
The central bank and finance ministry are briefing the IMF mission on banking resilience, corporate tax receipts and debt plans running to 2032, with growth expected to rebound to about 10 per cent in 2027.
Greenpeace Study Says Energy Transition Beats Oil Expansion for UAE and Saudi Finances
The advocacy group's modelling finds transition pathways leave both countries in a stronger fiscal and economic position by 2040 in six of seven scenarios, but expanding fossil fuels comes out ahead if oil prices are high.
Oman Tightens Rules for Expat Recruitment Agencies From January 2027
Agencies will need insurance, a RO5,000 guarantee and Omani ownership, must bring workers in within 45 days, and must refund employers' fees in set cases during the first 90 days.
US Bank Regulator OCC Issues Its First AI Guidance for Bank Examiners
The framework tells examiners to judge AI by what could go wrong when it is used, not by how sophisticated the model is, and it does not create AI as a separate risk category for banks.
Cyberattack Hits French Blood Bank Cold Stores After Wave of Supermarket Fridge Hacks
France's health ministry says no blood products were lost, but the attack on refrigeration monitoring systems widens a run of suspected hacks on connected cooling equipment in Europe.
IRENA Chief Says Renewables Can Power Data Centres as Demand Outruns Tripling Target
Francesco La Camera told WAM at ADIPEC that faster-than-expected growth in electricity use means the 2030 goal of tripling renewable capacity may not be enough.
Conservative AI Group Tells Republicans to Rethink AI Policy After Midterm Losses
A memo from the Alliance for a Better Future says AI concerns helped Democrats win, and argues against the party fully adopting President Trump's light-touch approach to regulation.
Democrats Win Five State Attorney General Races, Including Texas, Raising Stakes for Big Tech
Nathan Johnson's win in Texas, along with results in Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada, could change who leads the state lawsuits that have become the main check on technology companies in the US.
Research
Stanford Study Finds 44% of Widely Cited LLM Research Findings Have Already Expired
Retesting 50 well-known claims on 20 models released between July 2024 and September 2026, the researchers found that findings about what models cannot do become outdated fastest, with an average lifespan of 15.7 months.
Local Qwen 3.8 27B Model Identifies Games From Raw Network Weights in Willison Test
Developer Simon Willison reran part of the weight-space programming study on a laptop and found an open 27-billion-parameter model got three of four games right, though each answer took close to an hour or more.
Orbital Matter Says Its Satellite 3D Printed a Rigid Beam in the Vacuum of Space
The German startup says the half-metre boom is a first for a free-flying spacecraft and a step towards building large solar arrays in orbit, such as those future orbital data centres would need.
Anthropic Releases FlashProve to Prove Which AI Model Produced a Response
The open-source research prototype lets anyone check that an answer came from a committed set of model weights without seeing them, but proving costs roughly 70 to 95 times as much as ordinary inference.
Iraq Behind 18 of 19 Government-Ordered Internet Shutdowns Last Quarter, Cloudflare Says
Cloudflare's third-quarter disruption report counted 49 outages worldwide, and power failures in several African countries and a 10-day shutdown in Ethiopia's Tigray region add to the Middle East and Africa's connectivity risks.
OpenAI Launches LifeVal Benchmark for Everyday Tasks, With GPT-6 Astra Scoring 80.6%
The test measures whether AI agents can complete real errands such as school enrolment and household admin, but OpenAI designed it, grades it and has kept the task set private.
UAE University Space Science Conference Puts AI Analysis of Satellite Data in Focus
Researchers from the UAE Space Agency, MBRSC, Khalifa University and Space42 presented work that ranges from five years of Hope Probe results to deep-learning tools that flag potentially hazardous asteroids.
MIT Researchers Show GPT-6 Astra Can Read and Rewrite Other AI Models' Weights
In experiments the researchers call weight-space programming, OpenAI's model worked out from raw weights what small networks had learned, wrote working networks without training, and fixed a flaw in a Qwen model by editing 0.016 per cent of its weights.
Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre and NYUAD Launch AI Readability Tools in BAREC 2.0
The second phase of the Arabic readability corpus project, run with MBZUAI and Zayed University, adds AI models that rewrite texts for different reading levels and explain how each level is assigned.
CloudOpsBench Finds Top AI Agents Fail Many Real Cloud Operations Tasks
In a new open-source test of 45 AWS DevOps jobs, Claude Fable 5.1 solved 60 per cent and GPT-6 Astra 53 per cent, and the researchers blame most failures on reasoning rather than missing knowledge.
Products
CrowdStrike Adds Kill Switch to Falcon Guardian to Halt Rogue AI Agents
The feature lets security teams stop an internal agent, block it from relaunching and cut its network access, though a human still decides whether its behaviour is malicious.
Apple Expands Its AI-Built Health App to Ten More Languages
The redesigned app, which adds a Health Age score, a Longevity tab and on-device movement tests, is in the iOS 27.3 developer beta and reaches users later this year.
Sonos Opens Early Access to Its Natural-Language Voice Assistant on November 6
Sonos 27voice handles conversational requests and general-knowledge questions, and the company is testing it with a small group of US users before a full release in 2027.
Apple Opens Siri AI to Third-Party Apps in iOS 27.3 Developer Preview
Developers can now plug any app into Siri AI's personal context, natural-language and on-screen awareness features, and build multi-step "app skills" that the assistant can run.
Soniox Releases STT v6 Speech Model That Listens to What Voice Agents Say
The speech-to-text API now takes in the agent's own script to transcribe short caller replies more accurately and filter out echoed agent audio, priced at about $0.12 an hour for streaming.
XPENG Launches GX and G9L SUVs in Dubai, Targets 20 Middle East and Africa Markets by 2027
The Chinese carmaker says the GX has more than 4,000 regional orders, 800 of them in the UAE, and that it is bringing its humanoid robot and flying cars to the Gulf.
Tencent Releases Open WeVisOne-VL Model Combining Detection, OCR and Segmentation
The 2B and 4B models from Tencent's WeChat Vision team are released under Apache 2.0 and produce masks and mattes through a small built-in decoder instead of a separate segmentation model.
Ericsson Launches System to Detect Drones Using Mobile Networks, With Pilots Due in 2027
The ISAC System uses radio reflections picked up by several 5G sites to track drones that are not connected to the network, and is aimed at defence, public safety and critical infrastructure operators.
SandboxAQ Pitches Quantitative AI Models to Energy Companies at ADIPEC
Chief executive Jack Hidary told WAM that the company's large quantitative models, which handle physics and chemistry problems rather than language, can help with catalyst design, oil and gas flow analysis and carbon conversion.
Nutanix and Supermicro to Offer Joint Private AI Inference System in Early 2027
The rack-scale system pairs Supermicro servers carrying eight Nvidia Blackwell Ultra GPUs per node with Nutanix's agentic AI software, and Nutanix is pitching it to Middle East and African firms that want to control their inference costs.
Dataiku Launches Headless to Connect Claude Code and Codex to Its Governed AI Platform
The plugin lets developers' coding agents hand tasks to Dataiku's Cobuild assistant, which turns the work into visual projects that other teams can review, including migrated Excel and Alteryx workflows.
Emirates SkyCargo Launches AI Tech Service to Fly Server Racks, Chips and GPUs
The Dubai carrier's freight division says it moved more than 700 tonnes of AI infrastructure in July alone and is building a dedicated product around the demand.
Adobe Puts Its CX Enterprise Coworker Agent Inside ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot
Marketers can now run Adobe's customer experience agent from the AI assistants they already use, and Amazon Quick, IBM and Snowflake support is expected soon.
MBZUAI-Incubated Apertix Open-Sources Cerno 9B Small Decision Model
The Abu Dhabi edge AI start-up says its nine-billion-parameter model ranks second among open models under 25 billion parameters on the Decision Index leaderboard and answers in a median 74 milliseconds.
Apple Begins Testing Always-Listening Siri Recap and Live Rewind on Apple Watch
The first developer betas of iOS 27.3 and watchOS 27.3 bring four Audio Intelligence features to the Apple Watch Series 12, two of which transcribe or summarise conversations around the wearer.
Tencent Releases Hy4 Model With Computer Use, Keeping Preview Pricing
The full version of Tencent's frontier model adds computer use, built on visual understanding and tool calling, and the company says it will publish the weights and system cards in the coming days.
CrowdStrike Launches Sovereign Cloud in Saudi Arabia for Its Falcon Platform
The in-country deployment, first announced as a plan in January, keeps security workloads and customer telemetry inside the kingdom and is aimed at government bodies and critical infrastructure operators.
Dharma Releases 2B-Parameter Field Extractor That Turns Documents Into Structured JSON
The company says its small specialised model edges out Claude Opus 5 on its own extraction benchmark and costs between 6 and 147 times less to run than frontier models.
Bluetooth SIG Adopts High Data Throughput, Nearly Quadrupling LE Speeds From 2027
The new feature raises Bluetooth Low Energy's top bit rate from 2Mbps to 7.5Mbps, and the first compatible devices are expected in early 2027.
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