Welcome to Abu Dhabi Finance Week 2025

Good morning everyone. Nice to be in a fresh morning after a very light weekend. I'm sure everyone here had a very easy night yesterday. Light and early dinner. Distinguished uh guests, friends, welcome.

It's a pleasure to be with you this morning. Um, I have a small small speech for you today. I hope it's interesting. Let me start with a bit of history. So, the United Arab Emirates celebrated its 54th National Day last week.

A lot has changed in the world since 1971. But what hasn't changed is Abu Dhabi's determination to lead with ambition, resilience, and vision. I'll start with a small story for those who might know or who might not know. Sorry. The Muhammad bin Zahed University for artificial intelligence is the first university dedicated entirely to the advancement of science through AI.

Recently, I was with a group of students from from the UAE, uh, China, India, Brazil, Nigeria, and of course, the United States. And they were talking and they had been considering the very same issue that policy makers, CEOs, and investors are confronting today. What kind of intelligence infrastructure will the global economy need by 2035 and what will it take to build it? And this is not just a scientific question. These students were in effect describing the new balance sheet of nations and where capital will find an advantage.

And this is precisely why Abu Dhabi finance week today exists. The world has shifted on its axis. Growth is structurally reset. technologies outrunning institutions, markets and regulatory systems and Abu Dhabi and this group sit right at the intersection of this realignment. So thank you all for being with us here this week.

We will hear this week important perspectives shaping our world views. Supply chains are reorganizing around reliability and proximity. New corridors are opening across Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. And innovation remains a central driving force with anchor economies like the United States and China continuing to set the pace. Demand is being reshaped by demographic momentum and some of the world's fastest rates of digital adoptation.

And the gap between national productivity is already being defined by the ability to embrace AI with trusted governance and AI native institutions. And what this means is that the advantage now acrru to nations that can convert stability, talent, openness and intelligence infrastructure into economic velocity. Because in a fragmented world, competitiveness is no longer about size. It's about how fast a country can move, integrate technology, and attract the world's best people and the world's best capital. Countries that remove friction, protect trust, and advocate for free trade and the flow of ideas, capital, talent, goods, and services are the ones best positioned to thrive in our opinion.

And I want to make and I want to make the point that global capital is not an add-on to our strategy. It is hardwired into our road maps and how we create value beyond our borders. This is all possible because we have fundamentally transformed our economy in one generation. Today, over 77% of the UAE's GDP is non oil. We lead globally in AI adoption, digital infrastructure, and regulatory agility.

As an example, according to a recent Microsoft study, approximately 59% of the UAE's workforce actively uses AI at work, placing it first globally. TEM the Abali government's AI enabled system allows residents and businesses to accept to access over 1100 government and private sector services in one platform under one umbrella and we have very deliberately made the UAE a springboard for others to create their own opportunities. years ago when Mubadela invested in renewable energy and created Muslab and in semiconductors and semicond semiconductor manufacturing through the creation of global foundaries and committed to bringing worldclass healthcare and the Cleveland Clinic here. Many people started to believe that Abu Dhabi was ahead of its time. Today, Abuabi is a global center of capital, AI, energy, innovation, and life sciences.

From east to west to north to south, global capital and innovation are at work here in Abu Dhabi. And nothing demonstrates this better than Stargate UAE. It's a transformative leap in the UAE's economic diversification strategy. Our Stargate here will host international technology partners in its five gawatt campus here in Abu Dhabi providing AI infrastructure and compute capacity to within a 2,000mi radius reaching essentially to half the world's population. We are engineering a globally connected economy built around the sectors and technologies that will define the next generation of global wealth and global growth.

The momentum you see here is possible because of clear and consistent leadership and the fact that we have built the world's most extensive sovereign investment and energy ecosystems. Mubai, Adia, ADQ, NGX, ADNO, XRG and the list goes on. Distinct mandates, one strategic direction. We don't just compete, we compound value and advantages for the country and every market in which we operate. Now I cannot tell you which technologies will dominate in the next 20 years, what finances financial systems will look like in 30 years or the forces that will define define competitiveness in the next 40 years.

But I can tell you this with a high level of conviction. Abu Debbie and our partners in this room will be central to whatever that future becomes. And the point is the company the coming decades will reward will reward those who position themselves where the fe future is being shaped. So let me end or leave you today with three ideas that we live by. If you believe the world is changing, invest where you can shape that change.

If you believe the next decade belongs to intelligence, energy and technology, invest where they converge and empower others. And if you believe the future will be defined by those who can move first, move defi decisively, invest where that is the national operating model and that is the platform we have created for you to invest alongside us here in Abu Dhabi. Thank you. It's great to have you here in Abu Dhabi. I wish you all a wonderful and incredible great week ahead.

Have a good day. Thank you.