Big Tech executives are racing to secure influence with Donald Trump’s second administration, using it as a fresh opportunity to reset relations with the mercurial president-elect.
Meta and other Silicon Valley firms including Amazon and OpenAI have donated $1 million or more to Mr Trump's inaugural fund (Meta did not donate to Mr Trump's 2017 inauguration or Joe Biden's 2021 inauguration).
And chief executive Mark Zuckerberg was among a number of executives to hold court with Mr Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida since the election.
The conciliatory overtures by Silicon Valley show that its executives are hoping to turn over a new leaf with the future president, who once suggested Mr Zuckerberg could “spend the rest of his life in prison” and has previously bashed Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos.
Mr Bezos has made a number of moves in recent months, blocking the Washington Post's (which he owns) endorsement of Kamala Harris, and rejecting a cartoonist's sketch that showed the Amazon boss bowing down to Mr Trump. Amazon Prime Video also announced it is licensing a documentary film about first lady Melania Trump.
Meta has also been lurching towards a more MAGA-friendly position. The company on Tuesday said it is ditching fact-checking system with “community notes” – similar to the ones on Elon Musk's platform X – in what he said would bring the company “back to our roots around free expression”.
He also said the company would remove topics on topics such as immigration and gender that he said are “just out of touch with mainstream discourse”, and pledged to work with Mr Trump to “push back on governments around the world that are going after American companies and pushing to censor more”.
Meta is also realigning some of its team to be better positioned under the new administration.
The company on Monday named UFC president and Trump ally Dana White, a popular figure among conservative white males, to its board of directors.
Former George W Bush official Joel Kaplan is now Meta's chief global affairs officer, replacing Nick Clegg, formerly the leader of the UK's Liberal Democrats. Mr Kaplan defended the company's decision to move end its fact-checking system, saying that the programme “too often became a tool to censor”.
Republican Kevin Martin was also elevated to vice president of global public policy and Jennifer Newstead, who served in the State Department from 2017-2019, was recently named Meta's general counsel, Semafor reported.
According to CNBC, Microsoft also recently acknowledged that it had donated $1 million to Mr Trump's inauguration fund, although the company also pointed out that it had previously donated $500,000 to Joe Biden's inauguration fund, and $500,000 to Mr Trump's fund after his first White House victory in 2016.
Meanwhile, Apple's Tim Cook also joined other Big Tech executives in donating to Mr Trump's inaugural fund. Mr Cook, once nicknamed “Tim Apple” by Mr Trump, also donated $1 million to the inauguration, Axios reported. The company donated $57,000 to his 2017 fund.
Those reports are the latest in what has been a curious, occasionally contentious but almost always civil relationship between Apple and Mr Trump.
Mr Trump in 2016 threatened to enact tariffs on Apple products for manufacturing devices overseas, only to ask Mr Cook to serve on the administration's American workforce policy advisory board three years later.
Artificial intelligence
Some companies are posturing for a technology far more pervasive today than in 2017: artificial intelligence.
Microsoft is publicly offering suggestions to the incoming Trump White House on how to capitalise what it calls a “golden opportunity for American AI”.
“The country has a unique opportunity to pursue this vision and build on the foundational ideas set for AI policy during President Trump’s first term,” Microsoft vice chair Brad Smith wrote in a lengthy blog post on Friday.
“Achieving this vision will require a partnership that unites leaders from government, the private sector, and the country’s educational and non-profit institutions.”
Then, of course, there are the new technology companies on the block, like OpenAI, which helped put artificial intelligence into mainstream with its ChatGPT tool.
The best indicator for what to expect from Mr Trump's AI policy is likely the Republican Party’s official 2024 platform published back in July. The platform pledged to support AI development “rooted in free speech and human flourishing”, it read in part.
Mr Trump signed an executive order during his first term which sought to “drive technological breakthroughs in AI” while “reducing barriers to the use of AI technologies.”
OpenAI chief Altman said he looks forward to working with Mr Trump on how to harness the new technology, saying the US must lead the tech race against rival China.
“I think it’s very important to the American innovation economy and our position in the world that we allow our small companies to do what they do,” he said during a Fox News segment on Sunday.
“We clearly had regulatory overreach as a country.”
One tech executive who has not yet been invited to Mar-a-Lago is Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang, although he told Bloomberg Television he would be happy to meet with the president-elect and offered to help the coming administration.
A change of pace
Some say that amid the re-emergence of Donald Trump in the White House, those in the most prominent of technology circles have learned how to navigate based on Mr Trump's first term.
"In the upcoming Trump era, it isn’t enough to have great tech or a strong sales team," said Sam Blatteis, chief executive of The Mena Catalysts, a market entry firm for Web3 multinationals expanding in the Gulf economies.
"Relationships will play an outsized role, and high tech companies must take a crash course in ‘spoken MAGA’. It is a special language — different than how they communicated with the Biden White House," he explained, referring to Mr Trump's inward looking campaign theme, 'Make America great Again'.
Mr Blatteis said that it's not necessarily a surprise that president-elect Trump has become the the "man to see" among US technology executives in the know, but no matter how well they think they know Mr Trump, he warned, they'll probably have to get used to unpredictability being the new normal.
"As Trump appoints an armada of new policymakers to run key tech-related agencies, who is running them, and how much real influence they have, is hard to pin down," he said.
"It’s about quietly having the right conversations ... politics will become more important than traditional commercial business plans in shaping market outcomes," he added.
HAJJAN
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Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
How much do leading UAE’s UK curriculum schools charge for Year 6?
- Nord Anglia International School (Dubai) – Dh85,032
- Kings School Al Barsha (Dubai) – Dh71,905
- Brighton College Abu Dhabi - Dh68,560
- Jumeirah English Speaking School (Dubai) – Dh59,728
- Gems Wellington International School – Dubai Branch – Dh58,488
- The British School Al Khubairat (Abu Dhabi) - Dh54,170
- Dubai English Speaking School – Dh51,269
*Annual tuition fees covering the 2024/2025 academic year
Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
2019 ASIA CUP POTS
Pot 1
UAE, Iran, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia
Pot 2
China, Syria, Uzbekistan, Iraq, Qatar, Thailand
Pot 3
Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Palestine, Oman, India, Vietnam
Pot 4
North Korea, Philippines, Bahrain, Jordan, Yemen, Turkmenistan
Who is Allegra Stratton?
- Previously worked at The Guardian, BBC’s Newsnight programme and ITV News
- Took up a public relations role for Chancellor Rishi Sunak in April 2020
- In October 2020 she was hired to lead No 10’s planned daily televised press briefings
- The idea was later scrapped and she was appointed spokeswoman for Cop26
- Ms Stratton, 41, is married to James Forsyth, the political editor of The Spectator
- She has strong connections to the Conservative establishment
- Mr Sunak served as best man at her 2011 wedding to Mr Forsyth
Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
Wicked
Director: Jon M Chu
Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey
Uefa Nations League: How it Works
The Uefa Nations League, introduced last year, has reached its final stage, to be played over five days in northern Portugal. The format of its closing tournament is compact, spread over two semi-finals, with the first, Portugal versus Switzerland in Porto on Wednesday evening, and the second, England against the Netherlands, in Guimaraes, on Thursday.
The winners of each semi will then meet at Porto’s Dragao stadium on Sunday, with the losing semi-finalists contesting a third-place play-off in Guimaraes earlier that day.
Qualifying for the final stage was via League A of the inaugural Nations League, in which the top 12 European countries according to Uefa's co-efficient seeding system were divided into four groups, the teams playing each other twice between September and November. Portugal, who finished above Italy and Poland, successfully bid to host the finals.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
'Champions'
Director: Manuel Calvo
Stars: Yassir Al Saggaf and Fatima Al Banawi
Rating: 2/5
Key figures in the life of the fort
Sheikh Dhiyab bin Isa (ruled 1761-1793) Built Qasr Al Hosn as a watchtower to guard over the only freshwater well on Abu Dhabi island.
Sheikh Shakhbut bin Dhiyab (ruled 1793-1816) Expanded the tower into a small fort and transferred his ruling place of residence from Liwa Oasis to the fort on the island.
Sheikh Tahnoon bin Shakhbut (ruled 1818-1833) Expanded Qasr Al Hosn further as Abu Dhabi grew from a small village of palm huts to a town of more than 5,000 inhabitants.
Sheikh Khalifa bin Shakhbut (ruled 1833-1845) Repaired and fortified the fort.
Sheikh Saeed bin Tahnoon (ruled 1845-1855) Turned Qasr Al Hosn into a strong two-storied structure.
Sheikh Zayed bin Khalifa (ruled 1855-1909) Expanded Qasr Al Hosn further to reflect the emirate's increasing prominence.
Sheikh Shakhbut bin Sultan (ruled 1928-1966) Renovated and enlarged Qasr Al Hosn, adding a decorative arch and two new villas.
Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan (ruled 1966-2004) Moved the royal residence to Al Manhal palace and kept his diwan at Qasr Al Hosn.
Sources: Jayanti Maitra, www.adach.ae
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Who are the Sacklers?
The Sackler family is a transatlantic dynasty that owns Purdue Pharma, which manufactures and markets OxyContin, one of the drugs at the centre of America's opioids crisis. The family is well known for their generous philanthropy towards the world's top cultural institutions, including Guggenheim Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, Tate in Britain, Yale University and the Serpentine Gallery, to name a few. Two branches of the family control Purdue Pharma.
Isaac Sackler and Sophie Greenberg were Jewish immigrants who arrived in New York before the First World War. They had three sons. The first, Arthur, died before OxyContin was invented. The second, Mortimer, who died aged 93 in 2010, was a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma. The third, Raymond, died aged 97 in 2017 and was also a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma.
It was Arthur, a psychiatrist and pharmaceutical marketeer, who started the family business dynasty. He and his brothers bought a small company called Purdue Frederick; among their first products were laxatives and prescription earwax remover.
Arthur's branch of the family has not been involved in Purdue for many years and his daughter, Elizabeth, has spoken out against it, saying the company's role in America's drugs crisis is "morally abhorrent".
The lawsuits that were brought by the attorneys general of New York and Massachussetts named eight Sacklers. This includes Kathe, Mortimer, Richard, Jonathan and Ilene Sackler Lefcourt, who are all the children of either Mortimer or Raymond. Then there's Theresa Sackler, who is Mortimer senior's widow; Beverly, Raymond's widow; and David Sackler, Raymond's grandson.
Members of the Sackler family are rarely seen in public.
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