🇶🇦 Qatar wants your startup

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🇶🇦 If you have a tech startup, Qatar wants to hear from you: Qatar is reaching into its deep pockets and offering tech startups a cool $5.5 million to launch or expand in the country. The Startup Qatar Investment Program offers up to $1.1 million for early-stage companies, and more established entities can receive up to $5.5 million. Alongside funding, it also offers visa support, subsidized housing and workspaces, mentors, and research grants. Startups in AI, fintech, cybersecurity, robotics, health, education, and climate tech will be first in line. The Qatar Development Bank (which is funding all this) is targeting $275 million in funding through 2030.

🇹🇷 Türkiye reduces reliance on foreign defense suppliers: With so many countries around the world going, ‘Uh, why did we rely on one provider for all our military stuff?’, Türkiye is addressing it by developing drones, missiles, radar systems, ships, aircraft, and more. The 1974 US arms embargo triggered it, but in 2000 it accelerated as the government boosted R&D investment. Today, a variety of companies (including Baykar, Aselsan, Roketsan) form part of a robust domestic defense industry. Alongside reducing dependence on overseas suppliers, Turkish arms exports have reached $5.7 billion so far in 2026.

🇬🇧 🇧🇩 Bangladeshi entrepreneur turns shrimp into gold: Shelim Hussain arrived in the UK at 11 and got his start in the restaurant business early, waiting tables at 17. Then, in 1991, a local shrimp supplier went out of business. Shelim grabbed his moment. He had just enough money to buy six boxes of shrimp, and he sold them successfully to restaurants, all while still waiting tables and going to college. By his early 20s, he was importing shrimp and all kinds of ingredients from Bangladesh, Thailand and Vietnam. Today, his company Euro Foods Group boasts $260m in annual sales and employs 2,400 people.

🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia hits the road as a new car manufacturer: It may sound like a Transformer, but an Exobot is actually a car made by Ceer, KSA’s first domestic automaker. The project is a joint venture between the Saudi PIF and Taiwan-based Foxconn. The company will initially produce two models, an SUV and a sedan, with plans to expand to seven vehicle types by 2030. An Exobot can accelerate to 100 km/h in two seconds (beat that, Optimus Prime) and has a 600 km range. Vehicles will be built in King Abdullah Economic City, creating 35,000 direct and indirect jobs by 2034.

🇴🇲 Oman takes its place in the Gulf mega-project race: Oman is pursuing seven major developments either planned or under construction. Ready? Deep breath: First is Sultan Haitham City with 20,000 homes, walkable neighborhoods and climate-adapted infrastructure; second is the $1.3 billion Muscat downtown redevelopment; third is the ‘net-zero city by the sea’ aka Sustainable City Yiti; fourth (are you still with us?) is mountainous Al Thurayya City with 7,000 residential units; fifth is the $3bn industrial port-adjacent Sohar Future City; sixth is Salalah Future City with 12,000 homes and a 6km coastline; and seventh is the $1.2bn Nizwa project with its education and research focus. Whew. And yes, it’s called Oman Vision 2040.

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