Global Capital Keeps Voting for the Gulf, Here’s Why

RIYADH: A new multinational survey out of Riyadh put a number on something the Gulf’s business community has felt building for months: outside investors are not hedging their bets on the region, they are doubling down on them.

The poll, run by Consulum with HarrisX across 2,043 active investors in the US, UK, Germany, France and China, found that 82 percent are confident in the Gulf’s economic outlook, with China, the US and the UK the most bullish. 

Beyond sentiment, 69 percent rate the region as a good or great place to invest right now, and 70 percent expect the GCC’s global economic weight to keep growing over the next five years. 

The findings sit alongside a Consulum and HarrisX poll of residents across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain in May that found domestic confidence running even higher, as 90 percent said their country is on the right track and 89 percent were confident in the economic outlook. 

In an interview with Arab News, the CEO of Consulum James Davies said international investors are looking beyond “short-term geopolitical volatility” and taking a long-term view of the Gulf. 

“They see economies with clear reform agendas, substantial investment capacity and governments that have consistently demonstrated resilience through periods of uncertainty,” he said.

Davies added that this isn’t blind confidence, saying: “Investors want to see evidence that governments are adapting national programs to reflect the realities of the Iran conflict while remaining committed to their long-term vision.”

That combination of strategic consistency and operational agility is increasingly part of the Gulf’s investment case, he noted.

That domestic resilience shows up in Saudi Arabia’s own official data too. The General Authority for Statistics’ Business Confidence Index, considered one of the most important leading, forward-looking indicators of the economy, climbed to 56.6 points in June, up from 55.6 in May, pointing to sustained optimism in the non-oil sectors. 

Those findings indicate a recovery story as much as a growth one. The index stood at 61.6 in January and 60.7 in February before dropping sharply to 52.1 in March, a dip largely driven by the regional conflict with Iran, then rebounding to 54.5 in April and continuing to climb through May and June.

Kaiterra bets on Riyadh

Indoor air quality technology firm Kaiterra opened a dedicated Riyadh office in June, its second permanent Gulf base in under a month after a Dubai regional hub went live in May.

In an interview with Arab News, Kaiterra’s co-founder and CEO Liam Bates said the shift away from a Dubai-only regional model came down to two things happening at once. 

Bates said: “The Saudi opportunity grew faster than we could cover it from Dubai. The number of conversations coming out of Saudi jumped.” 

The second factor, he said, was simply pace: “Vision 2030 timelines don’t leave room for an account team flying in from another country for every site visit and meeting.”

The demand mix has also shifted since Kaiterra first entered Saudi Arabia. “A year ago demand in the Kingdom was mostly private commercial: offices, hospitality and mixed-use developments going for LEED,” Bates said, adding that three parts of the market are active now.

The giga-projects tied to Vision 2030 draw the most attention, he noted, though procurement timelines mean they “don’t always move fastest.” 

Private commercial demand remains steady, but the bigger change has been elsewhere, said Bates, adding: “Government and semi-government infrastructure ... was barely on our radar in mid-2025 and now it’s a large chunk of what we see.” 

With Riyadh now live, the CEO said Doha is next on the list, even as Saudi Arabia keeps its lead in the company’s regional plans. 

“The most ambitious projects are here, and in every conversation I’ve had it strikes me how seriously the Saudi market takes quality and genuine value. Nobody here is just trying to tick a box,” he said.

ctory to what he sees on the ground and among its leadership, drawing a comparison to his years working on fast-growth projects in China. “Standing in Riyadh and looking at the sea of construction cranes in the distance shows the scale of development,” he said. 

“What gives me confidence is the vision here, and leadership that understands how much the environment will matter to the country’s future,” pointing to what he described as senior leadership’s focus on health, well-being and the environment.

LEAP puts an entire sector on display

If Kaiterra shows what a single company’s confidence looks like, LEAP is what an entire sector’s confidence looks like when it’s put in a room together.

Organized by Tahaluf, the tech and artificial intelligence conference is now in its fifth year, and its 2026 edition is expected to draw more than 201,000 visitors, 1,800 global tech brands and 1,900 investors to Riyadh, with speakers from Google, AWS, and Cisco alongside Saudi enterprises like stc and Aramco.

The 2025 edition alone generated $14.9 billion in deals and announcements, including a $1.5 billion Groq–Aramco Digital cloud partnership and a $2 billion Alat–Lenovo manufacturing tie-up.

LEAP 2026 was moved from its original April date to late August, with organizers citing consultation with partners to protect international turnout amid regional disruption tied to the US–Iran war.

Tahaluf CEO Mike Champion said the call to reschedule rather than pare back the event reflected lessons learned over previous editions. 

“This is LEAP’s fifth year, and if the past five have taught us anything, it is that the exhibitions industry runs on mobility and flexibility,” he told Arab News. 

“When the regional situation shifted in March and April, we moved quickly rather than scaling back. Exhibitors told us plainly: give us a clearer runway and more time to prepare.”

He added that scaling down was never a consideration given LEAP’s standing as the largest technology event in the world by attendance, and that the move to late August and early September “has been welcomed wholeheartedly by our community.”

The fact that the event rescheduled rather than scaled back is itself a data point on how organizers read the durability of global interest, something Champion said is borne out in the numbers behind Tahaluf’s wider portfolio. “Bookings are strong and our events are performing better commercially than they did last year,” he said. 

Across events run between 2023 and 2025, he said the company’s portfolio delivered a total economic impact of $17.6 billion using a conservative multiplier, with more than $10 billion in property transactions closed on Tahaluf show floors and over a quarter of a million jobs created. 

“Five years in, we still expect 18 to 21 percent yearly growth despite the geopolitical backdrop,” Champion said. “That trajectory, not the headlines, is what investors are watching.”

On whether international travel confidence has wavered, Champion pointed to steady bookings. 

“We are still seeing bookings and registrations coming in and confidence in traveling to Riyadh and to Saudi Arabia remains strong,” he said. “The situation has not been anywhere near as challenging as people first thought it could be.”

He cited April’s Umrah and Ziyarah Forum in Madinah, held “at the height of the disruption,” which he said brought in more than 5,500 international business visitors, ahead of the previous year’s turnout. 

That same appetite is showing up elsewhere in Tahaluf's portfolio. Cityscape Global, the group’s real estate event, generated $63 billion in deals onsite at its 2025 edition. 

“Investors are no longer asking whether Saudi Arabia represents an opportunity,” said Rachel Sturgess, Tahaluf’s senior vice president. “They are actively seeking access to the projects, partners and markets driving growth here, and the 2026 edition is being shaped around that shift.”

Coming at a moment when the Consulum and HarrisX survey showed investors specifically watching Gulf states’ role in regional security and de-escalation, an event of this scale is a useful read on how an entire industry is feeling about the Kingdom’s trajectory, separate from what a poll of financial investors says.