The Titan's View: Blackrock

[Music] Larry you've been visiting Abu Dhabi for a long time I suppose the question I have is similar to the tiger economies um you know Abu dhabi's experiencing its own Falcon economy as many people are calling it I'm going to ask you what's your outlook for Abu Dhabi as it mature as it attracts more foreign investment how do you feel the Emirates changing and what are the key drivers of this change so let me just start off and say it's been a long journey watching how Abu Dhabi has matured as an economy as it's grown as an economy and more importantly the constant Innovation that I'm seeing from the economy and from the leadership I don't think at this moment there's another economy in the world that is growing as fast with the resources that it has but it's becoming one of the key destinations for international capital and it also is a great provider of capital globally too so the the closest that I could say about Abu Dhabi in the whole world since the 1960s is Singapore and Abu Dhabi has really positioned itself is to become a leader over the next 20 years and it's really a remarkable Journey for me to be visiting Abu Dhabi from where it was you know 20 years ago even you know 10 years ago um its Psychology was different and now it's blossoming into this magnet of of opportunity and the and the opportunity is is Way Beyond just let's say oil and gas I mean that's the foundation of the economy and I think it's going to be the foundation of the economy for the next you know dozens and dozens of years but that being said with that strength it is now becoming a foundation for Innovation um but even innovation in the in the oil and gas industry adock is one of the innovators and one of the great organizations in the world in terms of how to transform chemicals and everything like that but that being said um it is now a beacon for opportunity whether it's in educ ation with uh with the Cleveland Clinic and with NYU even it's position in in sports now with its ownership in football teams in the UK but uh Formula 1 in the economy but what I see it's transforming itself it's going to become one of the leading centers for digitization whether it is crypto but also it is now positioning itself to become one of the leaders in Ai and so yes it has a foundation on oil gas it is a foundation of large Sovereign funds but beyond that it is an economy that is now full of opportunity opportunity to invest in all these new segments but I believe AI is going to be uh the next you know Industrial Revolution and in my dealings with the government most recent recently it is one of the Innovative economies how it's trying to position itself be one of the magnets for AI for AI research um and because of its u high levels of energy that it has Beyond just oil and gas nuclear now solar wind it has a great ability to become one of the foundations for AI data centers and and then I would say the lastly what I'm witnessing in Abu Dhabi is it is now becoming a magnet for people in many different fields that come be and be domiciled and living in in the economy and you know there's rule of law the safety in the in the country is phenomenal um the ability to have a solid and Progressive life in Abu Dhabi is really allowing it to attract the best and the brightest worldwide we're opening an office right now in Abu Dhabi and we intend to have tens and tens of people there in our offices there because we look at it as a great place to attract intellectual capital and finance and what we're doing together in Ai and decarbonization so we are uh very excited about the opportunities we see in Abu Dhabi but more importantly on a personal note I am so encouraged personally by watching how this economy has grown more important ly how it's positioning itself for the next 20 years we're very glad that black rock is part of the opportunity that we're we're all working so hard to create in Abu Dhabi and uh this brings me to the the next question Black Rock have been involved in um Abu Dhabi for a long time and every day I guess there's a new development but um over the past um few years there's been a a whole bunch of new Partnerships announced in in Abu Dhabi tell us about Black Rock in Abu Dhabi what are those Partnerships look like what are the future hold well I think the Partnerships began about through conversations whether it's a conversation um with adock our conversations with some of the other The Sovereign funds mubadala Adia uh and then um mgx now and Altera uh adq I mean I could go on and on all the different pools and different opportunities um it through conversations and mutual trust so let's start there everything in our business is about conversations and mutual trust and what we try to see is how our our two our Black Rock and what are the pools of capital within Abu Dhabi how can we merge our ideas and opportunities to grow Altera was a very good example where we were working with Altera and helping build out a a a a program a position as the HST of cop 28 and we played a role in that working with the leadership in Abu Dhabi on that but one of the key issues was the the government wanted to become not just a host for cop 28 but they wanted to transform what historical cops have done and really put you know muscle into what this what cop 28 was going to represent and that was by creating a whole new effort related to decarbonization fund um and uh through much of much conversations working with the leadership there uh we were one of the three firms that were awarded this business to help build out uh financing decarbonization in the emerging South but also be trying to find new solutions to rapidly have an have opportunities not just with hydrocarbons but an opportunity to really find new opportunities that are that can bring down the cost of energy so we could help more people in the world through a decarbonizing Technologies and so that was a that was a one of the first and pivotal connections that we had and at the same time when we were talking about decarbonization and the opportunities around cop 28 we started talking about the role of AI and how AI is going to be playing a bigger role and um and so we started having conversations with the leadership of mubadala and um uh and with mgx and g42 and having just deep conversations of how this is going to be transforming but more importantly what role will Abu Dhabi play What role will you know capital and finance play and and and through that we had uh we broadened the conversations and um and I think the results of what we announced just about I guess now two months ago um was the creation of a partnership with mgx Microsoft Nvidia and black rock and there's more announcements coming shortly but this whole idea is going to be about investing in AI data centers working with the major hyperscalers uh 65% of those investments will be Investments here in the United States and 35% will be other places where the hyperscalers are want to be domiciled um and importantly by by providing a platform where we could accelerate the the industrialization of AI and then the utilization and this with is with the foundational hope that we're going to improve Humanity we're going to lift more human beings by through through AI we're going to increase productivity and you know build a better future for the world can try I think it's um you know only fitting the black rocker once again involved in the um biggest questions in humanity and trying to come up with solutions for them so thank you for that and we're very glad that abui has a a role to play um in that so um that's that's us for today and thank you very much for your time Mr it was great to be part of this thank you so much [Music]