Best of LinkedIn: FII 9th Edition 2025

00:00:00: provided by Thomas Allgaier and Frennus.

00:00:02: Based on the most relevant LinkedIn posts talking about the FII ninth edition, twenty twenty five, Frennus specializes in B to B market research for strategy and consulting teams with a focus on tech and ICT.

00:00:15: Welcome to the deep dive.

00:00:17: Today we're taking a look at the future investment initiative in RIA, the FII ninth edition, twenty twenty five.

00:00:24: And our mission here is really to deliver the strategic insights that professionals in our world M&A, private equity strategy, really need to know.

00:00:32: Because this wasn't a typical conference.

00:00:34: No, not at all.

00:00:35: It felt like a definitive signal.

00:00:36: The whole focus seems to have decisively shifted.

00:00:39: From

00:00:39: vision to execution.

00:00:40: That was the phrase we saw everywhere.

00:00:41: It's a huge shift.

00:00:43: I mean, the conversations weren't about these abstract promises anymore.

00:00:46: They were about treating capital markets, AI, and Saudi Arabia's transformation as well connected operational levers.

00:00:52: We're

00:00:52: past the... if it's going to happen.

00:00:55: Now it's all about the how.

00:00:55: Exactly.

00:00:56: So our goal is pretty simple.

00:00:57: We wanted to still the top trends that came out of FI-nine.

00:01:01: We've clustered them around a few key themes.

00:01:03: First, the new architecture of capital flows, then AI becoming actual infrastructure, and finally, the kingdom's own pivot to project delivery.

00:01:12: Okay, so let's jump right into that first one.

00:01:14: because it really does impact every valuation model out there, the new architecture of capital and private markets.

00:01:21: Right, and the consensus seemed to be that the old liquidity models just aren't working.

00:01:26: in this, you know, sustained high-rate environment we're in.

00:01:28: They're not, and the solution everyone was pointing to is private credit.

00:01:32: We've talked about it before, but FI-IX really cemented its status.

00:01:35: It's

00:01:36: the essential tool now for financing growth.

00:01:38: Absolutely.

00:01:39: But it demands discipline.

00:01:41: David B. Golub from Golub Capital, he really highlighted this.

00:01:44: He emphasized that their focus is on lending to, how did he put it?

00:01:48: Resilient businesses and resilient industries.

00:01:50: Exactly.

00:01:51: and crucially backed by top quality private equity sponsors.

00:01:55: It's a very specific risk mitigated way of deploying capital.

00:01:59: It's all about selectivity and strength.

00:02:02: And if you look at who's setting that agenda, who's deploying that capital, you have to talk about sovereign wealth funds.

00:02:08: They're definitely not the quiet co-investors they used to be.

00:02:11: Katie Cough of TCW noted they're now seen as active architects of global capital flows.

00:02:17: Not just passive asset owners anymore.

00:02:19: Not at all.

00:02:20: This long-term patient capital is fundamentally reshaping the investment map, you know, pushing us towards a multipolar world where regional capital really dictates the terms.

00:02:30: And the sheer scale of private markets in general is just staggering.

00:02:34: Faria and Sari Javed and some others were projecting that private capital, which is at what, It's projected to hit over twenty trillion in the next five years.

00:02:45: That's incredible.

00:02:46: It basically means if your firm isn't fluent in private capital, you're already playing yesterday's game.

00:02:51: So if private capital is the engine, FII showed us the new fuel.

00:02:55: It's sort of evolving ideology about how that capital should be deployed.

00:02:59: You're talking about the globalization theme.

00:03:01: My call, Katz, made the point that globalization is being Deliberately reshaped

00:03:06: especially in supply chains.

00:03:08: Yeah, it's not just about cost efficiency anymore.

00:03:10: It's about resilience and strategic advantage precisely.

00:03:13: and that led right into This concept being called patriotic capitalism

00:03:18: championed by figures like Donald Trump Jr.

00:03:20: And Omid Malik the core idea being to deploy capital for national strength investing in your own talent, strategic industries.

00:03:28: Which sounds like a pretty radical departure from just maximizing shareholder returns.

00:03:33: It does.

00:03:33: So how do you square that circle?

00:03:35: Investors still need to see high returns, right?

00:03:37: Well, that was the interesting part.

00:03:38: They argued very strongly that this is not isolationism.

00:03:41: It's about securing a strategic advantage.

00:03:43: It means you invest domestically or regionally where it protects or enhances your national competitive edge.

00:03:49: So the idea is you get superior, sustainable returns.

00:03:53: by aligning with the long-term national interest.

00:03:55: Exactly.

00:03:56: And to handle capital on that scale, the financial plumbing itself needs an upgrade.

00:04:00: This brings us to tokenization, which was a huge topic.

00:04:04: It was positioned as the essential financial software update.

00:04:07: The most definitive statement, I think, came from Larry Fink at BlackRock.

00:04:11: Oh, absolutely.

00:04:12: He basically said finance leaders are spending too much time on AI and not nearly enough on, quote, how quickly we're going to tokenize every financial asset.

00:04:21: he called it the next wave of opportunity.

00:04:23: I mean, coming from the head of the world's largest asset manager, that's a seismic statement.

00:04:28: It is.

00:04:28: And the practical consequences are all about efficiency and liquidity.

00:04:32: Mark Nesif and Efi Palerini detailed how it works.

00:04:35: You convert assets into secure digital tokens.

00:04:38: And the key is that it shrinks settlement times from days down to seconds.

00:04:42: Seconds.

00:04:42: It cuts out layers of intermediaries, frictional costs.

00:04:46: It's a massive unlock for institutional liquidity.

00:04:49: And this isn't just a theory, right?

00:04:50: No, we are well into implementation.

00:04:53: I mean, J.N.I.

00:04:53: Diamond's J.P.

00:04:54: Morgan is already processing billions in tokenized collateral through its Kenexi's network.

00:04:59: This is happening now.

00:05:01: where it gets really interesting.

00:05:02: Let's pivot to our second thing.

00:05:04: AI is transitioned from talk to actual hardened infrastructure.

00:05:08: Right.

00:05:10: Hussein M. Dejani and Sandy Carter both noted this clear shift at FI-IX.

00:05:15: It wasn't about experimenting with AI anymore.

00:05:17: It was about scale deployment and... Importantly, governance.

00:05:21: The big idea seems to be viewing compute, energy, and data as the new scarce resources.

00:05:27: Sandy Carter framed AI as a central national infrastructure.

00:05:31: Yeah, comparing it to ports or the power grid.

00:05:34: You just can't rely on imports for something that strategic.

00:05:37: Which explains Saudi Arabia's huge ambition to become an AI powerhouse.

00:05:41: The poo-ifes humane venture, for instance.

00:05:43: They're not just funding startups.

00:05:45: No, they're building five hundred megawatt data centers.

00:05:48: and developing the world's most advanced Arabic multimodal LLMs.

00:05:52: They want to own their AI stack.

00:05:54: That localization is key to controlling their own strategic data.

00:05:57: And the investment is real.

00:05:59: Eric Lozon pointed out the massive three billion dollar partnership between Humane and Blackstone backed AirTruck.

00:06:05: And it goes beyond just data centers.

00:06:06: They're into deep tech like NeuroFab, which is focused on next gen computing.

00:06:10: What Amir Hussein was talking about, it's an intense strategy.

00:06:13: So if the infrastructure is the hardware, then the human element is the software.

00:06:18: The conversations weren't just about silicon.

00:06:20: Not at all.

00:06:21: There was an equal focus on governing AI ethically and preparing the workforce.

00:06:26: Danish Nazir mentioned how Saudi Arabia is moving methodically from vision, to principles, to implementation, and then to regulation.

00:06:34: Creating a predictable ecosystem.

00:06:36: Exactly.

00:06:37: And even in applications like in HealthTech.

00:06:39: Kingsley Eye, Nudo's hero in AI is a good example of using it for personalized care.

00:06:44: There was a strong push for ethical guardrails.

00:06:47: Fifa Ali was cited as reminding everyone that technology has to keep human dignity, well-being, and agency at its core.

00:06:54: which is a vital check on the tech sector's, you know, move fast and break things mentality.

00:06:59: So AI is the new infrastructure, but the bottleneck is still human capital.

00:07:03: Mark Minovich talked about preparing the next generation, developing adaptive minds.

00:07:08: It's a huge challenge.

00:07:09: Haiyan Lee, the CEO of Squirrel AI, he pointed out that a third of jobs could be automated by twenty thirty.

00:07:15: That's from data shared by Monisha Contrapati.

00:07:17: A

00:07:17: third.

00:07:18: So what's the solution?

00:07:19: His solution is to use AI itself for personalized learning and skills-based credentialing to rapidly reskill people.

00:07:27: It's an urgent call to action.

00:07:29: Which sets the stage perfectly for our third theme.

00:07:32: This concentration of capital and technology brings us back to Riyadh itself.

00:07:37: Eduardo Masiu-Paredes said you could feel the shift from vision setting

00:07:42: to

00:07:42: concrete project delivery.

00:07:44: The symbolism was pretty powerful too.

00:07:47: Magnuson eBay pointed out the irony of the Ritz Carlton.

00:07:50: Once a detention site now hosting this global investment conference, it's like discipline finally catching up to the vision.

00:07:56: And

00:07:56: the PIF, the Public Investment Fund, is clearly the engine driving that execution.

00:08:02: We saw a really significant pivot in their strategy.

00:08:04: This is a key takeaway.

00:08:06: Rana Maristani and Omar Alinezi detailed how the PIS, what, nine hundred twenty five billion dollar war chest?

00:08:12: Almost a trillion dollars.

00:08:13: Is pivoting away from some of the longer term real estate ventures.

00:08:16: Yeah.

00:08:16: Gene Abilama put it as less neo, more scaffolding.

00:08:19: Towards what though?

00:08:20: Towards

00:08:20: high yield strategic investments.

00:08:22: They're targeting an aggressive seven and a half to eight percent annualized return.

00:08:26: That

00:08:26: is a very high target.

00:08:28: for a sovereign fund of that size.

00:08:30: What is that signal?

00:08:31: It signals a huge demand for efficiency.

00:08:33: Athermobium called it shift from capital abundance to capital efficiency.

00:08:37: So for foreign investors, the message is clear.

00:08:40: The PAF is looking for partners.

00:08:41: But those partners have to bring projects with massive scale, strategic alignment, and the potential for those high yield returns.

00:08:48: Exactly.

00:08:49: And we're seeing tangible results.

00:08:51: Charles Beale was showcasing how residential communities like ROSHN are moving forward quickly.

00:08:57: And it's also about scaling up premium experiences.

00:09:00: Like in tourism, Kathy Wagstaff and Ciaran Mullen highlighted the dream of the desert, that five star luxury train set for twenty twenty six.

00:09:07: It's a high value experience driven strategy.

00:09:10: It fits the whole premium feel of the giga projects

00:09:14: and sustainability is a core part of that.

00:09:16: Beatrice Buffon mentioned how projects like AMALA are prioritizing resilient, low-carbon electricity supported by advanced battery storage.

00:09:24: That's built in from the ground up, though it's not without its challenges.

00:09:27: Riyadh Air's CEO, Tony Douglas, was very candid about how difficult meeting net zero targets in aviation is.

00:09:34: But the commitment is there.

00:09:36: And that complexity is why they're so open to partnerships.

00:09:39: Michael Matier detailed that collaboration between Namco and Young Ventures.

00:09:43: Right, a one hundred million dollar fund to bring twenty innovative companies in science and next-gen energy into Saudi Arabia, they're essentially co-investing to acquire strategic capability.

00:09:53: Which leads us right into our final theme.

00:09:56: The maturation of the whole VC and entrepreneurship ecosystem.

00:10:01: Philippa Hoshi said the renaissance startup scene is past just experimenting.

00:10:05: It's attracting serious international attention now.

00:10:08: And the numbers are there.

00:10:09: Nor Swede pointed out that the Saudi venture ecosystem hit a record, one point three billion dollars raised by September.

00:10:16: Which is tremendous velocity.

00:10:18: Yeah.

00:10:18: But it also reveals where the opportunity is for investors.

00:10:21: The opportunity is in the gap.

00:10:22: Despite that growth, there's still a one point four billion dollar funding gap compared to say, series B financing in the US.

00:10:30: So strong at the seed stage.

00:10:32: but a need for late-stage growth equity to scale those regional champions.

00:10:36: Exactly.

00:10:37: That Series B gap is a huge signal to global growth investors, and the potential is there.

00:10:42: Just look at the story of Move, the mobility fintech from Lagos.

00:10:46: Right.

00:10:46: Ibrahim Sagna and Dina Kamal detailed how they've scaled globally across five continents.

00:10:52: It shows the ambition is there.

00:10:54: We're also seeing VCs getting more specialized.

00:10:57: Jan Lozek noted that deep tech demands more expertise and much longer time horizons than a typical sauce model.

00:11:04: You need patient tailored capital.

00:11:06: And private equity is changing too.

00:11:08: Right.

00:11:08: Sarah Ronas said the focus is shifting to applying tech where the region has a competitive edge fintech, prop tech climate solutions.

00:11:15: Which is why James Varela summed it up so well.

00:11:17: The PE narrative is no longer by fixed cell.

00:11:21: It's bi-transform embed.

00:11:23: It's a structural re-engineering of the business, not just a financial flip.

00:11:26: So this whole deep dive really confirms one powerful insight.

00:11:30: FI-IX showed the world has entered what Nedam Bolzon called the era of execution.

00:11:35: Where

00:11:35: capital, technology, and purpose all have to converge to get results.

00:11:39: Eric Lausanne put it perfectly.

00:11:41: The kingdom isn't just attracting investment, it's architecting the future of it.

00:11:45: And the biggest takeaway, the thing for professionals to really focus on comes from Amith Jade.

00:11:51: He said the most successful leaders in the next decade will be the ones who can bridge that gap between purpose, plus innovation, plus capital, plus policy.

00:12:00: That integration is the new roadmap.

00:12:02: If you enjoyed this episode, new episodes drop every two weeks.

00:12:05: Also, check out our other editions on private equity, strategy and consulting, venture capital, and M&A.

00:12:11: Thanks for tuning in to The Deep Dive.

00:12:13: Be sure to follow and subscribe wherever you get your content.

00:12:16: We'll see you next time.