Gulf Business’ flagship annual Arab Power List has always been more than a ranking. It is a statement — about where influence in the Arab world sits, how it moves, and what it increasingly means on the global stage. This year’s edition, the 100 Most Powerful Arabs 2026, makes that case more compellingly than ever. Eight new entrants join the list this year, a cohort that reflects the full breadth of what Arab influence looks like in 2026.

The list spans the full range of sectors driving Arab influence globally: energy, finance, aviation, real estate, telecoms, logistics, culture, sport, fashion, entertainment, and technology among them, with women accounting for 22 of the 100 entries, the strongest female representation the list has ever seen.

The UAE accounts for the largest share of residences at 50, with Saudi Arabia second at 16, underscoring the two countries’ consolidated position at the centre of regional power.

Rated on financial capital, human capital, expansion plans, and personal fame, the 2026 list captures a region whose leaders are no longer simply managing wealth — they are actively reshaping global industries, redirecting capital at historic scale, and ensuring that the Arab world’s voice carries further than it ever has.

Most organisations sit on mountains of internal information that they never actually use. Whether it involves financial metrics, marketing performance or team productivity, every business activity creates a tangible record.

InsightGEN is an AI-driven data analysis solution that translates natural language queries into precise, actionable business insights, developed by Orbitae, AI by SDG Group.

Beyond retrieval: the reasoning engine

The key differentiator for InsightGEN is its evolution from a simple “translator” to a sophisticated reasoning engine. While standard tools rely on basic “text-to-SQL” to return raw numbers, InsightGEN utilises agentic architectures and advanced reasoning models to move towards “text-to-logic”. This transition from reporting what happened to explaining why is enabled by:

• Custom semantic layer: Built directly over your data, ensuring the engine operates on a single, governed source of truth.
• Business ontologies: These provide inherent industry knowledge, ensuring the AI understands specific company context, terminology and KPIs.
• Business recipes: These proprietary sets of instructions enable the engine to replicate the analytical paths of human experts. Instead of a generic output stating “sales are down 5 per cent”, InsightGEN provides a strategic narrative: “sales are down 5 per cent, primarily due to a stockout in the northern region, despite a 2 per cent rise in demand”.

Tangible benefits and strategic growth

• Simplicity: Removes technical barriers, allowing any professional to access valuable insights without advanced expertise.
• Operational efficiency: Automates the assembly and formatting of reports, freeing analysts to focus on strategic work.
• Mitigating “brain drain”: By codifying analytical logic, the “way of thinking” becomes a permanent corporate asset, even if key personnel leave.
• Improved results: Delivers relevant, contextualised information that enables companies to make well-founded decisions and optimise performance.

Delivery modes: insight where you need it

InsightGEN ensures consistency across three distinct delivery modes while maintaining enterprise transparency:

• The conversational assistant (pull mode): On-demand Q&A via chat, enabling operational teams to drill down into specific problems using natural language.
• The automated reporter (push mode): Scheduled generation of narrative-driven, corporate-styled reports (PowerPoint, Word, PDF) for senior leadership.
• The embedded advisor (contextual mode): Integrated directly into existing BI tools such as Power BI or Tableau, providing real-time explainability alongside dashboards.

Enhancing operational intelligence

InsightGEN simplifies how companies manage data, transforming it into strategic, measurable decisions in real time. Another key differentiator is its ability to understand businesses from within and adapt to specific needs, delivering a personalised and user-friendly experience. By treating AI as an active member of the team, companies can unlock the next level of business potential.

Mubadala Investment Company will invest $325m in Ørsted’s Hornsea 3 project, which is expected to become the world’s largest single offshore wind farm once completed.

Mubadala is investing alongside a consortium led by funds managed by Apollo Global Management, which also includes Universities Superannuation Scheme and La Caisse.

The investment follows Apollo-managed funds’ acquisition of a 50 per cent stake in the joint venture holding Hornsea 3, while Ørsted will retain the remaining 50 per cent stake and continue to lead the project’s development, construction and operations.

Located off the coast of Norfolk in the UK, Hornsea 3 is Ørsted’s third gigawatt-scale offshore wind project in the Hornsea zone in the North Sea.

Project to power 3.3 million homes in the UK

Once completed, the project is expected to deliver 2.9 gigawatts of capacity, enough renewable electricity to power more than 3.3 million homes in the UK.

The company said the investment aligns with growing demand for renewable power in Britain, which has set a target of up to 50 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2030 as part of its net-zero ambitions. Electricity demand in the country is expected to more than double by 2060, driven by changes across transport, heating and digital infrastructure.

“This investment reflects Mubadala’s approach of investing alongside experienced partners in high-quality infrastructure assets that support the energy transition while delivering long-term value,” Karim El Jazzar said in a statement.

Adam Petrie said Mubadala’s investment highlighted the scale and long-term potential of the project.

The deal expands the company’s partnership with Apollo and adds to its renewable energy portfolio, which includes investments in Tata Power Renewables, Skyborn Renewables, PAG Renewables and Rezolv Energy.

Financial systems appear faster than ever, yet the underlying movement of money has changed far less.

Payments are authorised within seconds, yet settlement, the point at which value actually transfers between institutions, can still take days. Beneath the surface, the system that moves money has not kept pace with the economy it serves.

Over the past decade, the industry has focused on optimising the surface, with faster payments, better interfaces, and fintech platforms making money movement feel instant. Beneath that layer, however, the core architecture has barely changed. Settlement still happens in batches, liquidity remains fragmented across jurisdictions, and capital is positioned in advance to manage timing rather than deployed dynamically. This is where the real constraint sits.

As businesses operate across time zones and make decisions continuously, the gap between how the economy functions and how financial systems move value is becoming more visible. The shift now underway is not about replacing the system, but upgrading it by introducing new infrastructure alongside traditional rails.

These systems are not in competition. Traditional infrastructure continues to provide trust, compliance, and regulatory oversight, while new rails introduce speed, programmability, and the ability to move value more continuously. Together, they form a more efficient financial stack.

This transition is already visible.

Stablecoins, increasingly used as settlement instruments, now process trillions of dollars in monthly volume. While still largely driven by trading activity, their role is expanding into payments, treasury, and settlement use cases, signalling that new forms of settlement infrastructure are gaining traction beyond crypto-native environments. The question is no longer whether these rails will be adopted, but how they can be integrated efficiently and within a regulated framework.

As Phil Sham, co-founder and CEO of Aquanow, explains, “We are seeing institutions across payments, logistics, and financial services looking to integrate new rails to enable more continuous movement of value. In practice, this depends on the availability of on- and off-ramps, robust compliance frameworks, and seamless integration into existing systems. The technology enables the shift, but reliable infrastructure makes it usable.”

This is where the UAE has established a clear lead.

Rather than treating digital assets as a separate category, the country has built a regulatory environment that allows them to operate within established financial frameworks. Through ADGM, VARA, and the Central Bank, clear pathways have been defined for issuance, distribution, and use, creating the conditions for institutional adoption.

This approach is also shaping how digital money itself is designed. The recent launch of USDU, a fully backed USD stablecoin issued within ADGM and aligned with UAE regulatory frameworks, reflects a more mature phase of the market, where instruments are built for institutional settlement, with supervision, reserve transparency, and integration at their core.

The capabilities are now in place. The focus is shifting to connectivity and usability and this is where infrastructure providers play a critical role. “Aquanow,” continues Sham, “operates as a connective layer between traditional financial institutions and digital asset infrastructure, providing the liquidity and rails needed to integrate these capabilities into existing systems. This allows institutions to upgrade how value moves without rebuilding core infrastructure or altering their regulatory posture.”

With time the distinction between traditional and digital systems is becoming less relevant, while the ability to connect infrastructure and move liquidity efficiently is becoming central. Finance is not being replaced. It is being re-engineered around how value actually needs to move for today’s financial markets.