FII Miami to Riyadh

8 years, 2,000+ sessions, 50,000 attendees, 1,000+ speakers, and 1 unifying theme: Impact on Humanity. The Future Investment Initiative (FII) is a global nonprofit dedicated to fostering great minds from around the world and turning ideas into real-world solutions across four critical areas: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Education, Healthcare, and Sustainability. Run by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, we have been fortunate to be regular participants and contributors to the FII ecosystem in recent years – since 2021 we have participated in 7 FII Summits spanning New York, Miami, and Riyadh, and since 2023 we have served on the “Advisory Board” of the conference itself, working hand-in-hand with the Institute to craft impactful programming led by the world’s brightest.  

With the latest FII PRIORITY Summit in Miami in our recent rear-view mirror, and our sights now set on FII9 this October in Riyadh, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on this powerful ecosystem, and some big ideas we’ve gotten to take on with the Institute this past year: 

1. Can Current AI Infrastructure Keep Up with the Demands of Next-Generation Technology? 

2. The Middle East is Preparing (and Poised) for a Future Tech Ecosystem 

3. The Evolution of Alternatives: Trends in the Tokenization of Real-World Assets 

1. Can Current AI Infrastructure Keep Up with the Demands of Next-Generation Technology? From FII PRIORITY Miami 2025. 
The latest FII PRIORITY Summit in Miami – spanning February 19-21, 2025 – convened some of the brightest minds in artificial intelligence and digital infrastructure to tackle a pressing question: Can today’s AI infrastructure keep pace with the rapidly evolving demands of next-generation AI technologies? 

Moderated by Sir Martin Sorrell of WPP plc, the panel featured Sam alongside Sarah Friar (OpenAI), George Nazi (Saudi Company for AI), Rajit Nanda (DataVolt), and Christine Shim (IBM). The discussion spanned compute capacity, scalability, sustainability, and the evolving role of AI in our daily lives. The consensus? While the challenge is immense, the opportunity is even greater – provided we take a thoughtful, long-term approach to building the necessary infrastructure. 

AI’s Insatiable Demand for Infrastructure 

The conversation kicked off with a sobering assessment from George Nazi, who emphasized that current infrastructure is already struggling to keep up. “Simply speaking, not enough capacity,” he stated plainly, pointing to Moore’s Law and historical trends in telecommunications capacity. He explained that just as internet speeds and data usage have skyrocketed over the past two decades, AI’s compute demands will continue to expand exponentially. 

“There will always be evolutions in data centers, but that shouldn’t be mistaken for having enough capacity,” Nazi explained. AI infrastructure requires continuous upgrades, and if these investments lag behind AI’s growth, bottlenecks could significantly slow innovation. 

Echoing this urgency, Rajit Nanda of DataVolt compared AI infrastructure to a nation’s transportation system. "You can build the world’s best auto manufacturing company, but if you don’t build the roads, those vehicles will never leave the factory," he warned. AI applications -- whether advanced natural language processing, real-time machine learning models, or AI-driven automation – all require a robust digital highway to function at scale. Without the right infrastructure, AI’s full potential could remain a theoretical promise rather than a practical reality. 

Scaling AI Infrastructure: A Massive Investment Push 
To prevent AI innovation from outpacing deployment capabilities, some companies are making historic investments in AI-focused infrastructure. DataVolt recently announced a $5 billion commitment to AI-specific data centers, including a 1.5-gigawatt facility in Saudi Arabia’s Neom project—one of the largest AI-dedicated data centers in the world. “This facility is 100% dedicated to AI workloads,” Nanda said, emphasizing that AI’s data needs differ from traditional cloud computing. Unlike conventional data centers, which handle general cloud storage and computing, AI-focused facilities must support immense real-time processing power, high-bandwidth networking, and optimized energy usage. 

Christine Shim of IBM added that investment in AI infrastructure is not just about expansion – it’s also about sustainability. She pointed to IBM’s efforts to make AI data centers more energy efficient, emphasizing that “we must prioritize energy-efficient AI operations to ensure long-term sustainability.” The environmental impact of AI data centers is a growing concern, with models like OpenAI’s GPT-4 requiring thousands of high-performance GPUs, consuming vast amounts of electricity. Finding ways to reduce the carbon footprint of AI infrastructure will be critical to its long-term viability. 

A Future Where AI is Embedded in Everything 
The discussion then turned to the transformative potential of AI across industries, and how infrastructure investments must align with real-world applications. Sam captured the scope of AI’s future role, stating, “We’re heading into a world where all the objects we interact with are imbued with machine intelligence, and we will have to create technologies to meet the usage demands… we’re just now scratching the surface of how AI will integrate into every part of our lives.” 

Indeed, AI is no longer confined to research labs or enterprise applications – it is becoming part of our everyday environment. From AI-powered personal assistants and automated supply chains to autonomous vehicles and intelligent healthcare diagnostics, the need for low-latency, high-speed computing will only intensify. Sarah Friar of OpenAI provided compelling real-world examples of AI’s emerging capabilities. 

“In healthcare, AI models are helping radiologists detect diseases faster and more accurately than ever before,” Friar noted, pointing to AI-driven medical imaging as a use case that depends on powerful infrastructure. Similarly, she highlighted AI’s role in finance, where it is being used for real-time fraud detection and risk analysis, requiring near-instantaneous processing speeds. 

Another example Friar provided was AI-driven customer service, where companies are deploying increasingly sophisticated virtual assistants capable of natural, human-like conversations. These systems require massive computational power to analyze user input, access relevant data, and generate contextually appropriate responses – all within milliseconds. Without the right infrastructure, AI’s ability to deliver these breakthroughs would be severely limited. 

AI Infrastructure: A Global Challenge with Regional Approaches 
They acknowledged that AI infrastructure is not a one-size-fits-all challenge. Different regions are approaching the problem in distinct ways, based on their economic priorities, regulatory environments, and access to resources. Friar noted that governments and private enterprises must collaborate to ensure infrastructure growth is aligned with AI’s broader societal impact. “The question isn’t just whether we can build enough capacity – it’s also about building AI in a way that benefits everyone,” she said. This means balancing AI’s computational needs with concerns around privacy, security, and equitable access. 

The AI revolution is already underway, but its success hinges on our ability to scale infrastructure efficiently, sustainably, and strategically. The challenges are significant, from the sheer computational power required to the environmental impact of large-scale AI data centers. That said, the group landed in a place of cautious optimism that with thoughtful investments and a long-term perspective, we can build the infrastructure needed to support AI’s full potential. 

Sir Martin Sorrell closed on a thoughtful note: “We are at the forefront of a technological revolution. The question isn’t whether AI will change everything – it’s whether we’re prepared for it.” 

2. The Middle East is Preparing (and Poised) for a Future Tech Ecosystem, from FII8 in Riyadh 
Back in October, FII tapped us alongside other leading fund managers to help craft and facilitate a new initiative: Investment Day. A full day focused on the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow, powered by the investors, founders, operators, and industry powers leading the way. Alongside Dr. Nabeel Koshak of Saudi Venture Capital, Tony Florence of New Enterprise Associates, and Klaus Hommels of Lakestar,  Sam addressed the expansive topic: “What role will MENA play as a hotspot for the next phase of technological disruption?” 

Dr. Nabeel cited Vision 2030, and the mandate’s emphasis on the importance of startups, as the foundational driving force behind Saudi’s recent startup boom. He noted the jump in capital going to new, Saudi-based ventures from $60M to $1.4B USD between the 5 short years between 2018 and 2023, helping Saudi jump from #4 firmly to #1 in the scale of startup investments regionally. Global investors such as Wellington, Sequoia, TPG, and General Atlantic “have taken notice”, Dr. Nabeel continued, making investments and even opening offices in Saudi, bolstering the foundations for domestic startup success. 

Sam agreed that Saudi has all the necessary ingredients to establish “the next unicorn”, with “the promise of being a country with enough people… and tremendous top-down support to build and successfully scale domestic business”. Sure enough, the 2023 census showed that 63% of the 32.2 million Saudis are under the age of 30, and this young, growing population is hungry for diverse employment opportunities beyond traditional, energy-based industry. “Saudi has the opportunity to start from ‘full cloth’ in supporting entrepreneurs… from both an investment and regulatory point of view,” he shared, citing the confluence of Saudi capital with efficient government mandates promoting innovation where other countries may otherwise be delayed by red tape. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, AI was brought up as both a transformative technology as well as a vehicle for tech-focused job growth. Sam remarked that there’s an open question whether more ‘early stage’ VCs and investors will ultimately be capable of successfully supporting AI advancements given the intensive capital requirements as progress is made. That said, he noted that there remain real opportunities for “early-stage investors in… picks and shovels-type businesses around data” and that “quality data” especially that which is “regionally or culturally significant” as well as sector-specific, will be essential for the ultimate utility and value created by these powerful AI tools. 

With the capital, population, and ambition to transform historically oil-centric economies, and when considering Sam’s insight that the true value unlock of ‘AI’ writ large will be predicated on the quality inputs of regional and sector-specific data, it becomes clear why groups like UBS project that the “digital economy in the MENA region could increase from $180 billion in 2022 to $780 billion in 2030” reflecting 20% annual growth. 

Like the expansive domestic mandates of Vision 2030, the effects of this digital growth will be multifaceted, spanning core AI/infrastructure businesses but also amplifying opportunities in media and entertainment. For example, our portfolio company Hyperspace (and their recent growth in Saudi specifically) is a testament to this opportunity – as the growth of the MENA ‘digital economy’ continues to drive regional adoption and consumption of digital media. Core to our thesis, Hyperspace is at the forefront of integrating digital experiences with traditional retail environments, with parks designed to attract a tech-savvy audience with a convergence of physical and digital experiences. 

3. The Evolution of Alternatives Series: Trends in the Tokenization of Real-World Assets, from FII8 in Riyadh 
While in Riyadh we also crafted a workshop focused on the tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs): the process of creating a unique digital representation of an asset on a blockchain network.  

In a session moderated by Sam, the benefits – including programmability, composability, liquidity, and enhanced transparency – and the challenges – including sustained adoption, revenue cannibalization, and potential user experience dilution – were discussed and debated by Andrew Durgee of Republic (a Galaxy Interactive portfolio company), Don Cornwell of Dynasty Equity Partners, Hua Fung The of ONE Championship, and Eric Anziani of Crypto.com.  

The setup: opportunities are arriving across asset classes, with unique moments in gaming, digital media, and sports – coupled with core blockchain technologies that are now capable of accelerating transactions and ownership in an automated and immutable fashion – offering mass onramps for audiences to financially participate in the properties and experiences that mean the most to them. Don acknowledged the compelling novelty of “owning a piece of your favorite [sports] team” or film franchise, but that tokenization of entertainment-specific RWAs and IP has often led not to closer engagements between creator/team and fans, but to “speculative trading… which can turn someone off when they feel the barrier to entry is too high, or the transactions are too volatile”. 

Others pushed back, suggesting that, designed properly, RWA tokens would reflect sincere community interest in a property, versus another forum for day trading. “One measure of successful adoption,” Andrew noted in agreement with Eric, “will be when blockchain has a billion-plus users who do not even realize they are using the technology”, wherein user experience is paramount and aided by blockchain’s immutability, to allow ‘ownership’ where it could not previously exit, technologically and logistically. According to Citi Group, this kind of adoption is likely to be driven by the adoption of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) by large central banks as well as tokenized assets in gaming and blockchain-based payments on social media.  

By 2030, up to $5 trillion of CBDCs could be circulating in major economies in the world, half of which could be linked to distributed ledger technology. Tokenization of financial and real-work assets could be the killer use case driving blockchain breakthrough with tokenization expected to grow by a factor of 80x in private markets and reach up to almost $4 trillion in value by 2030. 

Especially given the UAE’s “favorable stance towards cryptocurrency, innovation, and tax incentives”, MENA will almost certainly play a role in the tokenization of RWA’s growth. In 2023 Abu Dhabi-based Hub71 launched a $2B initiative to support web3 startups in the region, and more than $1B has been invested in the creation of an immersive digital twin for NEOM in Saudi Arabia – which itself is poised to offer “immersive entertainment, a social platform, and a built-in digital marketplace for crypto and NFTs”.