05/11/2025

BIZ & FINANCE WEDNESDAY | NOV 5, 2025

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Microsoft’s UAE investment to hit US$15b by end-2029

Norway wealth fund says no to Musk’s US$1 trillion pay plan OSLO: Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, said yesterday it would vote against ratifying Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s proposed compensation package, containing shares worth up to US$1 trillion (RM4.2 trillion), at an annual general meeting this week. Investors in the electric-vehicle maker will decide on Nov 6 whether to approve the package, likely the largest-ever CEO compensation agreement, which critics have called excessive. So far, Norway’s wealth fund is the largest non-Tesla investor to disclose how it plans to vote. The next-largest to do so, Baron Capital, on Monday said it would back Musk’s pay package. The company’s largest institutional investors, including BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street, have yet to disclose their voting plans. Tesla’s board is pushing for shareholders to approve the plan, with Chair Robyn Denholm warning last week that Musk could leave the company if the deal is rejected. While the package could grant stock worth up to US$1 trillion over 10 years, the cost of those shares at the time of the award will be deducted, making the value to Musk slightly lower, at up to US$878 billion, according to a Reuters analysis. “While we appreciate the significant value created under Mr Musk’s visionary role, we are concerned about the total size of the award, dilution, and lack of mitigation of key person risk – consistent with our views on executive compensation,“ Norges Bank Investment Management said on its website. The fund, Tesla’s seventh-biggest owner with a 1.12% stake worth US$17 billion, also voted “no” to Musk’s previous compensation plan, drawing a sharp response from the CEO, who turned down an invitation to a conference in Oslo. Various groups have tried and failed to block record payouts to Musk, including a US$56 billion compensation plan for 2018 that investors reapproved last year, though legal challenges remain. NBIM yesterday also said it would vote against two out of three Tesla directors who are up for re election, declining to back board veterans Kathleen Wilson-Thompson and Ira Ehrenpreis while supporting Joe Gebbia, who joined in 2022. The US$2.1 trillion Norwegian fund also said it would vote against Tesla’s proposed general stock compensation plan, which is intended for all employees and can also be used by the board to benefit Musk. Tesla says its CEO will earn “nothing” unless the company’s market value grows substantially and that the maximum award is only paid if the group reaches several milestones, most notably a market value of US$8.5 trillion, a near six-fold increase. Yet Musk could still reap tens of billions of dollars without meeting many of those targets, according to experts in executive pay, company valuations, robotics and automotive trends. – Reuters canal less. Earlier this month, the canal launched a competitive process to select companies to build and operate two new ports within the Canal Zone, hoping to have them ready in 2029. The pre qualification process is expected to be completed early next year, Vasquez said during the conference. In 2031, Panama could see the completion of the ambitious Rio Indio reservoir project to secure freshwater for the canal, which is progressing slowly, Vasquez said. The reservoir is part of three key infrastructure projects that will collectively require US$8.5 billion in investment in 10 years.

ADIPEC energy conference in Abu Dhabi. Microsoft invested US$1.5 billion last year to take a minority stake in Abu Dhabi AI company G42, giving the US tech giant a board seat, which is filled by Smith. G42’s past ties to China, however, have attracted scrutiny in Washington, due to concerns over Beijing’s access to advanced semiconductors, including via third parties like the UAE. G42 said last year it was working with US partners and the Emirati government to comply with AI development and deployment standards. Smith said G42 had made “enormous progress” in implementing the systems required to comply with US law. Asked whether the Abu Dhabi firm would obtain direct access to the most advanced US chips, he said he thought that would be “part of G42’s future.” Smith said in a separate blog post on Microsoft’s website on Monday that licences approved last year by the Biden administration allowed Microsoft to accumulate the equivalent of 21,500 Nvidia A100 GPUs in the UAE, based on a combination of A100, H100, and H200 chips. The White House in September cleared for export an amount equivalent to a further 60,400 A100 chips, involving Nvidia’s more advanced GB300 GPUs, he said, after the administration revised technology safeguards.

US House of Representatives Select Com mittee on China chairman John Moolenaar, a Republican from Michigan, expressed concern about the deal. “As the committee’s work has shown, the UAE and China maintain a close technology partnership, and this past spring UAE officials deepened those ties with a visit to China,” Moolenaar said in a statement. “I welcome the prospect of closer US technology collaboration with the UAE—but it needs to come with the Emiratis verifiably and irreversibly choosing America.” The chips covered by the latest approvals have not yet been shipped, but that will happen “in a matter of months,” Smith told Reuters, adding they will be used in its own data centres in the UAE. Microsoft will have invested US$7.3 billion in the UAE between 2023 and the end of this year. A further US$7.9 billion is earmarked to be spent between next year and the end of 2029, including for the ongoing and planned expansion of AI and cloud infrastructure, he said in his blog post. None of the US$15.2 billion investment disclosed on Monday will involve Stargate UAE, the first phase of one of the world’s largest planned data centre hubs. That project, located in Abu Dhabi, was announced during a Gulf visit by US President Donald Trump in May.

ABU DHABI: Microsoft plans to bring its total investment in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to US$15 billion (RM63 billion) by the end of 2029 and has the Trump administration’s approval to export Nvidia chips for its data centres there, a senior executive told Reuters on Monday. The UAE has been spending billions of dollars to become a global artificial intelligence hub, leveraging its close relations with Washington to secure access to US technology, including some of the world’s most advanced chips. “The biggest share of (the investment), by far, both looking back and looking forward, is the expansion of AI data centres across the UAE,” Microsoft vice-chair and president Brad Smith said in an interview. “From our perspective, it’s an investment that is critical to meet the demand here for the use of AI,” he said on the sidelines of the o US tech giant has Trump administration approval to export Nvidia chips for data centre there

The Panama Canal continues to play a vital role in global shipping as authorities plan major upgrades for the coming decade. – PEXELS PIX

Panama Canal banks on LPG traffic amid trade slowdown HOUSTON: The Panama Canal expects an increase in transits of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) vessels and carriers of some agricultural commodities to help it compensate for a reduction in world trade next year, the waterway’s chief told Reuters on Monday. the administrator of the Panama Canal Authority, said on the sidelines of the Houston International Maritime Conference. in 2030, which would help the waterway expand that market. Many US companies have shown interest, Vasquez said. He also said there is a change in some grain flows, including Chinese purchases of soybeans, that could benefit the canal.

The imposition of US tariffs and trade policy changes pushed an increase in canal traffic, particularly in the third quarter of the year, with many shippers sending cargoes well ahead of the Christmas season to avoid more adverse measures. The canal’s share of US LPG exports to Asia has recovered to more than 95%, from 80% in 2023 2024, when a severe drought forced passage restrictions and triggered delays, Vasquez said. The Authority is seeking interest from companies in building a 2-million-barrel-per-day LPG pipeline in the canal zone, to be inaugurated

The world’s second-busiest interoceanic waterway registered a 14% revenue increase to US$5.7 billion (RM24 billion) in the fiscal year ended in September and saw 19% more transits, with LPG vessels and container ships moving more cargoes through the canal that connects the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. “LPG is a product that will be even more valuable in the next 20, 25 years,“ Ricaurte Vasquez,

The Authority is banking on the higher LPG and agricultural transits to offset its forecast for a revenue decline this fiscal year as less cargo is traded. During that period, it expects total tonnage moving through the canal to fall by about 40 million metric tonnes from the 489 million tonnes moved in the previous fiscal year as some vessel categories, including LNG tankers, will use the