DIWAN

Studies & Intelligence

Intelligence with context. Foresight that shapes decisions. The DIWAN register publishes commissioned studies, briefings, and market intelligence across sectors and jurisdictions.

Briefings room Membership

StreamsAll Trade & Capital 79 Law & Regulation 46 Country Files 196 Demand & Buyers 45 Platforms & Growth 180 Brand & Positioning 4 Commodities 23 Business 69 Technology 188 Cyber Security 4

GeographyAll

United Arab Emirates 49

Antigua and Barbuda 1

Bosnia and Herzegovina 1

Brazil 1

British Virgin Islands 1

Central African Republic 1

Northern Mariana Islands 1

Syrian Arab Republic 1

Trinidad and Tobago 1

Tunisia 1

Turkey 1

Turkmenistan 1

Turks and Caicos Islands 1

Law & Regulation

7 of 223 items

Photo · janith devinda / Unsplash

RNK-DIWAN-074Legal review

LEX · 01 OCT 2026

What the Gulf Actually Asks: Incorporation, Directors' Duties and Exit Costs in the GCC

A demand-driven legal review answering the questions readers put to the platform most — mainland vs ADGM vs DIFC, what boards owe, and what employment exits cost

Reader demand on the platform clusters on three questions: where to incorporate in the GCC, what directors owe once incorporated, and what employment exits cost. This study answers all three — a six-door comparison of UAE mainland, ADGM, DIFC, Saudi Arabia, QFC and Bahrain/Oman; the ADGM directors'-duties framework in plain language; and the notice and end-of-service formulas for DIFC, ADGM and the UAE mainland — with indicative costs and a decision playbook by profile.

≈46%SHARE OF READER QUESTIONS ABOUT FORMATION & JURISDICTION CHOICE

≈ USD 1,000ADGM TECH START-UP LICENCE, PER YEAR

14 daysDIFC NOTICE FOR MOST TENURES (3 MONTHS–5 YEARS)

Members

15 minRead →

Photo · Unsplash

RNK-DIWAN-050Legal review

LEX · 05 SEPT 2026

Where the Gulf Incorporates — The Formation Edition

The GCC's dominant legal question, answered for 2026: mainland vs financial centre vs Saudi entry — venues, costs, tax and the new rulebook

Nearly half of everything readers ask a GCC legal platform is one question in different clothes: where should this company live? This study answers it for 2026 — a year in which DIFC, ADGM and the QFC all posted record intake simultaneously, the UAE mainland gained venture-style share structures and statutory redomiciliation, Saudi Arabia replaced foreign-investment licensing with registration, and a 15% domestic minimum tax quietly harmonised the top end of the market. Includes a venue scoreboard, cost and tax tables, the 2026 legal rails, and a decision playbook for five founder archetypes.

≈45%SHARE OF PLATFORM READER DEMAND THAT IS FORMATION / JURISDICTION CHOICE

8,844DIFC ACTIVE COMPANIES AT END-2025 (RECORD YEAR: 1,924 NEW, +28%)

13,353ADGM ACTIVE LICENCES IN Q1 2026 (OPERATIONAL ENTITIES +34.5% Y/Y)

Members

14 min$149Read →

Photo · Alexander Faé / Unsplash

CMD-DIWAN-007Feasibility

FORFAIT · 26 JUL 2026

The Regulator Shopping Guide: Fintech Licensing Across ADGM, DIFC, SAMA and QFC

Capital floors, real timelines and a decision matrix for payments, lending and digital-asset builders choosing a Gulf licence in 2026

There is no GCC passport: each licence buys one market, and the capital floors for a payments permission span roughly 150x between the cheapest and costliest sourced track (AED 100,000 for a CBUAE Category IV permission to AED 15 million for a stored-value facility). This study benchmarks the five regulators a Gulf fintech founder can realistically shop - ADGM FSRA, DIFC DFSA, SAMA, QFCRA and CBUAE - across licensing tracks for payments, lending and crypto, with sourced fees, capital requirements and authorisation timelines, and closes with a decision matrix mapping seven common business models to a primary and fallback regulator.

~150xSPAN OF PAYMENTS-TRACK MINIMUM CAPITAL ACROSS THE FIVE REGULATORS (CBUAE CAT IV TO UAE SVF)

4-6 monthsFASTEST SOURCED AUTHORISATION WINDOW (ADGM, SIMPLE PERMISSION)

USD 150,000DFSA APPLICATION FEE FOR A CRYPTO EXCHANGE OR CLEARING HOUSE LICENCE

Members

16 min$149Read →

Photo · Darcey Beau / Unsplash

CMD-DIWAN-002Feasibility

FORFAIT · 22 JUL 2026

Golden Visas and Beyond: The GCC Residency Economy in 2026

Benchmarking the UAE, Saudi and Qatar residency products against a closing West — and sizing the property, schooling, insurance and advisory economy they feed

Between October 2023 and February 2026 the investment-migration market inverted: Europe withdrew supply while the Gulf productized it. This study benchmarks five class-matched residency products, quantifies the residency-linked economy anchored by Dubai's AED 917bn property year, and maps the 12–24 month regulatory outlook and advisory funnel.

+9,800PROJECTED NET MILLIONAIRE INFLOW TO THE UAE IN 2025 — THE WORLD'S LARGEST (HENLEY & PARTNERS)

AED 917bnDUBAI REAL-ESTATE TRANSACTION VALUE IN 2025 ACROSS 270,000+ DEALS (DLD, VIA ZAWYA)

US$200kQATAR'S NEW PROPERTY-RESIDENCY FLOOR, ANNOUNCED OCTOBER 2025 — THE GCC'S CHEAPEST TICKET (IMI DAILY)

Open

13 min$149Read →

Photo · Roger Starnes Sr / Unsplash

CMD-DIWAN-001Feasibility

FORFAIT · 21 JUL 2026

The Gulf Data-Centre Race: Power, Chips and the New Digital Geography

Announced gigawatts, energized megawatts, and who actually captures the AI workloads

The Gulf has announced between 5 and 11 gigawatts of sovereign AI data-centre capacity while roughly 500 megawatts of third-party capacity is live today. This study benchmarks the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar against the two constrained incumbents — Singapore and Ireland — across capacity, power economics, latency position and regulation, and maps who captures which workloads to 2030.

5-11 GWSOVEREIGN AI CAMPUS CAPACITY ANNOUNCED ACROSS THE GCC

~500 MWGCC THIRD-PARTY DATA-CENTRE CAPACITY LIVE TODAY

~20%SHARE OF IRELAND'S METERED ELECTRICITY CONSUMED BY DATA CENTRES

Members

14 min▲ 1$149Read →

Photo · Jeffrey Eisen / Unsplash

CMD-DIWAN-010Masterplan

FORFAIT · 19 JUL 2026

Feeding the Gulf: The Food-Security Investment Map 2026–2030

Where sovereign capital is pulling private money — UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar benchmarked against the Netherlands and Israel, and the four-segment stack priced

Gulf food-security capital has moved upstream: over US$7 billion of verified sovereign and state-linked deals since 2020 now target the grain trade itself, while domestic production consolidates around what survives the desert P&L. This study benchmarks the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar against their two explicit reference systems — the Netherlands and Israel — then prices the four-segment investable stack: greenhouse-first controlled-environment agriculture, sovereign-anchored aquaculture, cash-yielding cold chain, and alternative proteins as a regulatory call option under Abu Dhabi's 2025 halal-integrated novel-food framework. It closes with the four co-investment structures that repeat across every disclosed transaction, and a candid risk register.

US$7bn+VERIFIED SOVEREIGN & STATE-LINKED AGRI-FOOD COMMITMENTS SINCE 2020

>90%SHARE OF UAE FOOD SUPPLY THAT IS IMPORTED

US$23.7BMEA COLD-CHAIN MARKET BY 2034 (FROM US$13.1B IN 2025)

Members

27 min$149Read →

Photo · Nick Fewings / Unsplash

CMD-DIWAN-006Masterplan

FORFAIT · 18 JUL 2026

Sovereign AI in the Gulf: Compute, Models and Talent — Who Actually Leads

Announcement versus deployment across the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar — benchmarked against Singapore and France

The Gulf sovereign-AI race has split into three distinct strategies: the UAE is deploying (a gigawatt-class campus physically under construction, chips export-licensed, a US$49bn infrastructure fund closed, and a continuous cadence of shipped models), Saudi Arabia is announcing at the largest scale (6.6GW by 2034) while execution is still early, and Qatar has pivoted to capital-as-strategy, buying exposure rather than building gigawatts. Benchmarked against Singapore and France, the UAE currently leads on execution score; the binding constraint for every programme is US chip-export approval, which has quietly become the real scoreboard.

200 MWFIRST GULF GIGAWATT-CLASS CAMPUS PHASE DUE ONLINE — STARGATE UAE, Q3 2026

6.6 GWHUMAIN ANNOUNCED COMPUTE TARGET BY 2034

US$49bnMGX FUND I CLOSED COMMITMENTS, JULY 2026

Members

15 min$149Read →

Studies & Intelligence

Law & Regulation

What the Gulf Actually Asks: Incorporation, Directors' Duties and Exit Costs in the GCC

Where the Gulf Incorporates — The Formation Edition

The Regulator Shopping Guide: Fintech Licensing Across ADGM, DIFC, SAMA and QFC

Golden Visas and Beyond: The GCC Residency Economy in 2026

The Gulf Data-Centre Race: Power, Chips and the New Digital Geography

Feeding the Gulf: The Food-Security Investment Map 2026–2030

Sovereign AI in the Gulf: Compute, Models and Talent — Who Actually Leads

Highlights

The Bahamas: Economic Outlook 2026

Estonia: Economic and Social Projections for 2026

Bulgaria: Economic and Social Projections for 2026

Monthly dossiers