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00:03 Welcome back to the Founding Mina Show.

00:05 This is episode number two. They haven't

00:07 kicked us out the studio yet, which is

00:09 great.

00:10 >> Yep. We're just uh streaming 24/7.

00:12 >> Exactly. That's it. Yeah. Same t-shirts.

00:14 We're back here again. Um more news.

00:16 It's been another crazy crazy week,

00:18 hasn't it?

00:19 >> A lot happened in the region.

00:20 Absolutely.

00:21 >> A lot has happened. And um I mean, I

00:23 want to get into it, but I know we're

00:25 going to go through a nice little higher

00:27 or lower first, right? and you'll be

00:29 testing my knowledge straight away.

00:30 >> Yeah. How long have you been in the

00:31 region?

00:32 >> I've lived in Dubai 2 years now.

00:33 >> All right. So, let's let's test the your

00:36 knowledge and see if it actually matches

00:37 all of that. The concept is higher or

00:40 lower. So, I'm giving you a statement

00:42 and you have to tell me if it's higher

00:44 or if it's lower. So, let's get into it.

00:46 Let's

00:46 >> do it.

00:48 >> Was the Burke Kalifa construction cost

00:50 higher or lower than $2 billion?

00:54 >> I'm going to go with higher. I reckon it

00:58 was probably closer to about four

01:01 billion.

01:02 >> It was lower.

01:03 >> What?

01:04 >> Yeah. 1.5

01:05 >> 1.5 billion.

01:06 >> Bear in mind this was 2008 2009. So I

01:09 think adjusted for inflation it would be

01:11 like close to three. Okay.

01:12 >> But uh but it's still incredibly cheap

01:14 compared to other buildings. I mean it's

01:15 like 160 floors.

01:17 >> That's true. 1.5 billion seems

01:18 affordable. Yeah. Exactly as you're as

01:20 you're saying it.

01:21 >> Absolutely. I mean some companies are

01:24 raising that for seed round now. So

01:25 >> that's true. They could build their own

01:27 birch. Yeah. Now talk about towers. So

01:30 you know that Saudi is building another

01:32 tower in Jedha which will be taller. Um

01:35 so is the future tower height higher or

01:39 lower than 1 kilometer?

01:41 >> It's higher.

01:44 Yeah, it must be higher.

01:46 >> Yeah, slightly higher. Yeah. Yeah. Uh

01:48 the exact height is not actually we

01:50 don't know yet, but they want to go

01:52 above the the 1 kilometer. Uh 1,000

01:55 mters, man. It's going to be about 200 m

01:58 higher than the than the BC Khalifa.

02:00 >> Okay. Someone who hates heights, that's

02:01 my worst nightmare. I will not be

02:02 visiting.

02:03 >> All right. One closer to your field. So,

02:06 the number of series A rounds in the

02:09 Mina region in the first half of 2026.

02:11 >> Okay.

02:12 >> Was it higher or lower than 50?

02:14 >> Sadly, I think it's going to be lower

02:16 than 50. It was a tricky start to 2026

02:19 for obvious reasons.

02:20 >> Yeah, it was 30. uh across the whole

02:23 region it feels like a pretty low number

02:25 >> and if you compare to the US 1,200.

02:28 >> Really? Wow. Yeah. But

02:30 >> I know we can't compare. I'm just saying

02:32 it's a benchmark. Um yeah,

02:34 >> that's an interesting stat.

02:36 >> All right. I know you love conferences.

02:38 So, how many conferences per year in

02:40 Dubai? Is it higher or lower than 500?

02:43 And by conferences, I don't mean side

02:45 events or little, you know, get

02:47 together. I mean conferences that have

02:49 more than 1,000 attendees. So, proper

02:52 events.

02:52 >> Genuinely, it feels way more than 500.

02:55 I'm going to say there's like triple. I

02:56 feel I feel like Yeah, substantially

02:59 more than 500.

03:00 >> Actually, it's just over 500. 510. Uh

03:03 that's like almost two a day if you

03:05 count, you know, just like

03:07 >> open days.

03:08 >> Well, yeah, exactly.

03:09 >> That's that's a insane amount.

03:11 >> Yeah, that's way too much. Um what are

03:13 they doing conferences for?

03:15 >> I think it's attendees of conferences

03:18 going to other conferences. You know,

03:19 I've been to some events where you have

03:21 more speakers than attendees, which is a

03:23 little bit sad.

03:24 >> Yeah. Yeah.

03:26 >> All right. So, you also know I'm I'm

03:27 guessing that Dubai is building a new

03:29 mall that'll be bigger than Dubai Mall,

03:31 right? Dubai Square Mall. Um, will the

03:34 number of shops in that mall be higher

03:36 or lower than 1,200?

03:39 >> 1,200 shops in one mall.

03:41 >> That's a crazy stat in its own right.

03:43 >> Surely it can't be more than 1,200.

03:45 >> It's more 1500.

03:47 >> You're joking. 1500 shops. Yep.

03:49 >> Wow.

03:50 >> Yep. It's actually quite the Dubai mall

03:52 already has over a thousand, but I think

03:54 this pushes it to the to the next level.

03:56 >> That is crazy.

03:57 >> All right. And the last one. So, the the

03:59 amount of capital invested by all the

04:01 sovereign wealth fund uh in the first

04:03 half of 2026, was it higher or lower

04:06 than $50 billion?

04:08 >> 50 billion is a crazy number as well. I

04:11 would say it's it's got to be around

04:12 that. I would say it's close to that if

04:14 not maybe slightly more with the AI

04:17 deals that they've been doing.

04:18 >> 70 billion.

04:19 >> 70 billion. Wow. How many of those deals

04:23 are in AI? Do you know roughly as a

04:25 percentage?

04:26 >> I mean, in terms of size, I think it's

04:28 it's um it's going to be more than 50%,

04:31 because I can already, you know, the

04:33 OpenAI deal I think was 30. Anthropic

04:36 was close to 30 as well. So yeah, it's

04:38 it's mainly AI and it's driven by um you

04:41 know PIF obviously MGX here, Mubadala.

04:44 So yeah, those guys, you know, they

04:46 don't don't mess around when they have

04:48 conviction.

04:49 >> No,

04:50 >> those are some big checks. Wow. Okay.

04:52 >> All right. I think you got half right.

04:54 So it's it's okay. I do better next

04:56 time.

04:57 >> It's a reasonable score. I'll take it.

04:59 >> Thank you, mate. Well, there we go. Um