00:00Kizma Murati is chief executive of Pareto Economics, a strategic intelligence firm that helps investors navigate global complexity.
00:08Great to have you on the program.
00:10So what do you think? Is the Iran conflict exposing the Gulf as a riskier bet for AI investments?
00:19Julia, this is very unusual for a country to target specifically and to also say that these are specifically legitimate
00:26targets for attack.
00:27Because typically in war, it's military on military and on military assets.
00:32So you have a military now that's saying commercial assets are a prime target.
00:36And I think this is being heard loud and clear from these companies and the capital that's going into these
00:41companies.
00:42And we're dealing with billions of dollars.
00:45So we have billions of dollars at risk and of the reputation risk if these things happen, if attacks actually
00:50happen.
00:51So I think they will continue to move on because we're talking about so much upside despite these risks.
00:56But I think they're moving at a slower pace, cautious of what the potential risks are for them.
01:01You talk about them moving at a slightly slower pace.
01:04But I wonder, have the tech giants underestimated the geopolitical risks of building AI hubs in the region?
01:12Look, right now, no attacks have happened on these assets.
01:16And I'm sure the CEOs of these companies are very closely aligned with Trump to make sure that he he
01:24ensures that these tech assets aren't prime targets for Iran.
01:28Now, what really controls whether they are or not is how successful these negotiations go between Trump and the Iranian
01:35regime.
01:35And if Trump can make a case against bombing these assets in return for something else, because that's the only
01:42way I see these tech assets being, I suppose, safe from these attacks.
01:47So we just have to wait and see how how competent the Trump administration is to ensure that these assets
01:52aren't actually attacked over the next few months.
01:54Klisman, do you think that AI infrastructure is becoming as strategically sensitive as oil?
02:00Look, AI has been a technology which has been talked about and has been something which has been claimed to
02:07transform entire industries.
02:09OK, this narrative has seen, I think, not as much product in terms of the results as much as the
02:17hype would suggest.
02:19Those who invest in AI say yes, because, you know, their their AUM is tied to the to the success
02:24of these companies.
02:25So this technology has the potential.
02:28A lot of money is going into it because they're betting on the future of this.
02:31But what matters for individuals and for companies is, does this actually make a tangible benefit to my business, to
02:38my education, to whatever asset that I want to increase in the future?
02:42You see, so we'll see the hype is there.
02:44Naturally, investments are going into it.
02:47That's why it's such a focus area for the Trump administration.
02:49But when it comes to the results, Juliet, the results are what counts.
02:53So we'll wait and see over the next year or so to see how this will tangibly impact the global
02:57economy.
02:58Kisman Murati, I'm from Operator Economics. Thank you very much.
03:02Thank you, Julius.
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