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Umm Al Qura bets on a platform model as it launches a five-year strategy and unveils Makkah’s next urban frontier
Developer of Masar Destination announces 2026–2030 roadmap and secures 1.2mn sq m Masar Gardens award — signaling a structural shift from single-asset operator to multi-city development platform in the western region
MAKKAH, SAUDI ARABIA – Media OutReach Newswire – 9 June 2026 – Umm Al Qura for Development & Construction has drawn a sharp line under one chapter of its corporate history and opened another, announcing a new five-year strategy and, in the same breath, securing the development rights to a 1.2 million square metre site adjacent to its flagship Masar Destination in Makkah — a juxtaposition that appeared carefully choreographed to demonstrate that the new plan was already in motion before the ink on it had dried.
The company, which owns, develops, and operates Masar Destination and has been listed on the Saudi Exchange (Tadawul) since completing its institutional transformation over the previous strategy cycle, said on Tuesday that its 2026–2030 plan marks a transition from managing a single flagship project to operating what it described as a “multi-destination urban development platform” across Makkah, Madinah, and Jeddah.
The new site — awarded to a consortium of Umm Al Qura, Makkah Construction and Development Company, and Rajhi United Real Estate Company — will be developed under the name Masar Gardens and encompass the Hindawiya West and Hindawiya South plots. The choice of branding is deliberate: by extending the Masar name to an adjacent precinct rather than launching a standalone product, the company is signaling that its expansion logic begins with deepening what already exists before it spreads outward.
>60% compound annual revenue growth, 2021–2026
>45% compound annual net profit growth
SAR 2bn+ operating cash flow, most recent fiscal year
SAR 40bn development investment attracted to Masar Destination
30+ strategic partnerships forged
SAR 50bn+ targeted new development pipeline, 2026–2030
SAR 3–5bn incremental capital to be deployed over the strategy period
The financial backdrop to the announcement is striking. Over the five years to 2026, Umm Al Qura posted compound annual revenue growth of more than 60 per cent and net profit growth exceeding 45 per cent, while generating operating cash flows of over SAR 2 billion in its most recent fiscal year. Those are numbers that, in most markets, would attract a longer queue of investors than the company would need — and indeed, it reports attracting approximately SAR 40 billion in total development investment to Masar Destination over the period, alongside more than 30 strategic partnerships.
The question that the 2026–2030 strategy must answer is whether a management team that built one destination on time and on budget can simultaneously direct a portfolio of projects across three cities while maintaining the operational discipline that generated those returns. It is, by any measure, a more complex undertaking — and the company’s chosen answer is structural.
The strategy adopts what the company terms a “flexible operating model,” enabling it to function either as master developer or as partner and development manager depending on project-specific investment criteria. This architecture — in which Umm Al Qura deploys expertise and brand as much as balance-sheet capital — is central to understanding why it believes it can manage a SAR 50 billion-plus development portfolio while committing only SAR 3–5 billion of incremental capital over the strategy period. The mathematics only work if co-investors and consortium partners carry a substantial share of project-level financing, which places premium value on the company’s governance framework, track record, and institutional relationships.
Yasser Abdulaziz Abuateek, chief executive, framed the moment in terms of sequencing rather than scale alone. “The launch of our new strategy represents a pivotal turning point,” he said, “as we move from a phase of capability building to one of considered expansion.” The word “considered” appeared to be doing some deliberate work: a reminder, perhaps, that the strategy is explicitly not designed to maximize the number of projects, but to concentrate development activity within a geographically coherent and operationally integrated footprint.
That geographic logic — a tight focus on the western region — is one of the strategy’s more analytically interesting features. Makkah, Madinah, and Jeddah together constitute a demand catchment unlike any other in the Kingdom: structurally underpinned by the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimage economy, the subject of sustained Vision 2030-aligned public investment, and the locus of the country’s most significant cultural and commercial infrastructure. For a company whose institutional identity is inseparable from Makkah, the western region is not a constraint but a concentration of competitive advantage.
The company also reaffirmed that Masar Destination would remain the “central cornerstone” of its portfolio, with development of approved extensions continuing in parallel with new initiatives. For investors, that commitment matters: it confirms that the platform expansion is additive rather than a dilution of the asset that underpins the company’s listed value, and that management is not proposing to harvest the flagship in order to fund growth elsewhere.
The strategy’s formal alignment with Vision 2030 objectives — which the company cited explicitly in connection with enhancing quality of life, stimulating investment, and strengthening economic integration — positions Umm Al Qura as a natural counterparty for government-adjacent development mandates across its target cities. In a market where the allocation of major urban development sites is closely connected to institutional credibility and track record, that positioning carries tangible commercial value.
What the strategy does not offer, at least in its public articulation, is a timeline for when the new destinations beyond Masar Gardens will be identified, announced, or initiated. The company’s language — “planned and selective expansion” in the service of “sustainable value” — suggests a deliberate pace that prioritizes return quality over speed of deployment. Whether that restraint holds as opportunities emerge will be among the more closely watched questions in Saudi real estate development over the coming years.
Further information: www.ummalqura.com.sa/en/new-strategy-2030
Hashtag: #Development #SaudiArabia
https://www.ummalqura.com.sa/en
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
Media OutReach
OOm Institute Calls for AI Fluency to Close Human Critical Thinking Gap
The rapid adoption of AI tools without sufficient verification, contextual understanding, or critical oversight is contributing to a growing “Human Critical Thinking Gap”.
Recent research from Professors Rick Dakan and Joseph Feller also corroborates this; only 8.7% of participants consistently verified high-stakes AI-generated claims before accepting them.
Beyond the Prompt: The Human-Centric Shift
While prompt engineering remains a foundational skill for today’s workforce, OOm Institute suggests the discipline must evolve beyond simple input mechanics.
“We are entering a false competence trap,” says Ian Cheow, CEO at OOm Institute. “People are learning how to prompt, but they aren’t learning how to make the right decisions. If you cannot spot when an AI’s logic fails, you aren’t using a tool, you are delegating your intelligence.”
The Warning: If You Let AI Think for You, You “De-skill”
Professionals who rely heavily on AI without developing critical evaluation skills risk “de-skilling”, where domain expertise erodes over time due to over-dependence on automated systems.
The concept of AI Fluency is built around three core capabilities:
- Decision to Correct: The ability to determine when AI-generated output is sufficient and when it poses a risk that requires human revision or rejection.
- Contextual Sovereignty: Ensuring human oversight remains central so AI outputs align with Singapore’s cultural, commercial, and ethical contexts.
- Critical Inquiry: Moving beyond prompting to actively question assumptions, logic, accuracy, and completeness in AI-generated responses.
Real-World Practice vs Theory
As AI tools evolve rapidly, practitioners argue that effective AI capability cannot rely solely on static classroom theory. Real-world usage often involves changing workflows, unpredictable outputs, and context-specific decision-making that require continuous practical application and human judgment.
Maintaining AI fluency increasingly requires learning from practitioners actively applying these tools in commercial environments.
“At OOm Institute, our focus is on building practical decision-making in AI usage,” Mr Cheow added. “Our goal is to help professionals use AI with stronger critical thinking, clearer accountability, and practical business understanding.”
Hashtag: #aicourse #wsqaicourse #aisingapore #aifluency #aiskills
https://www.oom.com.sg/institute/
https://linkedin.com/company/oominstitute
https://www.facebook.com/oominstitute/
https://www.instagram.com/oominstitute/
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
OOm Institute
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Suanova, a Subsidiary of Yeebo, Signs Comprehensive Strategic Cooperation Agreement with InfiX.ai
Advancing Deployment of Training and Inference Integrated AI Platforms in Healthcare Applications, Powered by Domestic High-Density Computing Infrastructure
HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 10 June 2026 – Yeebo (International Holdings) Limited (“Yeebo”; Stock Code: 00259.HK, together with its subsidiaries, the “Group”) is pleased to announce that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Suanova Technology Limited (“Suanova”), has entered into a comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement with InfiX.ai, a global leader in enterprise-grade generative AI (GenAI) infrastructure solutions. Leveraging Suanova’s Shanghai Cube, a domestically developed high-density computing infrastructure, the two parties will jointly advance the deployment of training and inference integrated AI platforms with continuous self-learning capabilities in healthcare applicatoins. As part of this collaboration, Suanova will contribute its expertise in domestic computing infrastructure by providing the core computing power and foundational support.
With healthcare as the initial focus, the two parties have already collaborated with leading medical institutions to conduct clinical validation in areas such as cancer GenAI, foundational medical Large Language Models (LLMs) and personalized cancer treatment planning.
Building Integrated Infrastructure for Medical AI with Shanghai Cube as the Foundation
The training and inference integrated AI platforms deployed under this collaboration are powered by Shanghai Cube, combined with InfiX.ai’s training, inference and multimodal AI capabilities. This integration delivers a truly unified hardware-software infrastructure tailored for medical AI applications.
Shanghai Cube, developed with the participation of Suanova, was among the earliest of its kind in China and is currently the highest-density domestically developed GPU supernode product. It adopts a high-density deployment architecture featuring 128 GPUs per rack with liquid cooling, enabling compact and efficient deployment of large-scale computing clusters. Shanghai Cube integrates a range of domestically produced core components, including liquid-cooling systems, high-performance parallel storage systems, retimers and motherboard capacitors. It provides a one-stop, highly efficient solution for the large-scale deployment of domestic computing systems and models.
Partnering with InfiX.ai to Build Enterprise-Grade AI Infrastructure
InfiX.ai is a research-driven AI infrastructure company serving global markets, with capabilities spanning IaaS, PaaS and MaaS. The company is building a Decentralized Co-GenAI Network that connects computing power, models, platforms and intelligent applications, with the aim of helping enterprises and organizations train, deploy and own their domain-specific AI based on proprietary data, expertise and business workflows.
InfiX.ai brings together world-class talent in AI research and industry deployment. The company is led by its Founder and Chief Scientist, Prof. Hongxia Yang, with Co-Founder and Vice President Haiqing Chen and Chief AI Architect Jianmin Wu forming the core management and technology team. Prof. Yang is also a Chair Professor at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and is a globally recognized leader in artificial intelligence, with extensive experience spanning both academia and industry. She previously served as Head of LLMs in the at ByteDance (U.S.), AI Scientist and Director at Alibaba Group, Chief Data Scientist at Yahoo!, and Research Staff Member at IBM T.J. Watson Research Center. Prof. Yang has published more than 150 papers and holds over 50 patents. She has also received numerous international honors, including the WAIC SAIL Award, the National Scientific and Technological Progress Award, and recognition as one of the AI 2000 Most Influential Scholars worldwide.
By integrating InfiX.ai’s training and inference algorithms with Suanova’s high-performance computing platform, the solution significantly reduces memory usage and computing resource requirements. This enables higher throughput and supports training and deployment of larger-scale models under equivalent hardware configurations. The system is also capable of continuously capturing data for incremental training, integrating user feedback for fine-tuning and reinforcement learning, thereby ensuring that model performance evolves alongside changing business needs. Furthermore, the infrastructure supports local execution of the entire AI workflow – from training and fine-tuning to inference – thereby ensuring data security by design and meeting the stringent security requirements of sectors such as healthcare, finance, and government.
Mr. Daliang Chen, CEO of Suanova, said: “This partnership with InfiX.ai represents an important milestone in Suanova’s expansion into medical AI. Leveraging the Shanghai Cube high-density domestic computing platform, we aim to accelerate the adoption of medical AI in real-world clinical settings. This collaboration not only brings together the complementary strengths of both companies from a technological perspective, but also serves as a key step in advancing the domestic computing ecosystem. Looking ahead, we will continue to work closely with our partners to drive the deep integration of artificial intelligence across diverse industries.”
Hashtag: #Yeebo
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
About Yeebo (International Holdings) Limited
Founded in 1988, Yeebo (International Holdings) Limited is a diversified electronic component company with a well-established presence in the global market. The Company’s core business spans flat panel displays, computing power and capacitors, serving a broad spectrum of industrial and consumer applications. Headquartered in Hong Kong, Yeebo operates its manufacturing operations primarily in the Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces, supporting a global sales network that ensures localized service and support for its international clientele.
In alignment with its long-term strategic vision, Yeebo is leveraging its robust operational foundation to expand into the Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) compute and related sectors. This initiative reflects the Company’s commitment to innovation and technological advancement, with the objective of positioning Yeebo as a leading and influential participant in the rapidly evolving AI industry across mainland China and Hong Kong.
About Suanova Technology Limited
Suanova, under Yeebo, is an innovative technology company focused on delivering independent, efficient, and accessible domestic AI computing services. Its business spans three core areas: computing power and cloud operations, computing technology development and computing industry investment. With branches in Hong Kong and Shanghai, it provides customers with better localized services. It is committed to transforming complex AI infrastructure into simple, efficient, and cost‑effective services through continuous technological innovation, with the goal of becoming a leading “infrastructure operator” in the AI era.
Media OutReach
KAST chooses Elliptic digital asset decisioning for global AML and sanctions compliance
KAST has used Elliptic’s solutions since 2024 to screen wallets and monitor crypto transactions for indicators of financial crime as customers fund and use their KAST accounts. By integrating Elliptic’s blockchain intelligence into its risk and compliance stack, KAST has been able to identify high-risk activity in real-time, reduce exposure to sanctioned or illicit wallets and demonstrate robust controls to regulators and partners.
Founded in July 2024 by former Circle executive Raagulan Pathy, KAST provides USD-denominated accounts, global pay-ins and payouts to more than 170 countries, and a growing suite of consumer and business financial tools built on stablecoin rails rather than legacy settlement networks. With KAST, people can hold, send, and spend instantly while transacting with merchants and ATMs around the world.
Since launch, KAST has scaled to more than one million users and is processing about $5 billion in annualized transaction volume, reflecting the growing adoption of stablecoin-based financial services beyond trading and crypto-native use cases. In March, KAST announced a record $80 million Series A funding round, which is being deployed to expand across North America, Latin America and the Middle East. Elliptic’s analytics help KAST manage risk, applying a consistent, data-driven approach to AML and sanctions screening as the platform scales into new markets.
“Every time customers tap their card, send or receive transactions, they need to trust it’s safe,” said Pathy, Founder & CEO at KAST. “Our users rely on us for institution-grade security everywhere in the world. Elliptic is a key part of that promise. Their blockchain intelligence helps us detect fraud patterns, sanctioned activity and other red flags behind the scenes so that our customers feel safe and secure.”
“As stablecoin financial platforms like KAST reach more users, regulators and partners expect the same standard of financial crime controls that apply in traditional finance,” said James Smith, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Elliptic. “KAST has been building with compliance in mind from day one. Through this partnership, we are helping to ensure the platform can scale while meeting regulatory expectations for AML and sanctions risk.”
Elliptic’s analytics now underpin KAST’s financial crime controls. Working alongside the platform’s identity, fraud and transaction monitoring solutions, Elliptic supports a consistent, risk-based approach to onboarding, funding and card usage as the platform scales.
Hashtag: #Elliptic
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
About Elliptic
Our platform’s unrivalled uptime, scalability, depth and breadth of our data and intelligence means exacting organizations choose Elliptic for their compliance, risk management, intelligence operations and blockchain infrastructure needs.
Founded in 2013, Elliptic is headquartered in London with offices in New York, Washington D.C., Miami, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo. To learn more, visit www.elliptic.co and follow us on
LinkedIn and
X.
About KAST
KAST is a stablecoin-powered financial platform that connects digital assets with traditional finance, enabling 1 million+ people to send, receive and convert funds across borders, currencies and payment rails through a single app. The company focuses on helping individuals and businesses earn globally and spend locally by combining instant peer-to-peer transfers with compliant access to local bank payouts in supported markets. Visit www.kast.xyz.
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