Global business, technology and financial leaders converged on the Saudi capital for the annual Future Investment Initiative (FII) summit this week.
Below are a selection of quotes from some of the speakers at the event on Tuesday:
DAVID SOLOMON, GOLDMAN SACHS (GS.N) CEO:
"It's hard to think about monetary policy in 2025 in the United States until you get through the election and we get a clearer sense of policy actions."
"Structurally inflation is more embedded in the global economy than the current narrative. That doesn't mean that it's going to rear its head in a particularly ugly way but I do think there's the potential, depending on policy actions taken, that it could be more of a headwind than the current market consensus."
"We are in a recovery period and my expectation is you will see more robust capital markets activity in 2025, 2026."
BLACKROCK (BLK.N) CEO LARRY FINK:
Fink said that the central bank policy "playbook" needed to be revisited because the transmission of higher rates to slow the economy had a greater lag as populations aged and due to changes in the housing market.
"I do believe we have greater embedded inflation in the world than we've ever seen," he said.
KEN GRIFFIN, FOUNDER AND CEO OF CITADEL:
Griffin said that markets expected Donald Trump to win the forthcoming U.S. election, but that the outcome remained “almost a coin toss”.
“We’re at that moment of peak uncertainty,” Griffin said, adding that he expected risk appetite to improve in markets regardless of the result.
RUTH PORAT, PRESIDENT AND CIO OF ALPHABET (GOOGL.O) AND GOOGLE:
Porat said the Silicon Valley giant was excited about the prospects for autonomous vehicles, adding the technology could help improve road safety.
"If you want to save lives, we should be embracing autonomous driving."
BLACKSTONE (BX.N) CEO STEPHEN SCHWARTZMAN:
He said communications between the U.S. and China had “normalised somewhat”, after communications between the two sides broke down around two years ago, presenting a “very scary prospect”.
"I think that both countries are basically grateful that the deterioration in relations has stopped."
ERIC SCHMIDT, FORMER CEO OF GOOGLE:
“So war is today defined stereotypically as ‘man, gun, shooting, other man, shooting, trying to kill each other’. If you're a computer scientist, this makes absolutely no sense. The guns should be automated, and the people should be drinking coffee somewhere else."
“If you are a roboticist, the fastest path to robots is, in fact, drone warfare, I'm sorry to say…. There are enormous implications from the arrival of drone warfare.
"My own view is that drone warfare will largely stop land wars, and that conflict will not go away. It'll occur in different domains."
SAUDI ECONOMY AND ENERGY MINISTER PRINCE ABDULAZIZ BIN SALMAN:
"We will monetize every molecule of energy this land has, period."
JANE FRASER, CITI (C.N) CEO:
"A lot of the roads do lead to the U.S. at the moment...While you shouldn't bet against a Saudi entrepreneur you certainly never bet against an American one."
