Sheeraz Hasan’s Hollywood.ai and Bollywood.ai Spark Tug of War between US and China
Sheeraz Hasan, widely recognized as the *Fame King* and a prominent figure in Hollywood and the Middle East, has become the center of speculation regarding a global race to control the future of AI-powered entertainment.
Hasan’s companies, Hollywood.ai and Bollywood.ai, are reportedly attracting significant attention from major tech players in the US, China, and Asia, with industry insiders hinting at interest from AI leader DeepSeek.
Hasan said he is being inundated with countless acquisition offers from leading American tech companies. However, the game has recently intensified with DeepSeek, a rising Chinese AI player, now looking to secure Hollywood.ai and Bollywood.ai. “At the end of the day, it is my choice to make,” Hasan said. “Let’s see who will control Hollywood and Bollywood. Let the ultimate tug of war between the US and China begin!”
Having shaped the careers of stars like Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton, Zendaya, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, Priyanka Chopra, and Jake and Logan Paul, Hasan has cemented his reputation as a trailblazer in entertainment. His AI-driven platforms, Hollywood.ai and Bollywood.ai, are revolutionizing the way films are produced and marketed, setting new benchmarks for efficiency and creativity.
2025 is the Year of Community, Declares UAE President
UAE President H.H.Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan has declared 2025 as the Year of Community under the slogan “Hand in Hand.”
It is a national initiative that reflects the UAE leadership’s vision to foster a united and empowered community.
The Year of Community aims to strengthen family and community bonds by preserving cultural heritage, nurturing intergenerational ties, and creating inclusive spaces that foster collaboration, belonging, and shared experiences.
It also encourages all who call the UAE home to actively contribute to society through community service, volunteering, and impactful initiatives, promoting a culture of shared responsibility and driving collective progress.
In addition, the Year of Community seeks to unlock the potential and capabilities of individuals, families, and organizations by developing skills, nurturing talents, and fostering innovation in fields, such as entrepreneurship and emerging industries, including artificial intelligence, alongside other UAE national priorities, to enable inclusive growth and long-lasting positive impact.
The initiative will be overseen by H.H. Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Vice President, Deputy Prime Minister, and Chairman of the Presidential Court, along with H.H. Sheikha Mariam bint Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Chairperson of the Presidential Court for National Projects.
Throughout the year, numerous events and initiatives will be launched to strengthen community cohesion, uphold Emirati values, and ensure a thriving environment where everyone can contribute to progress.
The initiative invites all members of the community—citizens and residents alike— to contribute their ideas and proposals that enhance social bonds, foster community progress, and celebrate the cultural diversity that defines the UAE in support of building a strong and flourishing nation.
UAE Federal Tax Authority Clarifies Penalties for Unpaid Corporate Taxes
The UAE Federal Tax Authority (FTA) has clarified that taxpayers failing to pay the due corporate tax for each month or part thereof shall be subject to a monthly penalty of 14% per annum.
This penalty is imposed on the unpaid tax amount and is calculated from the day following the payment deadline, accruing on the same date each subsequent month.
FTA indicated that for the purposes of this penalty, the due date is no later than nine months after the end of the relevant tax period, in accordance with Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022 on Corporate Tax and its subsequent amendments.
Meta to Invest USD$65 billion to Expand its AI infrastructure
Meta plans to spend USD$65 billion on AI technology in order to bolster its position against rivals OpenAI and Google in the race to dominate AI technology.
“This will be a defining year for AI,” Mack Zuckerberg, Meta CEO, said in a Facebook post. “This is a massive effort, and over the coming years it will drive our core products and business.”
The company is deploying one gigawatt of computing power online and building a $10 billion, four million-square-foot data center in Louisiana, the latest of its 27 data centers worldwide. It is also hiring for a number of artificial intelligence roles.
It aims to end the year with over 1.3 million graphics processors and plans to bring about 1 GW of computing power online in 2025.
The company also plans to build an AI engineer that will start writing its code.
Big technology firms have been making huge investments into the development of AI infrastructure after the success of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Facebook (now known as Meta) previously created an AI program called “Galactica” whose goal was to use machine learning to understand and organize science for its users. The company attempted to make this possible by feeding it 48 million science papers. The project was shut down after two days.
Researchers in Facebook’s AI Research Lab or FAIR (later renamed Meta AI) also attempted to create unique chatbots, called “Dialogue Agents”, that would be able to recognize intricate human speech. The bots adopted a form of English that was not understandable to the project’s researchers and programmers, and even started understanding one another. The project was shut down.
How Creative Writing Can Boost Your Professional and Personal Growth
Storytelling has always had an important part to play in business. The ability to craft narratives that engage audiences, build trusted relationships and establish memorable connections that drive buying decisions is a skill that can take time to hone. Hence, the arrival of generative AI is understandably a welcome resource for time-stretched professionals. However, it may also be doing a disservice – for both customers in business, and for us as individuals.
Human-to-human storytelling is innately more original, valuable, and thought-provoking than the current rule-driven, formulaic approach of technology. Creative writing, in particular, allows us to explore our imagination to unleash innovation that can promote professional growth, while providing an outlet to channel emotions that can support mental health. Here’s how practicing creative writing could impact your career progress as well as your personal well being.
Finding your voice
Whether you’re a multinational CEO, an entrepreneur, a teacher, or an intern starting out on your career path, you will need to tell a unique story that makes you stand out from the crowd. This starts with finding your own voice. Creative writing can help you to reflect critically on your natural expression, step outside your comfort zone to try different approaches, and build the raw materials that will ultimately enable you to craft and hone your true voice.
Communicating with confidence
Creative writing teaches the fundamentals of communication that apply in any context. Developing a story that engages an audience, building characters that are relatable, and weaving the layers that keep readers interested are also the foundations for compelling communication in a business setting. Developing these skills builds personal and professional confidence, and moreover, doing so in a creative community provides a supportive environment, outside of the result-driven business context.
Unlocking creativity and innovation
As a fast-paced business hub, the UAE has positioned itself as a leader of innovation in both technology and creativity. Businesses and employees now need to embrace this mindset simply in order to survive. Creative writing is a discipline that inspires invention, helping us to reconnect with our imagination and unlock the part of the brain that might bring forward transformational innovations in products and processes. We also need to unleash the potential of the UAE’s untapped creative innovators, by nurturing raw talent in fiction writing and helping aspiring authors to realize their ambition to publish their story.
Creating balance and supporting emotional well being
Like reading, creative writing is an opportunity for quiet contemplation, away from the constant noise of every-day life. We see many senior corporate executives turn to creative writing, not only to improve their communication skills through a more reflective approach, but also to create balance in their hectic lives. Expressing inner thoughts through storytelling is also a powerful tool to support mental health and emotional well being. Articulating feelings through written word brings out those concerns we have within us and can give and a new perspective that helps to rationalize anxieties.
As innovation, critical thinking, and emotional intelligence are frequently cited as essential competencies for the future of work, creative writing can offer an alternative outlet to practice and perfect these essential skills, whilst also nurturing a calming mental state that promotes well being, and perhaps even finding a new passion in the process.
The Rise of Family Offices: Wealth Management in Modern Times
Family Offices are entities that deliver private wealth management advisory services to wealthy people and their families. Such entities have gained significant attention in recent years, particularly among financially savvy individuals, due to their unique ability to offer tailored investment opportunities, holistic financial services, and direct access to alternative assets.
Theoretically, the result is that beneficiaries can obtain an even more risk-mitigated investment experience while maintaining access to high-risk opportunities that can haul in abnormal returns in a short time—the best of both worlds.
Family Value
The term “family” carries significant weight in the context of family offices, as their core mission is to grow and manage the wealth of ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) within a family. While wealth management is the primary goal, family offices also provide additional services that appeal to high-net-worth individuals.
The Role of Family
The role of family offices extends beyond traditional wealth management. Their operations include future-oriented planning, such as real estate management, tax optimisation, and managing philanthropic projects. They also offer legal services and personalised wealth management to preserve wealth across multiple generations.
The Family Office Landscape
Family offices can generally be categorised into single-family offices (SFOs), which serve one wealthy family, and multi-family offices (MFOs), which manage the wealth of multiple families. Additionally, virtual family offices (VFOs) leverage modern technology to deliver services without needing a physical presence.
SFOs are typically established by families with significant and complex financial needs. In contrast, MFOs serve multiple families, often functioning like traditional wealth management firms but offering more comprehensive and exclusive services tailored to ultra-wealthy clients.
Family Strategy
Similar to traditional portfolio management, family offices diversify investments across various asset classes, both public and private, to manage family wealth. Some common asset-specific strategies include:
Public Equities (25-35%): Offering growth potential through appropriately-weighted stock market investments.
Private Equity & Direct Investments (20-30%): Providing greater control and higher potential returns by investing directly in businesses.
Real Estate (15-25%): Generating cash flow and benefiting from real-estate appreciation.
Alternative Investments (10-20%): Diversifying through hedge funds, commodities, and infrastructure.
Fixed Income Bonds (10-15%): Offering stability and consistent income through lower-risk investments into corporate, municipal and government bonds.
Venture Capital & Impact Investing (5-10%): Supporting startups and aligning with social impact goals as well as tapping potentially significant novel business sectors such as biotech.
Digital Assets (2-5%): High-risk, high-reward investments like cryptocurrencies.
Passion Investments (1-5%): Rare and personal investments in art and collectables that could potentially become very lucrative over time.
These approximate percentages can vary depending on the family office’s goals, risk tolerance, and broader portfolio preferences. The chart below shows an example of how family offices tend to distribute investments within their respective portfolios. As is apparent, capital preservation and risk mitigation are more significant considerations than short-term profit.
Recent Trends in Family Office Investments
Interestingly, family offices remain susceptible to macroeconomic factors such as fluctuating interest rates, inflationary pressures, market prices and wider economic shifts, which, in many respects, makes them no different to other wealth management solutions. Some risks can only be mitigated and never eliminated altogether.
In today’s growing interest-rate environment, private equity and venture capital entities are focused explicitly on sectors with high-growth potential, such as healthcare, technology and fintech.
Healthcare
Healthcare has become a focus for family offices, driven by advances in medical technology, biotechnology, and personalized medicine. With the rise of telemedicine and wellness solutions, this sector offers significant growth potential. Investments in niche sectors such as gene therapy and remote healthcare are not only financially attractive but also align with long-term social benefits, making healthcare a strategic choice for family offices seeking both financial returns and a positive humanitarian impact.
Technology
In recent years, Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a significant area of interest due to its transformative potential across multiple industries, from automation to advanced decision-making in sectors like healthcare and autonomous vehicles. Private credit and direct lending have also gained traction, as family offices, facing higher interest rates and tighter access to traditional bank loans, are increasingly active in these markets. Such repositioning enables them to offer customized loans to businesses and individuals, often with more attractive yields than traditional fixed-income products.
In addition to AI, renewable energy and consumer goods are gaining momentum. Renewable energy investments are growing as governments and corporations shift towards sustainable, clean energy solutions. The consumer goods sector, particularly in e-commerce and direct-to-consumer luxury brands, is also evolving, driven by changing consumer behaviors in a digital-first world.
Fintech
Meanwhile, in commodities, asset classes such as gold, oil, and industrial metals have become effective hedges against inflation. These tangible assets typically increase in value during inflationary periods as currency purchasing power declines. Gold remains a traditional safe haven, while energy commodities, like oil, tend to appreciate due to rising production costs.
Moreover, digital assets like Bitcoin are increasingly considered potential hedges against inflation. Bitcoin’s limited supply and decentralized structure make it comparable to gold as a value store, especially during currency devaluation and inflationary pressure periods. Contrary to the advice of many investment managers, digital assets and digital asset funds are gaining traction in family office portfolios as an effective tool for diversification.
As financial markets become increasingly complex, family offices have emerged as welcome market participants, offering haute-couture strategies that align with broader family values and long-term goals, making them an intriguing option for wealthier investors seeking to navigate today’s topsy-turvy investment landscape successfully.
Pop Out: Logitech Pop Icon Combo
The Pop Icon Combo, an innovative, eye-catching new keyboard and mouse pairing designed to help you boost productivity.
The combo’s contoured, low-profile keyboard offers responsive, hushed, and instantly familiar typing.
The devices’ fresh colors, transparent finishing, and sleek silhouette make it a perfect fit for personalizing your workspace, whether at home or in the office.
Equipped with four customizable life-hack Action Keys, accessible through the free Logi Options+ app, the keyboard lets you save time and work smarter.
With a single key press, switch seamlessly from “work mode” to “break mode,” open your favorite social media, music, or video apps, or launch AI tools like Logi AI Prompt Builder.
In addition, widely-used shortcuts like mute, emoji menu, and screenshot can be easily personalized to suit your workflow needs.
Pop Icon Combo is compatible with multiple operating systems and devices, allowing you to type across up to three different computers, phones, or tablets with the press of a button.
With up to 36 months of battery life, the keyboard offers uninterrupted productivity and reliability.
The Pop Icon Combo pairs Pop Icon Keys with Pop Mouse, which features a SmartWheel for precise navigation and Silent Touch Technology that removes 90% of click noise.
A perfect companion to the keyboard, Pop Mouse features two Action Buttons customizable through the Logi Options+ app to effortlessly toggle between work and leisure modes.
With a battery that lasts up to 24 months and the ability to connect and switch between up to three devices, work for longer with this modern, compact, and contoured mouse.
Related: Let It Flow: Logitech Signature Slim K950
The Executive Selection: Patyka Launches in the Middle East
Patyka
Source: Patyka Ten-Year-Old Emirati Becomes World’s Youngest Ever Columnist
A ten-year-old Emirati has received the Guinness World Records certificate for becoming the youngest female magazine columnist.
Aged 10 years and 64 days, AlDhabi AlMheiri received the certificate after being published on Entrepreneur.com and Entrepreneur Middle East for the past six months.
The certificate was awarded for her work “in association with BNC Publishing”, a publishing house behind Entrepreneur Middle East.
Wissam Younane, CEO of BNC Publishing, said, “We are proud to support young Arab writers, and give them the platform they deserve to begin a successful career in media and publishing. AlDhabi is an exceptional talent, and I am sure she has a great future ahead of her.”
Related: AlDhabi AlMheiri Becomes the First Emirati to Receive the Diana Award
“We Got Funded!” UAE-Based Pluto US$4.1 Million Pre-Series A Round Follows Launch of Platform That Supports Over 30,000 SMEs
Dubai-based corporate card and expense management platform Pluto has raised US$4.1 million in a pre-Series A funding round. The round was led by existing and new investors, including Rhino Ventures, a Canada-based early-stage venture capital firm; Born Capital, a VC firm exclusively backing CFO-focused technologies; Goanna Capital, a US-based global private markets investment firm; and Evolution VC, a sector-agnostic VC firm that has backed unicorns like Brex, Ramp and Freshbooks; as well as early-stage VC entities Freesearch VC and Tiferes VC.
The announcement comes just weeks after co-founder Mohammed Ridwan announced that the company had crossed AED1Billion in spend under Pluto’s management. Founded in 2021 by Ridwan and his fellow co-founders Mohammed Aziz and Nayeem Zen, Pluto’s platform unifies budget tracking, artificial intelligence (AI)-powered corporate cards with a cashback program, petty cash management, procurement, invoice and vendor management into a single, intuitive product.
Since its inception, Pluto has rapidly gained traction across small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as well as major corporations in the UAE, and has already worked with the likes of Property Finder, Knight Frank, Tamara, and Petrochem. The startup has also previously received backing from Silicon Valley spearheads including names like Ramp, Soma Capital, Graph Ventures as well as angel investors including Plaid Co-founder Willliam Hockey, Not Boring’s Packy McCormick and past executives from Cash App, Shopify, Amazon and more.
Mohammed Ridwan, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer, Pluto. Source: Pluto
Pluto’s latest milestone, however, has been its flagship solution Pluto Connect which was launched at the start of January 2025. With it, the startup has introduced a business model that allows banks and financial institutions to seamlessly embed Pluto’s corporate card and spend management capabilities directly into their own products, allowing banks to modernize their commercial banking capabilities. Currently empowering more than 30,000 SMEs, cofounder Ridwan notes that Pluto Connect is addressing crucial pain points of what is clearly a pivotal economic sector in the UAE.
“SMEs in UAE contribute to 63.5% of the non-oil GDP, with forecasts estimating the numbers of SMEs will grow to $1 million by 2030- but despite being a crucial part of the economy, the financial products available to SMEs are often costly or unsuitable for their needs, even though they make up a significant portion of financial institutions’ customer bases,” Ridwan tells Entrepreneur Middle East. “With Pluto Connect, we empower Banks and Financial Institutions to provide their customers with a Corporate Card & Spend Control platform that rivals the world-class solutions offered by Silicon Valley unicorns. This allows banks to offer cutting-edge software as part of their value-added services, helping SMEs gain access to tools that enable them to manage budgets, control employee spending, and streamline non-payroll expenditures in a seamless and efficient manner.”
With new capital now at its disposal, the Pluto team aims to build on Pluto Connect’s potential by continuing to eliminate the need for shared corporate cards, manual data entry and lengthy reconciliation periods through empowering banks and financial institutions to deliver a seamless, value-added experience that deepens customer relationships, streamlines workflows and drives meaningful financial efficiency for SMEs. “One of the leading reasons businesses fail is poor cash flow management,” Ridwan continues. “Without clear visibility and control, even profitable companies can run out of money. Every dirham controlled is a dirham that can be intentionally reinvested back into your business. By equipping SMEs with the tools they need to stay on top of their spending, Pluto Connect helps them secure their financial stability, paving the way for sustainable growth and reinvestment.”
Source: Pluto
With such an approach, Pluto has managed to differentiate itself in the UAE’s fintech ecosystem by proomising to be the only platform serving banks and integrating every critical aspect of financial management – from AI-driven spend control to modern procurement management to automated invoice management- into a single, unified solution. Now, following the Pre-Series A round, the startup now hopes to replicate its success in Saudi Arabia as well- and for starters, the platform hopes to offer the Kingdom with compliant procurement processes that are localized. “KSA’s economy is driven by construction, development and manufacturing projects, yet many companies lack robust procurement processes,” Ridwan says. “Legacy enterprise resource plannings (ERPs) fail to address the Kingdom’s unique requirements, such as language localization, regulatory compliance, and the need for a mobile-first, user-friendly procurement experience. Pluto’s highly intuitive, Arabic-first user interface (UI) and customizable procurement workflows enable businesses to streamline purchasing while ensuring compliance with local regulations. With mobile-first capabilities and seamless user experiences, Pluto is designed to meet the expectations of modern Saudi businesses.”
A major step in expanding into the Kingdom came via Pluto’s collaboration Al Rajhi Bank’s financial digital solutions subsidiary Neoleap in September 2024. With the newly raised funds, Ridwan and his team aim to build on that momentum. As such, Pluto will also be eyeing ways to ensure budget management in a multi-payment ecosystem while also managing operations across GCC borders. “Saudi Arabia’s financial ecosystem is highly diverse, incorporating multiple payment methods such as Mada, e-invoicing, petty cash, wire transfers, and more,” Ridwan notes. “Businesses therefore often struggle with managing budgets effectively when employees spend using mixed methods, leading to challenges in tracking and controlling expenses. Pluto thus aims to provide centralized visibility and control over budgets across various payment methods. Whether it’s corporate cards, petty cash, or wire transfers, Pluto ensures real-time tracking and seamless integration with financial systems, enabling businesses to stay on top of their spending. Additionally, many businesses operating in KSA also have cross-border teams and operations across other GCC countries, adding layers of complexity to expense management, compliance, and financial reporting. Pluto’s platform is built to handle the nuances of operating in the GCC, offering multi-subsidiary support, localized compliance tools, and cross-border expense management. This enables businesses to simplify their operations while maintaining consistency and control.”