Saudi Arabia Opens Its Markets, Discord Quietly Preps an IPO, Jamie Dimon Cashes In, and Siemens Deepens Its AI Bet With Nvidia

7th January 2025

Global capital flows took center stage as Saudi Arabia moved to fully open its financial markets to foreign investors, a milestone in the kingdom’s push to wean itself off oil. In the U.S., chat platform Discord quietly filed for a potential IPO, testing investor appetite as public listings slowly regain momentum. On Wall Street, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon reportedly pocketed a $770 million windfall in 2025, underscoring how bank executives benefited from a rally in stocks and dealmaking. Meanwhile, Siemens and Nvidia expanded their partnership to build what they call an “industrial AI operating system,” aiming to push artificial intelligence deeper into factories, infrastructure, and real-world systems. All this and more in today’s Read It And Eat!

Major Headlines 

• Saudi Arabia to open financial market to all foreign investors next month

Saudi Arabia plans to open its financial markets to all foreign investors from February 1, the Gulf country's market regulator said on Tuesday, as it eases rules to attract more money from abroad. The amendments approved by the Capital Markets Authority eliminate the concept of the Qualified Foreign Investor, scrapping a rule that allowed only international investors with direct and consistent access to the Saudi capital market.

The move will allow investors from around the world to invest directly in the capital market, the CMA said in a statement, adding it would support inflows and improve market liquidity. Saudi Arabia, which is more than halfway through an economic plan to reduce its dependence on oil, has been trying to attract foreign investors, including by establishing exchange-traded funds with Asian partners in Japan and Hong Kong.

Regulators last year also opened the door for foreigners to buy listed firms that own real estate in Mecca and Medina, without changing restrictions on direct land ownership. JP Morgan said it expected the impact of Tuesday's move to be limited as "nearly all" institutional investors were already allowed to invest in the market. Reuters

• Chat platform Discord files confidentially for US IPO, Bloomberg News reports

  
  

Chat platform Discord filed confidentially for an initial public offering in the United States, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. 

The U.S. IPO market regained momentum in 2025 after nearly three years of sluggish activity, but hopes for a stronger rebound were tempered by tariff-driven volatility, a prolonged government shutdown and a late-year selloff in artificial intelligence stocks.

Deliberations are ongoing and the company could decide not to proceed with a listing, the report said. A Discord spokesperson told Bloomberg "the company's focus remains on delivering the best possible experience for users and building a strong, sustainable business." Discord, which was founded in 2015, offers voice, video and text chatting capabilities aimed at gamers and streamers. It had more than 200 million monthly active users, according to a December statement on its website. Reuters

• JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon reaps ‘$770M’ windfall in 2025: report

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon reportedly reaped a $770 million windfall last year as America’s top bankers cheered rising stock prices, a resurgence in M&A activity and the Trump administration’s moves to cut red tape. The 69-year-old Wall Street veteran’s compensation was made up of his base salary, bonuses, stock options and dividends getting a healthy boost from the sharp 34% rise in the bank’s stock price over the past year, the New York Times reported, citing company disclosures.

The newspaper did not state how it calculated the eye-watering figure.If confirmed, the supposed massive haul would put the long-serving JPMorgan boss’s net worth close to that of New York’s hedge fund titans and Silicon Valley’s tech founders. In 2024, Dimon picked up as much as $39 million, an increase of just over 8% from the year before, compensation that included a $1.5 million base salary, a $5 million cash bonus, and $32.5 million in performance-based stock awards.

Citi’s chief executive Jane Fraser and Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon earned as much as $100 million in 2025, the Times reported, citing regulatory filings. Last year, Citi and Goldman’s stocks rose over 65% and 53%, respectively. JPMorgan typically releases info on its chief executive’s pay package at the start of the year, when it reports its full-year financial results. The Wall Street megabank is set to publish its numbers for 2025 on Jan. 13. Dimon has been a vocal critic of rules aimed at keeping banks resistant to financial storms by forcing them to hold more capital on their balance sheets. The proposal, known as Basel III, would see major lenders raise that emergency buffer by 9%. New York Post

• Siemens and NVIDIA Expand Partnership to Build the Industrial AI Operating System

Siemens and NVIDIA today announced a significant expansion of their strategic partnership to bring artificial intelligence into the real world. Together, the companies aim to develop industrial and physical AI solutions that will bring AI-driven innovation to every industry and industrial workflow, as well as accelerate each others’ operations. 

To support development, NVIDIA will provide AI infrastructure, simulation libraries, models, frameworks and blueprints, while Siemens will commit hundreds of industrial AI experts and leading hardware and software. “Together, we are building the Industrial AI operating system  redefining how the physical world is designed, built and run  to scale AI and create real-world impact,” said Roland Busch, President and CEO of Siemens AG. “By combining NVIDIA’s leadership in accelerated computing and AI platforms with Siemens’ leading hardware, software, industrial AI and data, we’re empowering customers to develop products faster with the most comprehensive digital twins, adapt production in real time and accelerate technologies from chips to AI factories.”

“Generative AI and accelerated computing have ignited a new industrial revolution, transforming digital twins from passive simulations into the active intelligence of the physical world,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “Our partnership with Siemens fuses the world’s leading industrial software with NVIDIA’s full-stack AI platform to close the gap between ideas and reality  empowering industries to simulate complex systems in software, then seamlessly automate and operate them in the physical world.” Siemens and NVIDIA will work together to build AI-accelerated industrial solutions across the full lifecycle of products and production, enabling faster innovation, continuous optimization and more resilient, sustainable manufacturing. Nvidia News

Minor Headlines 

• Free Wi-Fi is coming to American Airlines. Only these flyers can get it USA Today 

  
  

• American International Group shares dropped 7% following news that Peter Zaffino is stepping down as chief executive Reuters

  
  

• Copper prices climbed to new highs Yahoo.Finance

  
  

• Elon Musk’s xAI raises $20bn in funding round that doubles valuation  Financial Times

  
  

• Accenture buys UK AI start-up Faculty in $1bn deal Financial Times Financial Times

  
  

• Stock Market Today: Oil Prices Fall After Trump Says Venezuela Will Give Crude to U.S. Wall Street Journal

  
  

• European banks poised for €30bn interest income rebound Financial Times

  
  

• Buffett-backed Marubeni buys UK’s Gola to ride retro trainers boom Financial Times