> local politicians and monarchs who believe they have a seat at the table.

Are you from another planet? They DO have a set at the table because gulf Sovereign Funds are one of the largest and most reliable LP pools available for VC funds for quite some time.

The current AI buildout is heavily dependent on Gulf money.

Oil is not forever and Sovereign Wealth Funds usually have goals that are not simply acruing direct investment returns, it makes sense that the folks deploying 100 billions tranches will have some say on where to put all those H100 their money will buy.

Nobody sane would predict Israel and the US would start this war.