Jefferies

The economic relationship between India and the UAE is entering a new phase. What began primarily as a trade and capital relationship is evolving into a broader strategic corridor spanning investment, technology, infrastructure, energy, logistics and talent. That evolution comes as India continues to establish itself as one of the world’s most compelling long-term investment markets.

On August 12, Jefferies hosted its fourth annual Office of the CFO (OCFO) Summit at the New York Stock Exchange, bringing together business leaders across finance, technology and consulting. The summit explores the CFO’s evolution from its traditional finance mandate to its role today: the strategic hub of the modern enterprise. This evolution has fueled a growing market for software supporting the OCFO’s functions, and more investors and entrepreneurs enter the category each year.

The Gulf is no longer a peripheral allocation within emerging markets; it is rapidly becoming one of the most compelling investment opportunities globally. Home to approximately 40% of global sovereign wealth fund assets, the six-country Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) sits at the nexus of capital, economic reform, and long-term strategic ambition.

Markets By Jefferies Editorial Team • 7 min read The software buyout market is beginning to thaw, but it is not returning to its pre-AI playbook. Investors are demanding strong fundamentals, credible defenses against AI disruption, downside protection, and increasingly, tangible proof that incumbent software companies can win in an agentic future. For much of the past decade, software private equity benefited from a relatively stable underwriting formula.

The U.S. federal government has become one of the more active equity investors in strategic industry, and it has happened with remarkably little fanfare. Since January 2025, Washington has announced roughly $27.6bn across 37 deals involving equity or quasi-equity stakes in public and private companies. The stakes span semiconductors, critical minerals, quantum computing and energy, with the first two sectors alone accounting for more than 80% of total deal value.

The consensus in venture right now runs roughly as follows: the best founders have already found their way to Silicon Valley, and the biggest outcomes are built in one place. Don Stalter has built a fund on the conviction that both are wrong. He arrived at the Jefferies Private Growth Conference fresh off a flight from Tokyo, where he had just backed the grandson of Sony’s founder, exporting Japanese culture from a $700-a-month office near Ginza. History is on his side.

Most CFOs have invested heavily in the technology that governs how their companies spend money. The software governing everything that happens after a deal is signed, how they invoice and collect, until recently, has been patchwork: held together with spreadsheets, professional services, and institutional patience. Rebecca Schwartz, Co-Founder of Tabs, is building the platform she believes will finally change that.

The World Is Pulling Away From America. Japan Is Leaning In Yet Another Reason Why Japan is Emerging as a Defining Investment Story of the Decade “The world is cutting ties with America,” read a recent story in The New York Times. It’s one of many headlines declaring our allies are heading for the exits amid U.S. tariffs, attacks on NATO, and other disruptions to the longstanding post-World War II international order. Someone forgot to tell Japan.

Consider this fact: Last year, even as fundraising across private markets fell by roughly 17 percent, co-investment fundraising rose by more than 17 percent year over year to about $27 billion.

Artificial intelligence has been a theme at technology conferences for years. At the Jefferies Private Growth Conference in Santa Monica this April however, it was the reality shaping nearly every conversation. Few are better positioned to assess that shift than Brett Rochkind, Managing Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers, whose firm has placed one of the largest single bets in venture history on the AI era. Rochkind, attending his seventh consecutive conference, was effusive about the event.