New Delhi, India – September 12: (—-Editorial Use Only – Credit Required – “Iranian Presidential Office/Handout” – No Marketing, No Advertising Campaigns – Distributed as a Service to Clients—-) Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian meets with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled Bin. Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) participates in the 18th BRICS Summit held at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, September 12, 2026. (Photo courtesy of Iranian Presidential Office/Handout/Anadolu, via Getty Images)
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Hello, my name is Hui Jie from Singapore. Welcome to another edition of CNBC’s Daily Open.
The statements made at last weekend’s BRICS summit had one thing in common: all countries want peace in the Middle East.
However, development in the region was far from peaceful. Saudi Arabia’s east-west pipeline has been shut down after it was damaged by a drone launched from Iraq, cutting off a vital relief route for crude oil exports.
Meanwhile, OpenAI has ruled out an IPO this year amid growing concerns in the technology industry about the safety of increasingly powerful AI systems.
What you need to know today
At last weekend’s BRICS summit, many countries came together to express their hopes for peace.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday that “peace and tranquility” in the border region is essential for developing bilateral relations with neighboring China.
Prime Minister Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping also separately called for peace in the Middle East. But that rhetoric doesn’t seem to reflect reality.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country has no intention of capitulating in the US war on Iran, as there is no sign that negotiations between the US and Tehran will resume.
“There will be no negotiations. Negotiations are futile until Iran’s conditions are met,” Ebrahim Azizi, head of Iran’s parliament’s National Security Committee, said in a post on X.
A ship was struck in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, the UK Maritime Trade Operations Center said.
More importantly, Saudi Arabia shut down an east-west pipeline after drones fired from Iraq damaged a key oil export route.
The Saudi pipeline, which can transport 7 million barrels a day, has played a key role in easing severe oil supply disruptions caused by the Iran war.
In fact, Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said during an August earnings call that the pipeline has played a more important role in stabilizing the oil market than the large-scale release of U.S.-led strategic stockpiles.
For more energy market coverage, U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary James Danley will appear on CNBC’s “Access Middle East” at 12:30 p.m. Singapore time.
AI leader slams on the brakes
It’s not just the Middle East where leaders are calling for restraint. The AI industry wants to pump the brakes.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay on Saturday urging AI companies to slow down the pace at which they improve their cutting-edge models, after industry researchers issued stark warnings last week about the technology’s increasing potential for catastrophic damage.
But Amodei later said the “toughest dilemma” is what happens if an adversary, namely China, chooses not to do the same.
“I think that’s a very difficult thing to do because the incentive to move forward and the military advantage that comes from it is so great. And to be honest, I don’t know if it’s possible, but we should try.”
Last week, anthropologist Jacob Coxon announced he was quitting his job because he was concerned that the company and its biggest rival, OpenAI, were “taking our lives on the line.”
Meanwhile, China’s Mr. Xi called for a “consensus-based global AI governance framework” in BRICS, and said China would support the establishment of a BRICS AI open source community.
— Lim Huijie
