Earlier this year, a deal for an enormous data centre in France for use by an Abu Dhabi artificial intelligence company involved an unusual broker: a former child actor turned investment banker.
Zachary Cefaratti, founder of boutique advisory Dalma Capital, has leveraged an eclectic contacts book that includes OpenAI chief Sam Altman and senior Middle Eastern politicians to become a below-the-radar fixer for data centres, cryptocurrency mining and technology groups in the Gulf.
The 37-year-old’s clients include G42, the AI group chaired by powerful Emirati royal Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan; Abu Dhabi sovereign investor ADQ; and the encrypted social media network Telegram, whose founder Pavel Durov lives in Dubai and was detained and charged in France last year.