Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) closed the fourth edition of its Private Sector Forum with a slate of deals that underscored its growing pull with investors, announcing the signing of more than 135 memorandums of understanding worth over 60 billion riyals (about $16 billion).
The agreements reflect rising confidence in the Saudi business climate and the fund’s ability to generate high-quality investment opportunities that attract both local and foreign capital.
The forum’s final day opened with a discussion on flexibility, risk reduction, and innovative financing, focusing on how to turn strategies into bankable projects and investment opportunities that can draw in the private sector and deepen its role in the economy.
Speakers highlighted the fund’s central role in enabling and developing strategic sectors, investing in large-scale projects that help create a more attractive business environment.
These efforts aim to strengthen participation by the domestic private sector, including small and medium-sized enterprises, while also drawing foreign investment.
In a session on the Saudi sovereign approach to value creation, Raid Ismail, head of direct investments for the Middle East and North Africa at PIF, outlined the “Fund Way” methodology launched in 2019 to boost economic value across portfolio companies.
The approach is built on independent governance and a clear operating framework.
Ismail said the fund remains focused on delivering economic and social impact and sustainable growth across all its investments.
He traced PIF’s investment journey, from selecting priority sectors and forming partnerships with the private sector, to establishing companies, strengthening their governance and operational efficiency, and ultimately exiting investments.
Artificial intelligence featured prominently in the discussions. Tareq Amin, chief executive of Humain, said the company’s approach to AI applications is rooted in rethinking how problems are solved and how organizations prepare for the future.
He noted that Saudi Arabia has strong AI infrastructure, suitable human capital, and ample energy resources, and highlighted the generative AI operating systems and applications the company is developing.
Another panel focused on local content and its impact on the private sector, stressing the importance of building high-quality local content to support a strong national economy, accelerate diversification, and sustain growth.
The discussion also highlighted Saudi Arabia’s efforts to develop policies and regulations that encourage higher local content.
Panelists said increasing local content helps raise the private sector’s contribution to gross domestic product, reduce reliance on foreign supply chains, develop national industries and products, improve competitiveness, expand into new markets, and create jobs.
The session also highlighted PIF’s role in boosting local content through a range of programs and initiatives, including the Musahama local content development program, contractor financing, the industrial accelerator, supplier development, the private sector platform, and the Musahama design competition.
Spending by the fund and its portfolio companies on local content exceeded 590 billion riyals between 2020 and 2024.
Financing solutions were another key theme, with discussions on how to develop funding tools aligned with Saudi Arabia’s economic growth and ensure access to finance for large projects, small and medium-sized enterprises, and entrepreneurs.
Over the past five years, PIF has helped unlock priority strategic sectors across the kingdom.
It invested about 750 billion riyals domestically in new projects between 2021 and 2025. It contributed a cumulative 910 billion riyals ($242.6 billion) to Saudi Arabia’s real non-oil GDP between 2021 and 2024, accounting for around 10% of non-oil GDP in 2024.
The fourth edition of the forum builds on the momentum of previous years. Attendance has tripled since 2023, rising from 4,000 participants to 12,000 in 2025, while the number of exhibition booths by PIF portfolio companies more than doubled to over 100.
