Chaired by Saudi Crown Prince, PIF Board of Directors Approves PIF 2026-2030 Strategy

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman - SPA
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman - SPA
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Chaired by Saudi Crown Prince, PIF Board of Directors Approves PIF 2026-2030 Strategy

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman - SPA
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman - SPA

The Public Investment Fund (PIF) Board of Directors, chaired by Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, has approved PIF’s 2026-2030 strategy, a continuation of the fund’s long-term strategy that will focus on delivering competitive domestic ecosystems to connect sectors, unlock the full potential of strategic assets, maximize long-term returns, and continue to drive the economic transformation of Saudi Arabia and further enhance the quality of life of its citizens.

The 2026-2030 strategy marks a natural evolution as PIF moves from a period of rapid growth and acceleration to a new phase of sustained value creation, with a strengthened focus on maximizing impact, raising the efficiency of investments, and applying the highest standards of governance, transparency and institutional excellence. In addition, PIF will further enable the role of the private sector as an effective partner for sustainable economic development, according to SPA.

Under the 2026-2030 strategy, PIF has structured its investments into three portfolios. The Vision Portfolio aims to leverage synergies across strategic sectors, maximize value for PIF portfolio companies, and continue to drive the growth of the local economy. It will contribute to national priorities through the delivery of six competitive domestic ecosystems and by further integrating PIF’s investments. The Vision Portfolio will unlock new opportunities for the domestic private sector as an investor, partner, and supplier, to further enable its role as an effective partner for sustainable economic development, while also attracting global partners and investors.

The six ecosystems include: Tourism, Travel, and Entertainment; Urban Development and Livability; Advanced Manufacturing and Innovation; Industrials and Logistics; Clean Energy, Water, and Renewables Infrastructure; and NEOM.

The Strategic Portfolio will actively manage key strategic assets to maximize financial returns and the economic impact of PIF’s companies, while supporting their efforts to attract capital and become global champions. Through the Strategic Portfolio, PIF will also continue to invest in opportunities arising from long-term global trends.

The Financial Portfolio will focus on delivering sustainable financial returns to further strengthen PIF’s financial position and continue to grow national wealth for future generations. It will manage PIF’s direct and indirect investments in global markets to maximize returns, while building a more diversified and resilient portfolio. It will further strengthen strategic international partnerships to help attract capital and increase access to global investment opportunities.

PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan said: "PIF’s strategy continues to deliver results as we grow domestically and internationally. In less than a decade, we have launched unprecedented projects, including giga-projects and major real estate developments, in addition to unique investments in strategic sectors such as artificial intelligence, gaming and esports, and renewable energy. PIF also grew assets under management six-fold and attracted global partners and capital to take part in Saudi Arabia’s transformation."

He added that PIF will continue to support Saudi Vision 2030 objectives by delivering competitive domestic ecosystems, investing in national champions that have the potential to scale globally, and forming global economic partnerships, building on what has been achieved under PIF’s 2021-2025 strategy.

"The 2026-2030 strategy is a natural next step in PIF’s growth journey. It offers our partners more opportunities to invest in high-quality assets and ecosystems, alongside PIF. In the next five years, we will continue to build on our great achievements and strengthen our global leadership to deliver success for PIF and Saudi Arabia," Al-Rumayyan said.

PIF will continue to invest with agility in both local and international markets and maintain its ability to respond to emerging opportunities that benefit the local economy and impact an ever-shifting global economy. It will maintain a disciplined focus on value realization, sustainable returns, enhanced capital efficiency and the highest institutional standards, as it drives innovation and advanced utilization of data and artificial intelligence.

PIF’s 2026-2030 strategy provides a clear strategic direction for the coming decades. It also strengthens PIF’s position as a local and global investor, with a diversified and resilient portfolio that contributes to Saudi Arabia’s long-term economic prosperity. PIF’s unique mandate will remain the same: to drive the economic transformation of Saudi Arabia and generate sustainable financial returns.

The strategy builds on the substantial progress and achievements delivered by PIF under its previous strategies, including increasing grown assets under management from $150 billion in 2015 to more than $900 billion; achieving an annualized total shareholder return of over 7% since 2017; investing more than $199 billion in new projects in Saudi Arabia from 2021 to 2025; contributing more than $243 billion to real non-oil GDP from 2021 to 2024, equivalent to around 10% of Saudi Arabia’s total non-oil GDP in 2024; spending together with its portfolio companies more than $157 billion with the local private sector from 2021 to 2024; expanding PIF’s global presence in priority markets with subsidiary company offices in North America, Europe, and Asia to deepen PIF’s ties in international markets and continue to invest in sectors, industries, and companies shaping the future of the global economy; and being one of the few sovereign wealth funds with strong credit ratings from each of the world’s top three rating agencies. Moody’s rated PIF Aa3 with a stable outlook, while Fitch rated PIF A+, also with a stable outlook



Iraq Says It Transported 2 Million Barrels of Crude Through Strait of Hormuz

 A drone view shows vessels near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, October 2, 2026. (Reuters)
A drone view shows vessels near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, October 2, 2026. (Reuters)
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Iraq Says It Transported 2 Million Barrels of Crude Through Strait of Hormuz

 A drone view shows vessels near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, October 2, 2026. (Reuters)
A drone view shows vessels near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, October 2, 2026. (Reuters)

Iraq's state-owned Oil Tanker Company transported 2 million barrels of Iraqi crude aboard a very large crude carrier (VLCC) through the Strait of Hormuz, in what its director general described on Saturday as the company's first such operation in ‌decades.

The ‌announcement means the company ‌is ⁠transporting the crude through ⁠the strait rather than delivering it at the port of Basra, giving state oil marketer SOMO greater flexibility in how and where it sells ⁠the crude.

The company's ‌director general, ‌Ali Qais Abdul Jabbar, said in ‌a statement that the move ‌could allow SOMO to take advantage of better sales and pricing opportunities.

Iraq's Oil Tanker Company is ‌also working to buy and own specialized crude oil ⁠tankers ⁠to expand its fleet and strengthen its ability to compete with regional shipping companies, he added.

Iraq has previously secured Iranian permission for Iraqi oil tankers to transit the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has effectively closed during its conflict with the US.


'Handful' of G20 Countries Reject US Stance on Excess Industrial Capacity

US Trade Representative Jamison Greer speaks on the second day of the G20 Trade Ministerial Meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin - October 1 (AFP)
US Trade Representative Jamison Greer speaks on the second day of the G20 Trade Ministerial Meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin - October 1 (AFP)
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'Handful' of G20 Countries Reject US Stance on Excess Industrial Capacity

US Trade Representative Jamison Greer speaks on the second day of the G20 Trade Ministerial Meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin - October 1 (AFP)
US Trade Representative Jamison Greer speaks on the second day of the G20 Trade Ministerial Meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin - October 1 (AFP)

A "handful" of Group of 20 trade ministers rejected US calls to curb excess industrial capacity and "non-market" policies, the US Trade Representative's office said on Friday, exposing divisions within the group of major economies.

The US, this year's G20 chair, issued the statement a day after a trade meeting in Milwaukee that revealed that only two countries — Mexico and Argentina — signed on to a US-led statement calling for more work and cooperation to eliminate goods produced with forced labor from supply chains, Reuters reported.

The rejection from the vast majority of G20 countries follows the Trump administration's imposition of ‌tariffs of 10% or ‌12.5% on goods from 59 countries and the European Union over allegations ‌that ⁠they fail to ⁠adequately enforce bans on forced labor.

USTR also is conducting a second "Section 301" tariff investigation into 16 trading partners that show signs of excess industrial capacity. The probe is widely expected to lead to new duties in coming months.

The USTR statement did not name countries that objected to the excess-capacity statement. But China had objected to a similar G20 statement denouncing forced labor and non-market economic policies that lead to excessive exports at a finance leaders' meeting a month ago in North Carolina.

"The draft ministerial statement was supported by all but a handful ⁠of members, a few of whom firmly rejected creating this pathway toward cooperative ‌action" on excess capacity, the statement said, adding that this "severely ‌disappointed" the US G20 presidency.

China's excess industrial capacity and industrial subsidies have been key themes of the US-led G20 ministerial ‌meetings so far this year. Beijing has rejected claims that its industrial policies have created excess capacity, ‌accusing Western countries of using the issue to justify protectionist measures.

The US said that G20 trade ministers reached consensus on denouncing the weaponization of food trade, with members agreeing that trade in food or agricultural inputs should not be used as a tool for economic or political coercion.

In that G20 joint statement, the ministers defined the weaponization of ‌food as measures to "slow, stop, block or direct the flow of food and agricultural inputs" to exert coercive pressure to extract unrelated geopolitical concessions.

"We ⁠condemn food weaponization, as ⁠it poses a significant humanitarian and economic threat," the G20 trade ministers said.

After pressure from US President Donald Trump that included the threat of a US diesel export ban, Group of Seven countries on Friday agreed to release some 100 million barrels of diesel reserves to try to drive down record-high US diesel prices. The fuel is widely used in agricultural production.

TARIFF STRUCTURE DISCUSSIONS

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Thursday that he did not seek a joint statement on a fourth discussion topic, reforming the "most favored nation" system of published, unconditional global tariff rates that underpin the World Trade Organization. MFN tariffs have defined the global trading system since the end of World War Two.

Greer has argued that the MFN principle has been abused by non-market-oriented economies such as China that have subsidized industries, but it does not allow these countries to be treated differently.

The US statement said some G20 members had expressed a willingness to consider changes to MFN, including expanding exceptions to the principle and issuing new legal interpretations to enable greater use of existing exceptions.


DOJ Will Not Reopen Criminal Probe into Fed's Powell

(FILES) US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaks during a press conference following the Federal Open Market Committee meeting at the Federal Reserve Board Building in Washington, DC, on March 18, 2026. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP)
(FILES) US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaks during a press conference following the Federal Open Market Committee meeting at the Federal Reserve Board Building in Washington, DC, on March 18, 2026. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP)
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DOJ Will Not Reopen Criminal Probe into Fed's Powell

(FILES) US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaks during a press conference following the Federal Open Market Committee meeting at the Federal Reserve Board Building in Washington, DC, on March 18, 2026. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP)
(FILES) US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaks during a press conference following the Federal Open Market Committee meeting at the Federal Reserve Board Building in Washington, DC, on March 18, 2026. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP)

The US Justice Department is not reopening a criminal probe into former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for cost overruns related to the central bank's building renovation project, a DOJ spokesperson said on Friday.

Attorney General Todd Blanche, in comments to Bloomberg News, which first reported the development, said he ‌has not ruled out ‌continuing to look into ‌the ⁠project's oversight and potentially ⁠take action if evidence of wrongdoing came to light.

The Fed's Inspector General on Wednesday said it found no grounds for a criminal referral or evidence of administrative misconduct tied to the project cost overruns, ⁠but its conclusion there was lax ‌oversight drew a ‌fresh call from President Donald Trump for Powell's ‌resignation. Powell has remained at the ‌Fed as a governor since stepping down as chair in May.

His successor Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh said on Thursday he would hire an independent ‌auditor to "verify accuracy and compliance" for all of the project's costs.

Blanche told ⁠Bloomberg ⁠News that if this new review finds any evidence of criminal wrongdoing, the Justice Department could investigate.

At his final press conference as Fed chief in April, Powell said he would not leave the Board "until this investigation is well and truly over, with transparency and finality."

A Fed spokesperson had no immediate comment on Blanche's statements.