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Saudi ‘Jada’ Plans Attractive Investment Funds in NEOM

Part of the ‘Catalyze Saudi’ initiative activities in Riyadh (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Part of the ‘Catalyze Saudi’ initiative activities in Riyadh (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Saudi ‘Jada’ Plans Attractive Investment Funds in NEOM

Part of the ‘Catalyze Saudi’ initiative activities in Riyadh (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Part of the ‘Catalyze Saudi’ initiative activities in Riyadh (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Saudi Arabia’s Jada Fund of Funds plans launching funds to attract investments in favor of NEOM, revealed Jada CEO Adel Al-Ateeq.

“We are looking to increase the volume of Jada’s investment by more than SAR 4 billion ($1.06 billion),” Al-Ateeq told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“Since the beginning of Jada’s launch, we have invested in more than 20 investment funds,” said Al-Ateeq.

“The volume of investment in these funds exceeded SAR2 billion ($533.3 million), distributed among a number of venture capital and private equity funds in the Kingdom,” revealed the CEO.

Al-Ateeq stressed that Jada will continue to invest in venture capital and private equity in the Kingdom. He reaffirmed that the fund would carry on with the momentum it started with three years ago.

He pointed out that Jada’s capital initially amounted to SAR 4 billion ($1.06 billion) but hoped to increase its value in the future.

“We invested SAR 2 billion in 3 years... and I expect to continue at the same level during the next three years... We invested in 20 funds in several companies,” said Al-Ateeq, adding that Jada has capitalized in 350 local and regional companies.

“NEOM is still in the process of being established, and it is working to establish many targeted projects... Therefore, we are looking forward to launching investment funds that will give NEOM a share of its investments when its projects are launched,” revealed Al-Ateeq.

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Investment (MISA) and Jada had formed a partnership to bolster the Kingdom’s start-up and innovation sector and support economic diversification under the ‘Catalyze Saudi’ initiative.

Jada, owned by the Public Investment fund (PIF), provides funding to start-ups in the Kingdom through commercially sustainable investments in venture capital and private equity funds.

MISA and Jada aim to connect leaders from government agencies, start-up entrepreneurs, investors and leading family business representatives from the Kingdom to participate in roundtable discussions and reinforce the private sector’s impact on the local economy.

The ‘Catalyze Saudi’ initiative is in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 which aims to raise small and medium sized enterprises’ (SMEs) contribution to GDP from 21% to 35% by 2030.

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Trump Announces 30% Tariffs Against EU, Mexico to begin August 1

President Donald J. Trump speaks at a roundtable discussion at the Community Emergency Operations Center in Kerrville, Texas, Friday, July 11, 2025. (Ricardo B. Brazziell/Austin American-Statesman via AP)
President Donald J. Trump speaks at a roundtable discussion at the Community Emergency Operations Center in Kerrville, Texas, Friday, July 11, 2025. (Ricardo B. Brazziell/Austin American-Statesman via AP)
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Trump Announces 30% Tariffs Against EU, Mexico to begin August 1

President Donald J. Trump speaks at a roundtable discussion at the Community Emergency Operations Center in Kerrville, Texas, Friday, July 11, 2025. (Ricardo B. Brazziell/Austin American-Statesman via AP)
President Donald J. Trump speaks at a roundtable discussion at the Community Emergency Operations Center in Kerrville, Texas, Friday, July 11, 2025. (Ricardo B. Brazziell/Austin American-Statesman via AP)

President Donald Trump on Saturday announced he's levying tariffs of 30% against the European Union and Mexico.

Trump announced the tariffs on two of the United States' biggest trade partners in letters posted to his social media account.

In his letter to Mexico's leader, Trump acknowledged that the country has been helpful in stemming the flow of undocumented migrants and fentanyl into the United States. But he said the country has not done enough to stop North America from turning into a “Narco-Trafficking Playground.”

“Mexico has been helping me secure the border, BUT, what Mexico has done, is not enough,” Trump added, The AP news reported.

Trump in his letter to the European Union said that the US trade deficit was a national security threat.

“We have had years to discuss our Trading Relationship with The European Union, and we have concluded we must move away from these long-term, large, and persistent, Trade Deficits, engendered by your Tariff, and Non-Tariff, Policies, and Trade Barriers,” Trump wrote in the letter to the EU. “Our relationship has been, unfortunately, far from Reciprocal.”

Trump is in the midst of an announcement blitz of new tariffs with allies and foes alike, a bedrock of his 2024 campaign that he said would set the foundation for reviving a US economy that he claims has been ripped off by other nations for decades.

With the reciprocal tariffs, Trump is effectively blowing up the rules governing world trade. For decades, the United States and most other countries abided by tariff rates set through a series of complex negotiations known as the Uruguay round. Countries could set their own tariffs – but under the “most favored nation’’ approach, they couldn’t charge one country more than they charged another.

With Saturday's letters, Trump has now issued tariff conditions on 24 countries and the 27-member European Union.

The European Union’s chief trade negotiator said earlier this week that a trade deal to avert higher tariffs on European goods imported to the US could be reached “even in the coming days.” Maroš Šefčovič told EU lawmakers in Strasbourg, France on Wednesday that the EU had been spared the increased tariffs contained in the letters Trump sent on Monday, and that an extension of talks would provide “additional space to reach a satisfactory conclusion.”

The bloc collectively sells more to the US than any other country. US goods imports from the EU topped $553 billion in 2022, according to the Office of the US Trade Representative.

Trump on April 2 proposed a 20% tariff for EU goods and then threatened to raise that to 50% after negotiations did not move as fast as he would have liked. Sefcovic did not mention any tariff figures.

The higher tariffs as well as any EU retaliation had been suspended as the two sides negotiate. However the base rate of 10% for most trade partners as well as higher rates of 25% on autos and 50% on steel and aluminum had gone into effect.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former Congressional Budget Office director and president of the center-right American Action Forum, said the letters were evidence that serious trade talks were not taking place over the past three months. He stressed that nations were instead talking amongst themselves about how to minimize their own exposure to the US economy and Trump.

“They’re spending time talking to each other about what the future is going to look like, and we’re left out,” Holtz-Eakin said.

He added that Trump was using the letters to demand attention, but, “In the end, these are letters to other countries about taxes he’s going to levy on his citizens.”