عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Business

Saudi Sovereign Fund Expands Its US Footprint With Investments Exceeding $170 Billion

PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan during a panel discussion at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh (Reuters). 
PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan during a panel discussion at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh (Reuters). 
TT
TT

Saudi Sovereign Fund Expands Its US Footprint With Investments Exceeding $170 Billion

PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan during a panel discussion at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh (Reuters). 
PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan during a panel discussion at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh (Reuters). 

As the Public Investment Fund (PIF) expands its investments in the United States beyond $170 billion, a defining feature of the deepening strategic partnership between Riyadh and Washington is coming into sharper focus.

With Washington preparing to welcome Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on November 18, attention is turning to the pivotal role played by PIF - now one of the world’s most influential sovereign funds and a core driver of Saudi Arabia’s economic transformation under Vision 2030. PIF, which expects its assets under management to reach $1 trillion by the end of this year, aims to generate sustainable returns while reshaping the Kingdom’s economy and contributing to future global growth.

According to its official disclosures, the Fund has launched more than 100 new companies and created over 1.1 million direct and indirect jobs inside and outside Saudi Arabia in the past seven years.

In Washington last week, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met with PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan to discuss expanding the Fund’s American investments. “We discussed opportunities for Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to boost significant investment into America, fostering economic growth and building long-lasting ties between our two countries,” Bessent wrote on X.

The meeting highlighted the resilience of Saudi-US economic ties, even after PIF reduced some exposure to US equities in the third quarter by exiting nine publicly traded companies, as reported by Bloomberg.

Strong Growth Outlook

Tim Callen, a visiting fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the US–Saudi economic relationship is showing renewed momentum, with American exports to the Kingdom increasing and several trade and investment deals under way. He expected the partnership to strengthen further over the next five years, driven by aligned strategic interests and the strong relationship between the US president and the Saudi crown prince.

Callen noted that Washington is seeking to expand its exports and encourage greater Saudi investment in US companies, while Riyadh aims to deepen access to American technology and innovation to support its ambitious reforms. He added that US investment in Saudi Arabia is also poised for strong growth, supported by an improving investment climate, competitive energy costs, and ample land for fast-expanding technology and artificial-intelligence sectors.

America, PIF’s Largest Foreign Investment Destination

The United States remains PIF’s largest overseas investment market. Since 2017, the Fund has injected roughly $170 billion into the American economy through direct and indirect investments, procurement, and partnerships, helping create an estimated 172,000 jobs across multiple sectors.

Its presence is evident in key US industries. In aviation, PIF-owned Riyadh Air placed an order for up to 72 Boeing aircraft, giving a substantial boost to the US aerospace sector. In cloud technology, PIF is working with Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Oracle, and Google Cloud to expand digital infrastructure.

PIF has also deepened its ties with major American financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs, Brookfield, and BlackRock. In 2024, the Fund announced a $5 billion initial investment with BlackRock to establish BlackRock Riyadh Investment Management, aimed at attracting new capital to the Kingdom and offering US firms expanded access to regional opportunities.

Shaping Innovation in Sports, Technology, and Sustainability

Beyond traditional finance, PIF is reshaping global innovation across sports, gaming, and sustainability. In tennis, the Fund supports both the Miami Open and Indian Wells, and helped introduce the world’s first paid maternity program for professional players. In gaming, PIF led a $55 billion investment consortium to acquire Electronic Arts, marking the largest leveraged buyout in the sector’s history.

The Fund is also a major backer of Formula E, including the Miami E-Prix, highlighting its commitment to electric mobility and clean-energy racing.

In science and education, PIF’s E360 program and its US partnership support the Driving Force STEM initiative, now engaging 54,000 students across the United States and other countries.

Speaking at the US Business Forum in Miami, Fahad Al-Saif, head of PIF’s investment strategy, economic studies, and global investment finance, said sovereign funds have evolved from passive asset managers into active architects of global economic shifts. He emphasized that Vision 2030 redefined PIF’s mission around building the national economy, maximizing assets, and safeguarding intergenerational wealth.

He noted that PIF is concluding its 2021–2025 strategy and moving into a new five-year phase focused on integrating its work across six core ecosystems, including tourism and entertainment, advanced manufacturing, logistics, sustainable energy, infrastructure, and NEOM.

Saudi Arabia, he said, has raised its non-oil GDP share to over 55 percent, grown foreign direct investment by 37 percent year-on-year, and lifted non-oil revenue to 49.7 percent of total income.

Most Viewed

 
 
Business

China’s Factory Activity Snaps Record Slump on Festive Stockpiling

People walk down steps near a residential building area with a view of China Zun, the tallest skyscraper in Beijing, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025. (AP)
People walk down steps near a residential building area with a view of China Zun, the tallest skyscraper in Beijing, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025. (AP)
TT
TT

China’s Factory Activity Snaps Record Slump on Festive Stockpiling

People walk down steps near a residential building area with a view of China Zun, the tallest skyscraper in Beijing, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025. (AP)
People walk down steps near a residential building area with a view of China Zun, the tallest skyscraper in Beijing, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025. (AP)

China's factory activity unexpectedly grew in December, snapping a record eight straight months of decline, lifted by a rise in pre-holiday orders ​as officials seek to spur the $19 trillion economy's manufacturing sector without worsening deflation.

The official purchasing managers' index (PMI) rose to 50.1 in December from 49.2 in November, the National Bureau of Statistics' survey showed on Wednesday, topping the 50-point mark separating growth from contraction and beating a forecast of 49.2 in a Reuters poll.

"Assuming the improvement in the PMIs is borne out in the hard data, we think it will likely be a short-lived upturn in activity on the back of month-to-month swings in fiscal spending rather than the start of a more sustained pick-up," said Julian Evans-Pritchard, head of China economics at Capital Economics.

"The big picture is that the structural headwinds from the property ‌downturn and industrial ‌overcapacity are set to persist in 2026," he added.

Still, the data should ‌give ⁠policymakers ​cause for ‌optimism after choosing to see out 2025 without major additional stimulus to meet the full-year growth target of around 5%.

The production sub-index jumped to 51.7 from 50.0 in November, while new orders climbed to 50.8 from 49.2, marking their strongest performance since March. Supplier delivery times also improved, pushing the production and activity expectations component to 55.5, its highest reading since March 2024.

New export orders remained sluggish, however, edging up to 49.0 from November's 47.6, underscoring the need for officials to boost domestic demand and rely less on US demand, the world's top consumer market, in the face of President Donald Trump's ⁠tariffs.

Huo Lihui, an NBS statistician, said confidence appeared to be improving due to pre-holiday stockpiling, as the world's second-largest economy prepares to celebrate the Lunar ‌New Year in February, pointing to an uptick in the agricultural, food processing ‍and food and beverage sectors.

A separate private-sector PMI ‍published on Wednesday also showed marginal expansion in activity in December, driven by stronger production and domestic demand ‍in the absence of more foreign orders.

DEPRESSED DOMESTIC DEMAND

Ginning up domestic manufacturing without taking further steps to boost consumer demand risks worsening deflationary pressures, however.

In separate data released last week, Chinese industrial firms saw their profits fall 13.1% year-on-year in November, the steepest drop in over a year, suggesting households are not stepping in to pick up the shortfall as a slowing global economy weighs ​on exports.

At an agenda-setting gathering in early December, the ruling Communist Party leadership promised to boost income and stimulate consumption, although similar pledges in the past have struggled to deliver results.

Chinese consumers ⁠have so far been reluctant to spend, held back by an uncertain employment outlook and as a prolonged property crisis drains household wealth.

The official non-manufacturing PMI, which includes services and construction, was at 50.2, after shrinking in November for the first time in nearly three years.

Beijing's policymakers have come to recognize the need to rebalance the economy and transform its production-driven model as tensions with key export markets mount.

"The country's economic development still faces many old problems and new challenges; the impact of changes in the external environment is deepening, and the contradiction between strong supply and weak demand is prominent domestically," the readout of the Central Economic Work Conference said.

In an article published by the flagship party magazine Qiushi Journal in mid-December, President Xi Jinping said there was "overall capacity excess" and that "ultimately consumption is the sustainable driver of economic growth."

Beijing had previously rejected "overcapacity" as unfair criticism by Western governments towards China's industrial policies.

In a nod to those concerns, authorities ‌have this year vowed to crack down on price wars, prune production in some sectors and step up so-called "anti-involution" efforts.

The NBS composite PMI of manufacturing and non-manufacturing was 50.7 in December, compared with November's 49.7.

Business

China Will Push More Proactive Macro Policies in 2026, Xi Says

Pedestrians walk along a street in the Central Business District of Beijing, China, 31 December, 2025. (EPA)
Pedestrians walk along a street in the Central Business District of Beijing, China, 31 December, 2025. (EPA)
TT
TT

China Will Push More Proactive Macro Policies in 2026, Xi Says

Pedestrians walk along a street in the Central Business District of Beijing, China, 31 December, 2025. (EPA)
Pedestrians walk along a street in the Central Business District of Beijing, China, 31 December, 2025. (EPA)

China will implement more proactive ​macroeconomic policies next year, President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday, according ‌to state ‌media.

The ‌Chinese ⁠economy ​is ‌expected to achieve about 5% growth for 2025, to about 140 ⁠trillion yuan ($20 trillion), ‌Xi said.

The ‍country ‍will promote ‍effective qualitative improvement and reasonable quantitative growth in ​the economy, Xi said at ⁠a New Year's tea party of top Chinese Communist Party officials.

Business

India Overtakes Japan as World's 4th Largest Economy

 A man walks at the seafront as scattered clouds are seen over Mumbai's skyline, India, June 10, 2015. (Reuters)
 A man walks at the seafront as scattered clouds are seen over Mumbai's skyline, India, June 10, 2015. (Reuters)
TT
TT

India Overtakes Japan as World's 4th Largest Economy

 A man walks at the seafront as scattered clouds are seen over Mumbai's skyline, India, June 10, 2015. (Reuters)
 A man walks at the seafront as scattered clouds are seen over Mumbai's skyline, India, June 10, 2015. (Reuters)

India has overtaken Japan as the world’s fourth largest economy and officials hope to pass Germany within three years, the government’s end-of-year economic review revealed.

Official confirmation, however, depends on data due in 2026 when final annual gross domestic product figures are released, with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) suggesting India will cross over Japan next year, reported AFP.

“India is among the world’s fastest-growing major economies and is well-positioned to sustain this momentum,” read the government economic briefing note, which was released late on Monday.

“With GDP valued at $4.18 trillion, India has surpassed Japan to become the world’s fourth largest economy, and is poised to displace Germany from the third rank in the next two-and-a-half to three years, with projected GDP of $7.3 trillion by 2030.”

IMF projections for 2026 put India’s economy at $4.51 trillion, compared with Japan’s $4.46 trillion.

The upbeat assessment comes despite economic worries after Washington in August hit India with huge tariffs over its purchases of Russian oil.

New Delhi said continued growth reflects its “resilience amid persistent global trade uncertainties”. But other measurements offer a less rosy outlook.

In terms of population, India overtook neighboring China as the most populous nation in 2023.

India’s GDP per capita was $2,694 in 2024, according to the latest World Bank figures, 12 times smaller than Japan’s $32,487, and 20 times smaller than Germany’s $56,103.

Government figures show that more than a quarter of India's 1.4 billion people are aged between 10 and 26. Creating enough well-paid jobs for millions of young graduates is an upcoming hurdle, but the report offered a rosy outlook.

“As one of the world's youngest nations, India's growth story is being shaped by its ability to generate quality employment that productively absorbs its expanding workforce and delivers inclusive, sustainable growth,” a note in the review said.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi this year unveiled sweeping consumption tax cuts and pushed through labor law reforms after growth slowed to a four-year low in the 12 months ending March 31.

Currency pressures have also mounted.

The rupee hit a record low against the dollar in early December, after falling about 5% in 2025.

That came amid concerns over the lack of a trade deal with Washington and the impact of higher levies on Indian goods.

India became the world's fifth largest economy in 2022, when its GDP overtook that of former colonial ruler Britain, according to IMF figures.