Saudi Arabia’s $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund plans to unveil a new long-term strategy as it looks to boost investment returns, bolster the local economy and drive the kingdom’s push to diversify away from oil.
“In the coming two months or so, we will set the new strategy for the PIF, which is a continuation from the original one, until 2030 and from 2030 all the way to 2040 and beyond,” Public Investment Fund Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan said during an interview with David Rubenstein at the Economic Club of Washington D.C. on Monday.
He didn’t offer details but said the PIF continues to prioritize investments in Saudi Arabia as it looks to develop new sectors, create jobs and increase the use of domestically-sourced goods to support the economy.
The PIF is deploying about 80% of its capital locally, while the rest goes abroad, Al-Rumayyan said. The fund is keen on co-investments with international players that help bring money back to Saudi, he added.
“We need to increase and grow our local content and one of the best ways to do so is to get direct foreign investments to the country,” Al-Rumayyan said in a wide-ranging interview on everything from oil to sports and tourism.
The PIF’s current strategy includes growing and diversifying assets internationally, developing so-called giga projects like Neom and drawing in more participation from the private sector. It has also expanded its portfolio of companies and sold off or listed some of those firms to draw in cash.
Domestic Pressure
The sovereign wealth fund is the main entity tasked with driving Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 agenda — a job that has become more challenging in recent years as lower oil prices weigh on government revenue and inflate the kingdom’s budget deficit.
That has added pressure to the PIF to spend more at home, or focus on international deals that develop the Saudi economy, and led to a shift in business dealings with asset managers and Wall Street heavyweights like Blackstone Inc. and BlackRock Inc.
Financial executives used to regularly trek to Riyadh in search of global investment opportunities backed by PIF checks but now find the fund wants commitments to Saudi Arabia as part of any deals, Bloomberg has reported.
When asked about how Saudi Arabia will deploy $600 billion of investments into the US following President Donald Trump’s visit to the kingdom in May, Al-Rumayyan said details are still being worked out and that “everything” is on the table in terms of areas to deploy capital.
The PIF has said it plans to boost total annual deployment to $70 billion a year after 2025 and emphasized that its investments in absolute dollar terms will continue to rise abroad even as it focuses at home.
The International Monetary Fund said in August that the PIF is expected to continue spending at least $40 billion a year on domestic investment, which would help keep Saudi economic growth “positive and robust.”
The wealth fund is currently working to diversify its sources of funding, including through international bond sales. Assets under management rose to $913 billion in 2024 and its target for 2030 now stands at $2.67 trillion.
The fund’s internal rate of return has averaged about 7.2% since 2015, versus less than 2% prior to that, Al-Rumayyan said.
The PIF currently has about 3,000 employees and offices in Riyadh, New York, Hong Kong, Beijing and Paris. It’s also planning to open regional offices in Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain and Oman.
Al-Rumayyan, who also serves as chairman of Saudi Aramco, noted the state oil giant is currently pumping below 10 million barrels a day but can increase that by 20% within just days.
On the topic of sport, he said he hopes the Saudi upstart league LIV Golf will eventually work with the PGA Tour and DP World Tour. The PGA and LIV agreed to a framework for a merger in 2023, but that deal has since stalled.
“I think hopefully in the future we will be able to bring the game of golf together,” Al-Rumayyan said. “What I’m trying to do is not to claw back from the PGA or the DP World Tour. What I’m trying to do is increase the size of the pie.”
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