Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) recently released its Annual Report for 2024. A strong performance during 2024 especially given its ambitious and challenging mandate, reveals that the Public Investment Fund remains a fulcrum of the Saudi economy and retains its position as one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing SWFs.
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It’s a great time to be an asset management business in the GCC. Assets under management (AuM) across the industry rose 9% to $2.2T between 2023 and 2024 anchored by sovereign wealth funds and a strategic focus on diversification. This compares to a 12% rise in global AUM to $128T.
What’s driving this growth? Increasing emphasis on alternative investments and sustainable finance, a combination of resilience (SWFs) and depth (retail mutual fund growth) combined with the rapid adoption of innovative digital solutions. According to a recent report by the Boston Consulting Group, technology is an important source of disruption as firms focus on investing in transformative technologies such as artificial intelligence to reduce costs and streamline operations. Asset managers are investing particularly in Generative AI, to ‘automate portfolio management, enhance research, and streamline middle- and back-office operations‘.
It is against this background of a region gearing up to become the world’s new global financial hub, that Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, PIF, has released its Annual Report for 2024.
Highlights from the fund’s performance report for 2024:
- Strong revenue growth: total revenue up 25% YoY and annualized returns up 7.2% since 2017
- Robust liquidity: cash balances strong and broadly unchanged YoY
- Deepening asset base: AuM closed 2024 at $913 billion, an annual increase of 19% pushing annual average total portfolio returns to 7.2% since 2017.
- Diverse investments: Cumulative investments in priority sectors over $171 billion since 2021 – including $57b in 2024 alone; cumulative real non-oil GDP contribution up to $243 billion during the same period.
- Annual capital deployment expected to rise to $70 billion during 2025.
- Renewed focus on domestic industries: the fund halved its share of global investments from 30% to 18% by volume indicating a continued shift towards domestic investments to support the Kingdom’s economic transformation. International investments continue to rise by value.
- Contribution to non-oil GDP: PIF represents 10% of the nation’s non-oil economy, with cumulative real non-oil GDP contribution of $243 billion (2021 – 2024).
- International recognition of financial strength and stability: Credit rating agency Moody’s upgraded PIF’s credit rating from A1 to Aa3 with a stable outlook; Fitch maintained its A+ rating.
Chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the PIF is the key vehicle driving the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 agenda: to diversify the Saudi economy, to reduce its reliance on oil and increase non-oil GDP growth, and to position Saudi Arabia as the region’s transformative economic, business and cultural powerhouse.
Strategic Recalibration
The economic and investment environment is beginning to stabilize after a flurry of activity over the past few years. In moves that some analysts have described as a sign of fiscal discipline and pragmatism against a challenging macro and geopolitical environment, PIF is recalibrating spending towards projects with hard deadlines such as hosting Expo 2030, the 2029 Asian Winter Games and the 2034 football World Cup while trimming ‘Giga Projects’ by around $8 billion to $56 billion. The projects now account for 6% of the PIF’s assets compared to 8% in 2023 as the fund diversifies its portfolio.
The fund plans to double its assets from just under a trillion dollars to $2.67 trillion by 2030 with an emphasis on domestic growth — the share of international investments in the fund’s portfolio stood at 18% at the end of 2024 down from 30% in 2023. The wealth fund created 16 new companies in 2024 and added artificial intelligence mega-fund HUMAIN, advanced manufacturing firm ALAT, and commercial aerospace company Neo Space to its portfolio.
PIFs investments in mature domestic businesses such as video game and esports company Savvy Games Group, aircraft lessor AviLease, telecom firm STC, mining giant Ma’aden and Saudi National Bank, have helped boost 2024 revenues by 25%. Its international holdings include blue chip firms Uber and Tesla, as well as major sports franchises like LIV Golf and British soccer club Newcastle United.
Diverse investment portfolio
With a renewed focus on economic viability, the fund holds a diverse portfolio of 225 companies (including 103 that it has created and established) across energy (32.3%), real estate (13.8%) and information technology (8.7%). It’s largest holding — thanks to a recent transfer of $164b worth of equity — remains Aramco, the state oil giant. In a move designed to bolster cash flow, strengthen its financial position improve its credit rating, PIF increased its holding in Aramco from 8% to 16% during the first half of 2024.
The fund has also divested from major technology stocks including Meta, Shopify, PayPal and reduced its equity exposure to the US by $1.7B. This does not however signal a wholesale ‘abandonment’ of innovation or technology stocks. Rather it is aa shift towards sectors that are better and more clearly regulated such as gaming, transport and logistics and healthcare.
The move also reflects a global rebalancing of SWF portfolios – a defensive diversification that ‘prioritizes stability over tech speculation’, with a shift towards infrastructure, private credit, and renewable energy in emerging markets across the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
Digital Transformation
Along with other leading SWFs in the GCC, and in alignment with the Kingdom’s commitment to building a technologically advanced economy, PIF has invested heavily in digital transformation projects and integrated artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to automate and streamline operations. It has completed 58 digital projects, launched 15 new applications, and automated over 477 processes along with investments in an AI-driven equity valuation platform, a large language model for real-time investment reporting and AI tools for asset management analysis and portfolio optimization.
“The fund’s efforts to enhance its technological capabilities, promote localization, and encourage innovation are expected to drive further growth and development in Saudi Arabia’s strategic economic sectors.”
So what?
As Bradley Hope puts it in his excellent newsletter, The Closer:
“Expect a tighter, more targeted deployment of Saudi’s vast capital – one that still pursues transformative projects, but with greater regard for economic viability, global partnerships and the ticking clock of upcoming world stages.”
Long-term transformation is a journey, with shifts and turns, with clear-eyed assessments and considered pivots.
“There will still be grand openings and jaw-dropping projects – the scale of investment remains enormous, and PIF still plans to deploy up to $70 billion a year in capital going forward.”
PIF’s report makes it very clear that the government is not afraid to make difficult choices: it will recalibrate its portfolio and its projects according to evolving objectives and strategies, changing macro-economic directives and geopolitical necessities; it will transition from state-funded moonshots into privately-funded, long-term projects when appropriate. There are enormous possibilities for investors, businesses, innovators and contractors willing to share expertise, partner with local talent and commit to the Kingdom’s long-term vision of becoming a global economic and cultural powerhouse.
If you would like to explore growth opportunities in Saudi Arabia, get in touch. Our partners combine a wealth of knowledge and global experience with extensive local networks and an appreciation of the Middle East’s distinctive characteristics to help our clients capitalize on the world’s most ambitious economic transformation.
August 20, 2025
