Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, members of the media, and honored guests. I would like to thank you all for being with us today, and I am pleased to be with you to announce a new phase of work and achievements that the Fund contributes to in enhancing the Kingdom's journey towards a prosperous economic future, God willing.
With the approval of the Public Investment Fund's Board of Directors, chaired by His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince, may God protect him, of the Fund's strategy for the years 2026 to 2030, which is a continuation of the Fund's role in leading development efforts and economic diversification in the Kingdom and achieving the objectives of Vision 2030 in building a vibrant and sustainable economy and enhancing national wealth for future generations.
The Kingdom enjoys a strong financial position and a distinguished strategic location with advanced infrastructure and liquidity linked to global markets, which enhances its ability to attract investments and capital. Accordingly, the Public Investment Fund's investments are inherently long-term, regardless of short-term market fluctuations. The Fund enjoys a strong financial and investment position and sufficient flexibility to deal with various circumstances and adapt to changes.
Honored guests, the Fund was established in 1971 with a comprehensive developmental vision aimed at supporting the building of the national economy and enhancing the pillars of sustainable development. In its beginnings, it focused on contributing to the establishment of major national companies such as the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), Saudi Telecom Company, and Saudi Railways Company, in addition to contributing to the establishment of the banking sector, which contributed to leading economic growth during that period.
The year 2015 witnessed a pivotal turning point in the Fund's journey, represented by the formation of its Board of Directors chaired by His Highness the Crown Prince, may God protect him, and linking it to the Council of Economic and Development Affairs and formulating its strategy to contribute to the development of the local economy by expanding its portfolio of global assets, maximizing investment returns, and diversifying sources of income.
With the launch of the Kingdom's Vision 2030 and the Fund's program from 2018 to 2020, the Fund established companies targeting the development of ten promising sectors. It also launched during that period a number of major projects such as NEOM, the Red Sea, AlUla, and ROSHN, which are pioneering projects of their kind in the world. It also contributed during that period to investing in and developing sectors, transferring development and knowledge, creating jobs, and building local and international partnerships.
It also launched the Future Investment Initiative (FII), which has become one of the most important economic and investment platforms in the world. Since its launch in 2017, the Kingdom has hosted through it thousands of leaders, decision-makers, and investors from around the world, and witnessed the signing of deals worth $250 billion. It has also expanded its international presence through its convening in many major world capitals such as London, Miami, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and others.
At the beginning of 2021, the Fund launched its strategy for the period from 2021 to 2025 to begin a phase targeting expansion and growth, building on the successes achieved in the previous phase. It continued during that period to achieve its objectives by diversifying its assets and injecting investments into 13 strategic sectors, building economic partnerships, and localizing technologies and knowledge, which contributes to supporting development efforts and economic transformation in the Kingdom and consolidating the Fund's position as one of the best investment entities in the world.
Its projects locally contributed to improving the quality of life of Saudi citizens and residents by launching national companies to become leaders in their sectors, such as ROSHN, which contributes to the target of raising the homeownership rate among citizens. The Fund also launched the Savvy Games Group in the electronic games and sports sector, which contributed to organizing and hosting the Kingdom's World Cup for electronic sports, with the participation of more than 3,500 local and international professional players.
In the artificial intelligence sector, the Fund launched the company HUMAIN to develop and manage AI solutions and technologies and invest in the sector's ecosystem to establish the Kingdom as a global center for enabling the best data and AI technologies. The Fund also enabled leading national companies like ACWA Power through its investment to be the main developer of its renewable energy programs, which represents 70% of the Kingdom's targets for planned renewable energy projects by 2030.
The Fund's investment in Bahri also contributed to its transformation into a global leader with a fleet of more than 100 advanced tankers, unleashing the capabilities of this strategic sector and enhancing the resilience and sustainability of supply chains to and from the Kingdom. In addition, the Fund contributed to updating Ma'aden's strategy and enabling it to conclude international partnerships to invest in critical minerals. This transformation enhanced Ma'aden's global position and supported national supply chains, causing the company's market value to quadruple from 60 billion Saudi Riyals to 247 billion Saudi Riyals in 2025.
The Fund also expanded the scope of participation and cooperation with the private sector through many new initiatives and programs, such as the Shareek program to boost local content, the Fund's forum and platform for the private sector, the Fund's program for developing human capabilities 'Azm', and the program for developing and financing entrepreneurs to enhance their capabilities and qualify them for the Fund's company projects.
The Industrial Business Accelerator program enabled startups to develop competitive and innovative products and services to grow their businesses in the Kingdom. In the real estate sector, the Fund provided the private sector with 12,000 opportunities in engineering design, project management, and others, worth 562 billion Saudi Riyals.
The Fund, under the directives of His Highness the Chairman of the Board, may God protect him, is achieving its objectives to transform from a passive investor into a driver of Saudi economic transformation and to become one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world. The Fund's assets under management achieved significant growth of nearly six times over the past ten years compared to 2015, reaching over 3.4 trillion Saudi Riyals by the end of 2025.
It also invested nearly 750 billion Saudi Riyals locally in new projects during the period from 2021 to 2025, representing nearly 70% of the Fund's total investments. The Fund continued its role in achieving returns, recording a total return to shareholders exceeding 7% annually since 2017. Between 2021 and 2024, the Fund contributed to one-third of the growth of the Kingdom's real non-oil GDP, and its contribution doubled from 4% to 10%, reaching 910 billion Riyals cumulatively during that period.
The Fund's investments in non-oil sectors, such as the tourism sector, contributed to developing more than 3,600 hotel rooms and operating 19 hotels globally in projects like the Red Sea, KAUST, AlUla, and Diriyah. The Fund and its subsidiaries spent nearly 590 billion Saudi Riyals between 2020 and 2024, bringing local content spending in 2024 to 207 billion Saudi Riyals, equivalent to 44% of the Kingdom's non-oil revenues in 2024.
The Fund and its subsidiaries also recorded an increase in the local content ratio from 46% in 2020 to 57% by the end of 2024. The Fund's companies contributed to attracting nearly 57 billion Saudi Riyals in foreign direct investments from 2021 until the third quarter of 2025 in a number of emerging and new sectors, including real estate, vehicles, transport and logistics services, communications, and technology.
The Fund's strategic partnerships with major global asset managers in expanding their operations and opening offices in the Kingdom attracted investments exceeding 75 billion Saudi Riyals to the Saudi market from 2021 to 2025, which enhanced the depth of the Saudi financial market. This also contributed to developing local competencies, launching innovative investment products, and developing local asset managers.
In the field of small and medium enterprises, Jada allocated 3.5 billion Saudi Riyals through 46 venture capital and private equity funds to support the financing of SMEs and ambitious individuals. Sanabil Investments also contributes to supporting the entrepreneurial scene in the Kingdom by leading many major investment rounds for startups in the Kingdom, with investments totaling nearly 1.5 billion Saudi Riyals, in addition to providing a number of initiatives aimed at supporting innovation and entrepreneurship in the Kingdom, which benefited 165 startups.
The Fund obtained high credit ratings from the three major global rating agencies to be among the elite of sovereign funds, obtaining ratings from Moody's, Fitch, and S&P. These ratings reflect the Fund's creditworthiness and strong financial position, and contribute to enhancing its ability to enable its subsidiaries to access financing and investment sources with high credit efficiency, which supports efforts to diversify the local economy and enhance its sustainability and financial resilience.
The Fund expanded its global presence by opening a number of offices for its subsidiaries around the world in Asia, Europe, and America, as part of its strategy for global growth and building partnerships, in addition to the offices of its subsidiaries in four regional markets: Egypt, Bahrain, Jordan, and the Sultanate of Oman, with the aim of finding suitable opportunities and helping the Fund's companies and the private sector to enter these markets.
The strategy for the next five years is a continuation of the Fund's journey and a natural progression from the expansion and growth phase to a new phase of achieving sustainable value, maximizing impact, and improving investment efficiency by transforming 13 strategic sectors into six integrated economic systems, in addition to enhancing the linkages between them, which provides more opportunities for partnership and diverse investment for the private sector, with a focus on enhancing financial returns to boost the Fund's contribution to the prosperity of the Kingdom's economy.
The government has played a leading role in contributing to preparing and developing the investment environment by updating and developing regulatory policies and legislation to increase the attractiveness of the Saudi market for the local private sector and foreign capital. This includes specific policies for local content, special economic zone legislation, and updating the investment system. These updates will serve the Fund's strategy for the next five years.
The Fund will focus in its strategy on adhering to investment efficiency with continuous evaluation of the performance of its investments and projects to enhance the balance of its portfolio and the sustainability of its financial returns and maximize their impact for future generations, God willing, which will positively reflect on the economy. This will be accompanied by the continuation of adopting the highest standards and practices in governance, transparency, operational efficiency, and institutional excellence, including adopting the Santiago Principles for institutional governance, the framework for managing risks for sovereign wealth funds, and the Fund's voluntary compliance with the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS).
The Fund's investments under the 2026-2030 strategy are distributed across three investment portfolios. The first is the Vision Portfolio, which aims to enhance integration between strategic priority sectors and maximize value for the Fund's companies, and continue to drive local economic growth and contribute to achieving national objectives and priorities by developing six integrated economic systems that enhance the integration of its investments and raise their competitiveness, opening the door for wider opportunities and partnerships with the local private sector as an investor, partner, and supplier, and attracting international partners and investors.
The second portfolio, the Strategic Investments Portfolio, will focus on managing and maximizing the returns of strategic assets and increasing the economic impact of the Fund's companies and supporting their efforts to attract local and international investments and transform into leading global companies. The Fund will continue through this portfolio to invest in long-term strategic fields that take into account economic variables and keep pace with global transformations.
The third portfolio, the Financial Investments Portfolio, will focus on achieving sustainable financial returns to enhance the Fund's financial position and its role in continuing to develop national wealth for future generations. It will also focus on the Fund's direct and indirect investments in global markets with the aim of maximizing returns and continuing to enhance the diversity and resilience of the Fund's portfolio and building strategic partnerships that attract more global investments and opportunities.
Returning to the economic systems within the Vision Portfolio, they represent a natural progression for the sectors that the Fund has worked to launch and develop over the past years. The systems include: First, the Tourism, Travel, and Entertainment System, which focuses on enhancing tourism in the Kingdom by developing strategic assets that generate returns, in addition to facilitating air access to the Kingdom and benefiting from hosting global events to attract tourists. It will contribute to developing more than 100,000 hotel rooms and more than 70 new tourism experiences, and developing three stadiums ready to host the 2034 World Cup, and reaching an absorption capacity of 96 million passengers at King Salman International Airport, in line with the Kingdom's targets to attract 150 million tourists annually by 2030.
This system includes companies such as The Red Sea Global, AlUla, Savvy Games Group, the Sports Investment Company (SURJ), Expo 2030 Riyadh, King Salman International Airport, and Riyadh Air.
Second, the Urban Development and Human Settlement System, which focuses on improving the quality of life by accelerating the development of residential and commercial projects in various regions of the Kingdom. It will contribute to achieving a number of national objectives, including raising the Saudi homeownership rate to 70% by developing up to 190,000 residential units by 2030, in addition to developing commercial spaces of up to 5 million square meters. This system includes companies such as ROSHN, The New Murabba, Jeddah Central, and KAUST.
Third, the Advanced Industries and Innovation System, which focuses on building the Kingdom's future economy by developing emerging industrial clusters such as electronics, AI, automotive, advanced mobility, pharmaceuticals, aviation, space, and defense. It contributes to industrial advancement and the development of high-value, exportable products, raising productivity, and creating quality jobs. This includes developing data center capacity to reach 3,000 MW, where the Fund targets developing 1,800 MW and contributing up to 7 billion Riyals to the total spending on locally manufactured pharmaceuticals. The Fund also targets producing 285,000 vehicles out of a national target of 500,000 vehicles by 2030. This system includes companies such as HUMAIN for AI, CEER for electric vehicles, the National Medical Supplies and Drugs Company (NUPCO), and the General Authority for Military Industries (GAMI).
Fourth, the Industry and Logistics Services System, which focuses on developing the infrastructure for the economy in the Kingdom and enhancing the network of logistics services and basic industries, in addition to increasing mining production. It will contribute to achieving the national target of improving the quality of logistics infrastructure to support the logistics performance index and container targets, in addition to increasing the volume of mining production to improve mining's contribution to GDP. This system includes companies such as Ma'aden, the Saudi Iron and Steel Company (Hadeed), and Bahri.
Fifth, the Clean and Renewable Energy and Water Infrastructure System, which focuses on the Kingdom's global leadership in the energy sector, in addition to consolidating its position as a global leader in sustainable energy by accelerating the development of renewable energy sources and diversifying energy exports. It contributes to raising the Kingdom's renewable energy production capacity to 100 GW, where the Fund targets achieving 44.5 GW of it. This system includes companies such as ACWA Power, Saudi Power Procurement Company, and the Energy Efficiency Company (Tarshid).
Sixth, the NEOM System. Classifying NEOM as an independent system within the next five-year strategy embodies the depth of the commitment to the success of this project and gives NEOM the flexibility and independence necessary to make rapid strategic decisions commensurate with the scale of challenges and opportunities. This classification also reflects the Fund's awareness of the size and complexity of NEOM, which includes a complete economy with multiple and interconnected sectors: energy, industry, ports, logistics, AI, data centers, tourism, entertainment, education, health, and smart urbanization, which requires specialized governance and follow-up at the highest level, similar to how the largest integrated economic zones in the world are managed.
NEOM's plan is built on gradual achievement and economic feasibility, with a focus on Oxagon as the first driver. The plan relies on disciplined gradual achievement and prioritizing according to commercial feasibility, with this phase focusing on developing Oxagon to be the first economic and industrial driver, including a world-class port, an integrated industrial zone, advanced data centers, and renewable energy facilities. Oxagon will be the actual starting point that stimulates the rest of the NEOM system and attracts investments, competencies, and global companies. The restructuring of other projects in NEOM is currently underway to achieve higher economic efficiency and sustainable financial feasibility for the future, and they will be implemented in phases to ensure the achievement of objectives in a studied and sequential manner.
In conclusion, we are confident, God willing, that the strategy for the next five years will witness more successes that enhance the prosperity of the Kingdom and the sustainability of its economy, achieving the objectives of the Kingdom's Vision 2030, taking into account the nature of the Fund's role and its mission in the journey of economic transformation in the Kingdom, achieving sustainable financial returns, and making a positive impact on the lives of citizens and consolidating national gains for future generations. I thank you, and we thank you all for your attendance today. Now, we open the floor for questions from our media colleagues.
