Saudi Arabia’s investment fund has been set an impossible task
It must earn eye-watering returns while speeding the shift to a post-oil economy
About a decade ago, a flashy, deep-pocketed investor made an appearance. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) had a mandate to go big, and was ready to: it picked up a $3.5bn stake in Uber, placed $45bn in the world’s largest technology-investment fund, SoftBank’s Vision Fund, and provided half the capital for a $40bn infrastructure fund run by Blackstone, a private-equity giant. It has since bought stakes in everything from Heathrow Airport and Nintendo to Hollywood studios and French hotels. Last year it deployed more than $30bn of fresh capital, making it the highest-spending wealth fund in the world (see chart).
Explore more
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Princely demands”
Finance & economics March 16th 2024
- Is the bull market about to turn into a bubble?
- China’s economic bright spots provide a warning
- China is churning out solar panels—and upsetting sand markets
- Saudi Arabia’s investment fund has been set an impossible task
- The private-equity industry has a cash problem
- Russia’s economy once again defies the doomsayers
- How NIMBYs increase carbon emissions
From the March 16th 2024 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionMore from Finance & economics
Why your portfolio is less diversified than you might think
The most important idea in modern finance has become maddeningly hard to implement
Can Germany’s economy stage an unexpected recovery?
The situation is dire, but there are glimmers of hope
Giorgia Meloni has grand banking ambitions
Will Italy’s nationalist prime minister manage to concentrate financial power?
Tech tycoons have got the economics of AI wrong
Following DeepSeek’s breakthrough, the Jevons paradox provides less comfort than they imagine
Donald Trump’s economic warfare has a new front
The president has threatened to blow up the global tax system. Will allies be able to stop him?
Don’t let Donald Trump see our Big Mac index
America’s tariff-loving president could learn the wrong lessons from international burger prices