The findings demonstrate PIF’s growing contribution to Saudi Arabia’s economic development and the formation of international markets.

The total amount invested in priority sectors since 2021 has surpassed USD 171 billion, with USD 56.8 billion allocated in 2024 alone. Since 2017, the fund has seen an average annual return of 7.2% for its entire portfolio, and its cash position has remained relatively stable, indicating strong liquidity.

PIF contributed USD 243 billion to the Kingdom’s non-oil GDP between 2021 and 2024, which accounted for 10% of the country’s non-oil GDP. By the end of 2024, the fund will have established 103 businesses, increasing its portfolio to 225 companies. It also promotes innovation, localisation, and strategic sectors. Partnerships were one of the major milestones in 2024.

PIF raised USD 16.83 billion in public and private debt while obtaining credit rating upgrades from Moody’s and Fitch, further broadening its global investment footprint. With a score of 96% on Global SWF’s 2024 GSR Scoreboard and a tie for first place worldwide in 2025 with a score of 100%, governance performance also achieved a significant milestone.

Additionally, PIF saw significant brand growth; in 2024, Brand Finance named it the most valuable and rapidly expanding sovereign wealth fund brand globally.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund has reduced the value of its investments in the Kingdom’s megaprojects, such as its flagship development Neom, by USD 8 billion as lower oil prices and budget overruns impede efforts to revamp the domestic economy.

The Public Investment Fund, the primary force behind Saudi Arabia’s efforts to transform its economy, reported that at the end of 2024, its investments in Saudi mega projects were valued at USD 56 billion (SR 211 billion), a 12% decrease from the previous year. The amount of the write-down is USD 8 billion.

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Despite the decline in profit, the Oman Investment Authority marginally boosted its contribution to the state budget during 2024 by transferring USD 2.1 billion compared to USD 2.08 billion in the previous year.

The Oman Investment Authority’s overseas presence continues to be extensive, with investment diversification across over 50 nations. The lion’s share remains in Oman, with 61.3% of the fund’s capital retained locally. North America took 19.9%, followed by Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America, constituting the remainder.

Domestically, the fund relied heavily on energy, with 68% of investments in the local market. Tourism and real estate attracted 9%, while services and logistics each took 8%. This emphasis was evident in ongoing support for flagship projects such as the Duqm Refinery and a 500 MW solar plant project.

Foreign direct investment in Oman also picked up momentum. At the end of 2024, the National Development Fund secured approximately OMR 2.8 billion in committed FDI, which was a vote of confidence from global partners.

The Oman Investment Authority portfolio businesses also made great economic strides, paying off USD 4.7 billion worth of debt. It features a high-profile prepayment of USD 1.4 billion by state energy company OQ. At the same time, sovereign guarantees were cut to USD 4.7 billion, nearly half what they stood at in 2023.

The fund also carried out six strategic divestments, one more than initially planned, raising new capital and contributing to the growth of local equity ownership. A significant action was the IPO of 25% of OQ Exploration & Production, highlighting OIA’s dedication to market diversification.

Forward-looking, the OIA is realigning its priorities. In light of mounting geopolitical threats and volatility in the energy market, the fund intends to systematically wind down its exposure to hydrocarbons. In their place, it will accelerate investments in renewables, digital infrastructure, and critical minerals, which are crucial to Oman’s long-term viability.

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As per a regulatory filing, the Public Investment Fund’s total revenues increased to USD 88.3 billion in 2023 from USD 44 billion in 2022, a more than 100% increase.

Several factors contributed to the increase in revenues, including higher dividends and better investment and non-investment activities in industries like banking, telecommunications, and gaming.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the ruler of the Kingdom, has chosen PIF, which has about USD 925 billion in assets under management, to spearhead an economic agenda meant to wean the Gulf nation’s economy off of oil.

Saudi Arabia has invested hundreds of billions of dollars through the PIF in projects under the “Vision 2030” plan, including NEOM, a massive urban and industrial development project that will be built along the Red Sea coast and is almost the size of Belgium.

Its funding sources include government capital infusions, government assets transferred to the fund, loans and debt instruments, and retained earnings from investments, which range from date farms to multinational conglomerates.

Meanwhile, the Public Investment Fund has given Bain and Company the task of developing an India strategy as part of its plan to take advantage of various infrastructure investment opportunities. PIF, which currently has assets of around USD 600 billion under management, is building “strategic economic partnerships” as part of its core objectives.

After rising global crude oil prices supported Saudi Arabia’s revenue, the fund is searching for opportunities in India, working with the country’s state-run Saudi Arabian Oil (Saudi Aramco), the largest oil company in the world, concentrating on investments in the field of green energy.

The Indian government wants to raise Rupees 111 trillion for 7,000 infrastructure projects, and New Delhi is in favour of impact investors, or sovereign wealth funds, which make long-term investments with modest yields.

In the FY21 Union Budget, The Narendra Modi-led Indian administration extended tax exemptions to sovereign wealth funds on their earnings from infrastructure investments in the South Asian country for FY24.

“In order to incentivise the investment by sovereign wealth fund of foreign governments in priority sectors, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed to grant 100% tax exemption on interest, dividend, and capital gains income in respect of investments made in infrastructure and other sectors before 31 March 2024, and with a minimum lock-in period of three years,” the government said in a February 2020 statement.

The government had also raised capital expenditure for FY23 by a record 35% to USD 7.5 trillion, with a majority of the capex expected to back infrastructure projects, as per a report from the Mint.

Some active sovereign wealth funds in India’s infrastructure space include Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the UAE’s Mubadala Investment, and Singapore’s GIC Holdings and Temasek Holdings. As per the reports, PIF has been looking to invest in India and has been scouting for opportunities, including buying a stake in Tata Power’s green energy business. A consortium led by the world’s largest asset manager BlackRock and Mubadala agreed to invest a 10.53% stake in Tata Power Renewables.

More than 12 foreign investors have so far secured tax exemptions for infrastructure investments in India under a provision introduced in the Finance Act, 2020, which took effect on 1 April 2021. These include Singapore-based sovereign wealth funds Chiswick Investment, Stretford Investment, Dagenham Investment, Anahera Investment, Bricklayers Investment, and the UAE’s sovereign wealth fund MIC Redwood 1 RSC. Canadian and Australian pension funds also secured tax breaks under this provision.

India is working on the world’s largest clean energy programme. At the COP-26 summit in Glasgow in November 2023, it announced plans to boost non-fossil fuel power generation capacity to 500 gigawatts by 2030 and committed to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2070.

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The Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) has directed Barclays, BNP Paribas, HSBC, and JPMorgan to serve as joint global coordinators in order to schedule investor meetings beginning on June 3.

The Arab News states that, contingent on market conditions, a sale will occur after investor calls.

According to reports, this would be the second offering by Saudi entities in sterling and the first since 2020. Two tranches of bonds denominated in sterling with five- and fifteen-year maturities are intended to be issued by the fund.

With about USD 1 trillion in assets under management, the PIF intends to boost capital deployment from USD 40 billion to USD 50 billion annually to USD 70 billion after 2025.

The fund raised USD 3.05 billion from a sukuk deal in October 2023 and USD 5 billion by selling a triple-tranche conventional bond in January.

In addition, the PIF started selling sukuk denominated in US dollars with priority payment for seven years.

The bond sale’s initial indicative price was set at a premium of about 115 basis points over US Treasury bonds, the reports revealed.

Goldman Sachs, HSBC, and Standard Chartered have been designated by the Kingdom’s Sovereign Wealth Fund to set up meetings with prospective investors.

Moody’s Investors Service noted that the sovereign fund has raised USD 8.5 billion through green bond proceeds in 2023 and is leading sustainable initiatives in the Gulf Cooperation Council region.

Meanwhile, official data from Saudi Arabia shows that the private sector non-oil growth was stable in May, with the Purchasing Managers’ Index slightly decreasing to 56.4 from 57 in April.

According to the Riyad Bank Saudi Arabia PMI report by S&P Global, business activity in the country continued to grow at a significant rate in May 2024, maintaining a trend of strong output growth in the non-oil economy.

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This is a setback for the fund’s management, as Norway’s central bank had recommended investing up to 5% of the fund’s assets, which corresponds to around $80 billion, in private equity.

However, Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum has said that the government has concluded that investing in unlisted stocks is not a good idea at this time.

He cited higher fees, lower transparency of information, and the need for a broad political consensus as the reasons for this decision.

“We will continue to consider it,” he added.

According to State Secretary Ellen Reitan, the need for stability at home during a time of political instability abroad played a role in the decision.

During an interaction with Reuters, Ellen Reitan said, “In unstable times, it is important to have calm around important institutions, and the oil fund is definitely one of them. It has been a success story, with a key factor being the calm surrounding its administration.”

The finance ministry intends to create an independent expert council for the fund, which will provide input for future decision-making on topics such as investment in unlisted equities.

The fund expressed positivity towards the ministry’s desire to further assess the possibility of including unlisted shares in its mandate.

“We look forward to meeting the Finance Committee in parliament later this month to answer questions on the topic,” it said in an email statement.

In the past, Parliament has disapproved of proposals to move the assets into private equity, citing the potential high costs and potential hindrance in evaluating ongoing performances.

The adoption of private equity could have offered the opportunity for the fund to invest in companies that are yet to be listed, including the rapidly growing technology sectors, such as artificial intelligence.

Critics have argued that the fund should stick to its decades-long successful investment strategy of tracking global stock market indexes. However, supporters of private equity argue that unlisted companies have become a rapidly growing and larger part of the economy.

The CEO of the fund, Nicolai Tangen has shared that the current combination of high interest rates and a relatively low number of new stock market listings globally makes it an opportune time for the fund to deploy capital via private equity investments.

The fund, which invests Norway’s surplus oil and gas revenue abroad, is the world’s largest single stock market investor, owning approximately 1.5% of all globally listed shares, and has stakes in over 8,800 companies.

Apart from foreign government and corporate bonds and unlisted real estate in major cities, it also possesses a small but growing portfolio of infrastructure projects such as wind farms.

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Khazanah is the sole shareholder of Malaysia Airlines. The sovereign fund is planning to strike a deal by the end of the year, although the timeline and other relevant details could change, media reports said. 

Khazanah wholly acquired Malaysia Airlines in 2014. Ever since then, the airline has been seeking transformation. In an email to Bloomberg News, Khazanah said that it is actively working on means to put the airline to the forefront. This also includes assessing all strategic options to improve the airline’s performance, it added. 

Khazanah during the acquisition had invested RM6 billion in the airline’s business in an effort to see profits in three years. However, external factors such as weak currency and rising jet fuel costs weighed on the efforts, failing to meet two profitability deadlines. 

The trade war between the US and China is anticipated to dampen the airline’s growth, although its revenues have risen in the past year, media reports said. In February, the sovereign fund had urged Malaysia Airlines to devise a strategic plan to gain competitive advantage in the aviation industry and deliver better results. 

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said that the sovereign fund is reviewing four local investor proposals it received from the airline. Earlier this month, there was speculation that Air Asia co-founder and partners were seeking to raise RM1 billion to take over the struggling Malaysia Airlines. 

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The project’s capacity is said to produce up to 200 GW by 2030. This represents 400 GW of globally installed power capacity, and 390 GW of total nuclear power capacity in 2016.

Son said the nascent phase of the project will cost US$5bn for 7.2 GW of solar capacity. In addition, expenses for solar panels, battery storage and a manufacturing facility for panels will estimate to US$200bn, he said.

The official Saudi Press Agency said during the US visit of Saudi Arabia Crown Prince, several MoUs were signed with American-based multinational companies.

Last year, SoftBank raised more than US$93bn for the Vision Fund backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, Apple and Foxconn.

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