A new report from the New York Times suggests that the Saudi Arabian government’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), has run low on the cash needed for future investments. This news comes to light even as the Saudi Arabian government has committed $1 trillion in various investments through a deal with the United States government, which includes military equipment.
Citing multiple sources with knowledge of the inner workings of the fund, some of this constriction is due to investments that are not bearing financial fruit, or worse, are regularly losing money, according to NYT reporting. From the report:
“That’s in large part because Prince Mohammed and his deputies have spent a vast portion of the nation’s bounty on projects that are in financial distress, and they are frantically trying to turn things around, according to 11 people briefed on its operations, including current employees, board members, investors and their representatives.”
Those investments include the mega city project NEOM (which has long been reported as having massive cost overruns and is well behind schedule in terms of construction); an unnamed coffee chain with international distribution ambitions; a cruise line that currently only has one ship and is not generating revenue; and an electric car startup that hasn’t produced any vehicles.
Other projects backed or owned by the PIF include the Esports World Cup, the replacement for the Olympic Esports Games, the Esports Nations Cup, ESL FACEIT Group, Savvy Games Group, and mega-city project Qiddiya.
Also of note, United States-based game maker and publisher Electronic Arts announced at the end of September that it will become a private company through an investor consortium that includes the Public Investment Fund (PIF), Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners in a deal valued at $55 billion USD. That deal has not been approved by regulators in various countries and will officially close sometime in Q1 FY27.