The balance of Saudi foreign investments abroad increased by 12% to $259.4 billion by the end of last year, ranking it 27th globally among top outward investors, down from 26th at the end of 2024, as the pace of new foreign investments slowed with a domestic focus on economic diversification.

According to the Financial Analysis Unit in 'Al-Eqtisadiah', new foreign investments injected by Saudi Arabia fell 2% last year to $27 billion, but it remains an important source of direct foreign investment, ranking 23rd, lower than its 2024 position of 18th globally.

The balance of foreign investments abroad refers to accumulated investments over the years made by companies or individuals from a specific country in other countries where they have partial or full ownership in foreign projects or companies.

This reduction comes as Saudi Arabia focuses on investments in its projects to diversify its economy as a strategic goal of the economic reform program Vision 2030, among these projects are NEOM, Qiddiya, the Red Sea, and other mega-projects.

The Public Investment Fund has not yet announced its annual report for 2025, but by the end of 2024, the fund boosted its domestic investments to 80% of assets under management, while reducing global investments to 17%, thereby cutting the share of global investments by about half since 2021 when it was around 30%.

Since 2022, the Public Investment Fund's holdings of US stocks have been declining annually, falling from about $56 billion to roughly a quarter, reaching $13 billion by the end of 2025.

Tue, 07 2026

Saudi Arabia reduces its foreign investments during 2025 -02

Increasing role of the Public Investment Fund

Despite this reduction, the Saudi Public Investment Fund has an increasing importance in international investment, coinciding with the transformation of sovereign wealth funds into larger players in state-owned international investment, investing directly and through their affiliated multinational companies.

A prominent example of this is the proposed acquisition of Electronic Arts (United States) by a special purpose acquisition company led by the Saudi Public Investment Fund for about $50 billion.

Saudi Arabia present among the top 10 new projects globally

Saudi Arabia appeared among the top 10 new projects announced in 2025, in terms of value, with a deal from real estate developer Dar Al Arkan ranking seventh among the top 10, worth $4.2 billion in Oman.

Advanced 4 places in attracting foreign direct investment

It is noted that Saudi Arabia advanced 4 places in the ranking of countries most attractive to foreign direct investment last year, rising to 13th from 17th in 2024, according to UNCTAD data.

Wed, 01 2026

This came against the backdrop of a strong leap in flows to $32.6 billion, an increase of 53%, placing it third in growth among the top 13.

With this surge, Saudi Arabia strengthened its position among Middle Eastern (West Asia) countries, raising its share of FDI inflows to the region to about 30%, compared to 23% in 2024.

This leap comes as Saudi Arabia outperforms the region and the world in FDI inflow growth, which grew globally by 6% to $1.62 trillion, while inflows to the Middle East grew by about 21% to $111 billion.

Financial Analysis Unit