Professional services firm PwC unveiled its sleek new regional headquarters in Riyadh this week as it vowed a “strengthened commitment” to the kingdom.

The Big Four firm has been scrambling to repair its relationship with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund since February, when the sovereign wealth fund banned it from any new advisory work for one year.

While no official reason was given, PwC reportedly ruffled feathers when it attempted to recruit one of the fund’s senior executives working on the $500 billion Neom megaproject, where it was hired as a consultant.

The suspension does not apply to the firm’s audit services. The new regional headquarters in Laysen Valley includes an experience center, forensics lab, PwC Academy, Majlis and wellness spaces.

Saudi Arabia’s flagship business forum, the Future Investment Initiative, is expanding its global reach with a conference in Tokyo.

The FII Priority Asia Summit is slated for Nov. 30 to Dec. 1, and represents a strategic move by the kingdom to strengthen partnerships with key Japanese financial institutions, Nikkei Asia reports.

Major players such as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Sumitomo Mitsui are expected to attend the event, which is often referred to as “Davos in the desert.”

The FII Institute, founded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, has also sponsored conferences in Hong Kong, Rio de Janeiro and Miami, where U.S. President Donald Trump spoke in February.

Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser sees the Gulf states sparking explosive growth in coming years across the region.

“The Middle East is probably on a rip for the next decade or so in terms of how much investment and new industries, new clients are coming in,” Fraser told Bloomberg in an interview today while visiting Dubai.

She highlighted the region’s expanding links with India and China as a powerful draw for global financial institutions like Citi, which has been building up operations alongside rivals such as Jefferies, Lazard, and JPMorgan.

With governments accelerating privatizations and encouraging stock listings, Fraser also pointed to the Gulf as a global hotspot for IPOs, which have raised more than $5 billion this year.

In a rare national address, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman walked a tight line on Wednesday night between preaching the need to attract foreign investment and acknowledging the strain it has put on the kingdom’s housing supply.

“Perhaps the fact that 660 international companies have chosen the Kingdom as their regional headquarters, exceeding the 2030 target, reflects the achievements in infrastructure and the level of technical services, confirming the strength of the Saudi economy and its broad future prospects,” the Crown Prince said in his annual speech to the opening session of the Shura Council, Saudi Arabia’s consultative body that advises the Royal Court on draft laws and policy.

“All of this, and other achievements, have made the Kingdom a global hub attracting diverse activities,” he said, in comments published by Arab News. 

The Crown Prince said the state recognized that strong public finances, which are “not reliant on a single, volatile source of revenue,” were essential for development and sustainable diversification.

He also gave a nod to rising concerns about housing affordability, admitting that property prices in some areas had reached “unacceptable levels” and vowing to take measures to reduce costs and increase the range of housing options available, Bloomberg reports.

An influx of demand from new residents has seen home prices in Riyadh nearly double since 2019, while prices are also rising in the holy cities of Medina and Mecca, which were opened up to foreign investment via publicly-traded companies in February.

Despite the tight market, foreigners will be allowed to own property in designated zones in Riyadh and Jeddah starting next year under a new law that was approved in July. The move will make the cities more competitive with cosmopolitan neighbors Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha, where housing markets are booming amid an influx of foreign buyers.

Saudi Arabia is on track to complete construction next year of the world’s biggest green hydrogen production plant.

Now the question becomes whether the oil-rich kingdom can round up enough customers to justify the mammoth cost of producing the eco-friendly fuel at its new Oxagon industrial city.

NEOM Green Hydrogen Co. – a joint venture of NEOM, Acwa Power and U.S.-based Air Products – said in a statement on Tuesday that more than 80% of the project has been completed.

The company released an accompanying video highlighting features that include a 250-turbine wind garden, a vast solar farm and a dedicated transmission grid. 

With construction of the $8.4 billion facility due to be completed by mid-2026, the company said it would be ready to export green ammonia, which can be converted into hydrogen to generate electricity, in 2027.

The nascent energy industry, however, faces challenges of high production costs and a lack of immediate demand to fuel its anticipated growth.

So far, Paris-based TotalEnergies is NEOM Green Hydrogen’s only committed customer, Bloomberg reports.

Blackstone and Permira are betting big on the UAE property market with a $525 million investment in Property Finder, the Dubai-based classifieds site.

The deal, which gives the private capital firms a minority stake, marks London-based Permira’s first move into the Middle East and underscores how global buyout giants are planting deeper roots in the Gulf, Bloomberg reports.

Property Finder, launched nearly two decades ago, has been expanding across the region while sharpening its focus on Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

The investment comes as Dubai home prices surge post-pandemic, stoking both optimism and fears of overheating.

The website competes against two other classified platforms, Dubizzle and Bayut, the latter of which is backed by Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners and has been considering an IPO. 

Saudi Arabia’s $1 trillion Public Investment Fund is working on a new game plan aimed at generating greater returns over the next 15 years from the kingdom’s vast sovereign wealth.

In an onstage interview on Monday, PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan said the fund will focus on drawing international investors to Saudi Arabia, while pouring the bulk of its money into the country’s ambitious domestic projects, Bloomberg reports.

“In the coming two months or so, we will set the new strategy for the PIF, which is a continuation from the original one, until 2030 and from 2030 all the way to 2040 and beyond,” Al-Rumayyan told interviewer David Rubenstein, the co-founder of Carlyle Group, at the Economic Club of Washington D.C.

Currently, about 80% of the PIF’s capital is invested locally, with a smaller portion deployed internationally. Among the largest recipients of the fund’s money are the kingdom’s megaprojects such as NEOM on the Red Sea coast, the Diriyah historic district in Riyadh and the Qiddiya sports and entertainment district.

“We need to increase and grow our local content and one of the best ways to do so is to get direct foreign investments to the country,” Al-Rumayyan said.

Asked about the PIF’s upstart LIV Golf league, Al-Rumayyan expressed confidence that cooperation will grow with the PGA Tour even though a planned merger between the two has stalled. “I think hopefully in the future we will be able to bring the game of golf together,” he said.

Abu Dhabi artificial intelligence powerhouse G42 is taking advantage of the soaring share price of its data analytics firm Presight AI to sell a 2% stake worth about $100 million, amid a growing trend of raising funds through secondary share sales in the emirate.

G42 will retain 68.5% ownership in the firm after the sold-out offer to institutional investors closes today, Bloomberg reports. Presight’s shares, listed on the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange, have risen more than 65% over the past year, closing on Wednesday at 3.47 dirhams ($0.94).

While the sale will boost G42’s coffers, the sell-down is largely aimed at increasing Presight’s free floating shares, which will give it a higher chance of inclusion in broader indexes such as the FTSE Emerging Market Index, which have greater exposure to international investors. 

It comes as Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala, which backs G42, is also considering selling at least part of its $1 billion stake in Dubai-listed telecom operator Du, Bloomberg reports.

Mubadala holds around 10% of Du through Mamoura Diversified Global Holding, after cutting its stake in 2019 by selling 10% — then worth about $630 million — to Du’s largest shareholder, the federal Emirates Investment Authority, which holds just over 50%.