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%.

Bahrain’s sovereign fund, Mumtalakat and Abu Dhabi’s CYVN Holdings became the full owners of Formula One’s McLaren Racing on Tuesday in a transaction that is reportedly valued at as much as $5 billion.

The team issued a statement that confirmed the transfer of all shares that were previously held by MSP Sports Capital, funds managed by O’Connor Capital Solutions, Ares Sports, Media and Entertainment funds, and Caspian Funds.

Bahrain sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat will remain the majority shareholder with CYVN holding a non-controlling stake, Reuters reports.

It comes amid an on-track resurgence for McLaren, with drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris sitting in first and second place after winning 12 out of 15 races this season. 

The Qatar Investment Authority was named among the investors in Anthropic’s $13 billion funding round, which valued the AI startup at $183 billion, in a sign that the maker of the Claude large language models may be willing to entertain more backing from the Gulf.

The Series F round, led by San Francisco-based investment firm ICONIQ, and co-led by Fidelity Management & Research and Lightspeed Venture Partners, saw Anthropic double its valuation from $61.5 billion in March this year. 

Significantly, while QIA was the only Gulf investor on the list of 20 shared by Anthropic on Tuesday, its involvement may be a sign that CEO Dario Amodei is softening his stance on accepting backing from Middle Eastern funds, which have not been involved in previous rounds, Bloomberg reports.

The investment propels Qatar into greater competition with its neighbors, who are pouring billions into rival AI companies. Abu Dhabi AI investment firm MGX is a major investor in OpenAI and also backs its Stargate infrastructure project, while Elon Musk’s xAI has investments from MGX and Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Holdings, as well as the QIA.

QIA Head of Technology Mohammed Al-Hardan told Bloomberg that Anthropic was one of many more AI deals to come and the fund may choose to lead future funding rounds, as well as write checks for early-stage ventures. The QIA expects to do as many as 25 technology deals this year and next – double its normal average.

“You would see us doing it all,” he said. “The luxury that we have — that the other funds don’t have — is that, because our mandate is so wide, we get to choose.”

Saudi banks could offload as much as $48 billion in mortgages to the Saudi Real Estate Refinance Co. by 2030, as the kingdom launches its first residential mortgage-backed securities.

The SRC, which is wholly owned by the Public Investment Fund, recently executed its first RMBS transaction following regulatory approvals, Bloomberg reports.

The move is a step toward boosting liquidity and bank lending in the kingdom, which is seen as central to Saudi Arabia’s economic transformation agenda.

The SRC has also forged partnerships with global asset managers and domestic institutions to deepen the real estate financing market.

It comes as home ownership in the kingdom has risen to 65.4% of families, surpassing this year’s target, boosted by initiatives to support access to mortgages.