Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund is planning to plow deeper into public markets this year by investing about $US10 billion more into listed stocks, according to people familiar with the matter, as it pursues the goal of more than doubling its assets by 2025.
The Saudi wealth fund has amassed around $US500 billion in assets, taking an increasingly prominent role in global markets since receiving a $US40 billion transfer from the kingdom’s reserves in early 2020 when the pandemic sent equities into a tailspin. The fund more than tripled its holdings in US-traded companies from the end of 2020 to $US43.4 billion during the third quarter last year. It started to invest in video-game makers in 2021 and more recently added stakes in e-commerce, Chinese, and clean energy companies, from PayPal Holdings and Plug Power to Alibaba Group Holding.