Crown prince speech gives window into Saudi sovereign fund

The Public Investment Fund is unrecognizable from the sleepy vehicle it was until 2015. More risk has led to some bad investments, but the crown prince says overall returns are good. Can they stay that way?

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) is the most eye-catching sovereign wealth fund in the world, thanks to bold and contrarian positions in companies such as Carnival and Boeing, acquired in the depths of the Covid crisis.

However, it is light on practical information about its overall performance.

A rare exception came on Friday, when crown prince Mohammed bin Salman gave a speech before the country’s Shura Council. He used the speech to cover a range of information about the economy, and within it was some unexpected detail about the PIF.

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