Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund plans to pump nearly $10 billion into stock markets this year, according to Bloomberg.
According to Arabiya Net, the Public Investment Fund's direction comes in a move to more than double the fund's assets by 2025.
The sources added that the sovereign fund is looking to invest based on a strategy that focuses on areas including e-commerce and renewable energy sources.
The Public Investment Fund, chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is looking to buy global stocks based on an objective strategy that focuses on areas including e-commerce and renewable energy sources. Spending on global stocks is added to the Fund's direct investments in international companies and their local deals.
The Saudi wealth fund has amassed about $500 billion in assets, playing a prominent role in global markets since receiving a $40 billion transfer from the kingdom's reserves in early 2020 when the pandemic sent stock markets tumbling. The money was used to buy stakes in companies including Citigroup Inc. and Facebook Inc. and Carnival Corp, operator of cruise ships, which sold them just months later.
The Governor of the Public Investment Fund, Yasser Al-Rumayyan, said more than a year ago that he aims to invest about 80% of his investments in the Saudi economy, with the rest being spent internationally.
A document outlining the Fund's strategy for 2021-25 stated that it aims to grow and diversify the investments of the PIF's international portfolio broadly, across geographies, asset classes, and sectors, and away from the local economy and the oil and gas industries.
The assets of the Public Investment Fund, including its shares in local companies, have been worth nearly $200 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, which is dominated by its stakes in Lucid Group Inc. and the Saudi Telecom Company.
The fund more than tripled its holdings in publicly traded US companies from the end of 2020 to $43.4 billion during the third quarter of last year. Investing in video game makers began in 2021 and recently added stakes in Chinese e-commerce and clean energy companies, from PayPal Holdings Inc and Plug Power Inc, as well as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
