As Saudi Arabia enjoyed an unprecedented oil boom in the 1970s, the monarchy turned to a handful of merchant family companies — mostly from its commercial capital Jeddah — to build the nation’s infrastructure.
But almost 50 years and another oil windfall later, many have been sidelined by another cadre of businesses that have one thing in common: the sovereign Public Investment Fund owns a stake in each.
The growing dominance of the sovereign wealth fund, chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, underscores the extent to which the country’s day-to-day ruler has upended the old order as he asserts his control over the economy and seeks to diversify it away from oil revenues.