It's Natural for Saudi Arabia to Invest in US, Al-Falih Says

Investment & Economic Growth - Saudi Arabia's economy is one of the most dynamic and fastest-growing in the G20, offering American companies profitable and reasonably low-risk investment opportunities [5] - Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows into Saudi Arabia have quadrupled since Vision 2030 was launched in 2016, and the FDI stock has doubled in the last ten years [9] - 90% of recent FDI flows into Saudi Arabia are not related to oil, but are in sectors like tourism, technology, cloud, AI, healthcare, and biotech [10] - Saudi Arabia has invested trillions of dollars abroad in the last 8 to 9 years, and many investors are finding Saudi Arabia the best place to invest, leading to repatriation of some of those stocks [13] US-Saudi Investment Relationship - The US economy is the largest, and its capital markets are the deepest, making it a natural destination for Saudi Arabian investment [2][3] - Saudi Arabia is looking at the US for the majority of its future and current investment, driven by free cash flow from government, PIF companies, and Aramco [4] - The scale of the US and Saudi economies makes their investment relationship mutually beneficial [6] Saudi Arabia's Economic Diversification - Saudi Arabia is modernizing, diversifying, and turbocharging its economy away from oil, focusing on sectors where the US is a global leader, such as tech, AI, healthcare, and biotechnology [3] - Vision 2030 aims to decouple the Saudi Arabian economy from its strong correlation with oil prices, with the private sector becoming the primary investor [9] Oil Market Dynamics - Oil markets are highly cyclical, and after every downturn, there is a period of tightness due to demand and throttled investment [7][8] - Investments in the Kingdom are no longer 100% correlated with government spending, which is a function of short-term revenues from oil [8] Saudi-China Relationship - China remains Saudi Arabia's largest trade partner, with bilateral trade equivalent to the next four or five G7 countries [14] - Saudi Arabia is attracting Chinese FDI, although it is not yet at the level of US investment [16] - Saudi Arabia invests in China, particularly in processing hydrocarbons and in sectors where China is a global leader, such as renewables [16][17]