In recent years, many Europeans have become acquainted with the Public Investment Fund (PIF), Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, mainly for its incursions into the world of football: the purchase of Newcastle United, the strengthening of the main Saudi clubs and the activism in the Saudi Pro League, capable of attracting champions from Europe by means of millionaire contracts. But the PIF is not only this, indeed: behind the sports headlines and the spotlight of the football market moves a global investment strategy that aims to reshape entire economic sectors and consolidate Saudi Arabia’s geopolitical weight.

On 13 August 2025, the Public Investment Fund presented its 2024 Annual Report, offering a detailed picture of a year that marks a leap in scale in the way Riyadh uses sovereign capital as a lever of economic and political power. It is not just a matter of solid financial performance – albeit present and remarkable – but a clear trajectory that integrates technology, sustainability and international projection, with direct repercussions on the Old Continent as well.

PIF has moved from digital transformation to digital leadership, grafting artificial intelligence and automation into all investment processes, from asset selection to real-time performance monitoring. Assets under management reached 3,424 billion Saudi riyals (around EUR 847 billion), up 19% since 2023, with an average annual return of 7.2% since 2017. Although 80% of the portfolio remains domestic, the 17% invested abroad is the result of a strategy increasingly focused on entering key sectors in mature markets.

Europe already occupies a prominent place in this expansion. In 2024, PIF acquired a 15% stake in Heathrow Airport, strengthening its presence in critical infrastructure; it took a significant stake in Rocco Forte Hotels, with assets in London, Rome and Munich; and, together with Thailand’s Central Group, it entered the capital of Selfridges Group, owner of some of the most iconic British and Irish department stores. These moves are not simply portfolio investments: they represent strategic entry points to sectors – transport, hospitality, high-end retail – that Europe considers central to its attractiveness and competitiveness.

Behind these operations is the framework of the Vision Realization Program (VRP) 2021-2025, with ambitious goals: to increase assets to 4 trillion riyals by next year, contribute 1.2 trillion riyals to non-oil GDP, create 1.8 million jobs, and localise 60 per cent of the value chain. It is a programme that combines the logic of performance with that of industrial policy, and that looks abroad not to passively diversify, but to acquire know-how, brands and skills to bring back home.

On the sustainability front, the PIF has reduced its emissions by 30 per cent by 2022, covered 84 per cent of its portfolio emissions with decarbonisation plans and issued USD 9 billion in green bonds, financing 91 ‘green’ projects. Here too, European connections are possible and partly already active: from renewable energy technologies to electric mobility and low-emission logistics, Saudi Arabia is looking for industrial and technological partners, and the EU is a natural reservoir of expertise and solutions.

Europe in the face of BIP ambitions

For Europe, this PIF trajectory is both an opportunity and a warning. Opportunity, because Saudi capital can support green transition, infrastructure modernisation and the valorisation of struggling historical brands. Warning, because the international projection of the fund is not neutral: it responds to an integrated national strategy, in which each investment has a medium- to long-term function in building domestic capacity and increasing the global influence of the Saudi monarchy.

If Europe wants to benefit from this investment season, it must intercept the future priorities of the PIF, understand where it wants to grow and with which partners, and at the same time equip itself with the tools to assess, select and, if necessary, limit operations in strategic sectors. It is not enough to be passive receivers of capital: we need a European industrial policy that is able to propose high value-added partnerships, protect critical know-how and ensure that foreign investment also contributes to the Union’s objectives.

Strengthening ties with the Gulf to safeguard European autonomy

In this context, strengthening the relationship with Saudi Arabia and, more generally, with the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is of strategic importance for Europe. The ability to build structured partnerships with these economies, which are today at the centre of rapid industrial and technological diversification, is crucial for Europe’s strategic autonomy in an era marked by protectionist tensions and an increasingly fierce geopolitical competition between the United States and China. The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), the infrastructure and logistics project that aims to connect India, the Gulf and the European continent, potentially reshaping global trade routes, also fits into this framework. A deeper and more balanced link with the GCC, including through instruments such as IMEC, can help reduce external vulnerabilities, expand supply channels and open up new markets for European companies, thereby strengthening the Union’s resilience and global projection.

The message that emerges from the 2024 Annual Report of the large Saudi sovereign wealth fund is clear: the PIF is no longer just a financial investor, but an architect of economic transformation. Europe can choose to be part of this design – helping to define its contours and mutual benefits – or to suffer it, as a mere backdrop to a strategy decided elsewhere. The difference will be the ability to anticipate, dialogue and position itself, today, on the trajectories of tomorrow.