MUST-READS

• The impacts of the 2034 FIFA World Cup to Saudi Arabia’s economy

  The World Cup is expected to act as a catalyst for economic growth across multiple sectors. Based on estimates from previous World Cups, host nations experience a GDP boost ranging from $3 billion to $14 billion. In Saudi Arabia’s case, the financial impact could be even more significant, given the Kingdom’s ambitious plans to position itself as a global hub for sports and entertainment. The World Cup will put Saudi Arabia on the map as a premier tourist destination. Qatar’s hosting of the 2022 FIFA World Cup attracted 1.4 million visitors and generated over $17 billion in tourism revenue. Saudi Arabia, with its rich cultural heritage and mega-projects like NEOM, Diriyah, and the Red Sea Project, aims to exceed these benchmarks. The World Cup is expected to create thousands of jobs in construction, hospitality, event management, and retail. Saudi nationals will benefit directly, contributing to Saudization goals under Vision 2030. Training initiatives focused on sustainability, human rights, and event management will ensure that the workforce meets global standards.

• AWS announces new edge location in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

  Amazon Web Services (AWS) announces expansion in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by launching a new Amazon CloudFront edge location in Jeddah. The new AWS edge location brings the full suite of benefits provided by Amazon CloudFront, a secure, highly distributed, and scalable content delivery network (CDN) that delivers static and dynamic content, APIs, and live and on-demand video with low latency and high performance. All Amazon CloudFront edge locations are protected against infrastructure-level DDoS threats with AWS Shield Standard that uses always-on network flow monitoring and in-line mitigation to minimize application latency and downtime. You also have the ability to add additional layers of security for applications to protect them against common web exploits and bot attacks by enabling AWS Web Application Firewall (WAF).

• Saudi Arabia in talks to host MMA facility at Qiddiya

  Saudi Arabia has been identified as a potential host for a multi-use mixed martial arts facility akin to the Ford Center at The Star in the US, the head of MMA organisation the Professional Fighters League (PFL) has said. The Star is a partnership between the city of Frisco in Texas and the Dallas Cowboys football team. The $1.5 billion project, totalling 400,000 square feet, features more than 30 flexible event spaces that include a 12,000-seat indoor venue. Donn Davis, chairman and founder of the PFL, said early discussions with officials in Saudi Arabia about a similar project had already taken place. It would be based in the kingdom’s $9.8 billion sports and entertainment giga-project Qiddiya.

• Saudi Arabia to raise localization rates in 269 professions

  The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (MHRSD) announced the issuance of a series of decisions aimed to raise the Saudization rates in as many as 269 professions across various sectors. According to the decision, it is mandatory to implement 55 percent Saudization in pharmacy activities and 65 percent Saudization in pharmacy activities associated with hospitals effective from July 27, 2025. The Saudization drive will be implemented in partnership with a number of supervisory bodies such as the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Commerce, and the Ministry of Municipalities and Housing. The decisions included localizing the professions of dentistry, pharmacy, accounting, and engineering technical professions. These decisions come within the framework of efforts aimed at providing more stimulating and productive job opportunities for male and female citizens in various regions of the Kingdom, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

• Italy, Saudi Arabia ink $10 billion cooperation and industrial deals

  "There is enormous potential in our cooperation and my wish is that this visit can open a completely new phase in our partnership," Meloni said. "This is what the joint declaration we signed today foresees. It declares that our two nations can broaden their horizons and explore many new opportunities together". Meloni said Italy and Saudi Arabia had signed "many agreements at government level but also supporting MoUs signed by public and private entities during the visit". She cited infrastructure, energy, defence, sport, entertainment and tourism as areas where cooperation between the two countries could become "stronger, more effective and deeper".

• Saudi Arabia condemns deadly attack on healthcare facility in Sudan

  Saudi Arabia strongly condemned on Sunday the drone attack on a Saudi-run hospital in El-Fasher in Sudan's Darfur region. A drone attack on Saudi Teaching Maternal Hospital in the besieged town in western Sudan has killed 70 people and wounded 19 others, the World Health Organization said. The Kingdom described the attack as a “violation of international law and international humanitarian law.” “The Kingdom reiterated its rejection of these violations and emphasized the critical need to protect health and humanitarian workers,” read the foreign ministry statement.

• An Inside Look at Saudi Arabia’s Fledgling Surf Scene

  Tired of all the gear and protocol that scuba diving requires, she was looking for a different ocean-based sport. So she headed to Morocco to try surfing. When she returned, she thought of the trip as just a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but it just so happened that the Saudi Surfing Federation was, at that time, looking for anyone with an interest in surfing to join their surf team. In mid-2023, Saudi held its first-ever national surfing championships in Sri Lanka and less than a month later, Leila was at the World Surfing Games in El Salvador with the national flag on her board.  Despite its lack of waves, Saudi has one thing going for it in terms of surfing – its location means travel to places like Sri Lanka, Maldives, Morocco, or elsewhere is just a short flight away and surf travel is actually pretty easy. In just a few years, Leila has surfed everywhere from Dubai, Oman, Bali and the Philippines. These are also places where Saudi surfers can find surfboards because buying a surfboard domestically is not yet possible.

• Husein Alireza Curates Sotheby’s First Auction in Saudi Arabia

  A co-founder of the Saudi Rowing Federation, Alireza’s international recognition reflects a wider mood of positivity and optimism across the Kingdom – with confident, passionate and supremely optimistic young Saudis innovating and representing in sports and culture on a global platform. Having ascended the heights of sporting success, Alireza now has set his sights on rekindling one of his deepest passions – for art. An art lover since his childhood spent at Charterhouse, Edinburgh and Cambridge, Husein Alireza credits his late mother as a key motivator in his love of creative expression. “My mother loved art, and she loved that I was into art from an early age,” he tells Sotheby’s, as we discuss the forthcoming Origins auction in Diriyah, Sotheby’s inaugural presentation of fine art, jewellery and sporting memorabilia, on February 8, 2025.

• Saudi Arabia Faces Investor Doubts Over Big Mining Ambition

  “We’re at the show me stage,” said Mark Selby, Chief Executive Officer for Canada Nickel Co., which is hoping to draw investment to a mine in Ontario and considering a JV with Middle East players. “There’s a lot of stuff in progress but there is yet to be many shovels in the ground.” Saudi Arabia touted $100 billion of local investment opportunities at the event and estimates it has $2.5 trillion in mineral resources to be dug up. Its dream is to make metals and mining the so-called “third pillar” of the local economy as part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s push to diversify beyond oil and petrochemicals. As the metals industry gathered for the Future Minerals Forum in Riyadh last week, at least a dozen attendees that commented to Bloomberg spoke of their desire to court Saudi money rather than invest in the nation just yet. Many awaited details on how talk of big deals and plans for metals plants are playing out on the ground.

• Saudi Arabia Achieves Record Number of Venture Capital Deals, Maintains First Rank Across MENA

  The 2024 Saudi Arabia Venture Capital Report revealed that Saudi Arabia achieved a record number of 178 venture capital (VC) deals in 2024, accounting for 31% of the MENA region’s total number of deals. The Kingdom also maintained its first rank across the MENA region in terms of VC funding for the second year in a row. The report published today by the venture data platform MAGNiTT and sponsored by SVC also reveals a 34% increase in funding for VC deals in the Kingdom valued at less than $100 million (SAR375 million) in 2024 compared to 2023. This growth indicates a positive trend towards supporting early-stage startups, enhancing the opportunities for the Kingdom’s VC ecosystem to progress to later stages.

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