Saudi Arabia Funnels Oil Riches Into $7.5 Billion US Stock Buying Spree

• Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth fund ramped up its bets on US big-cap stocks in the second quarter. 
• The Public Investment Fund poured more than $7 billion into stocks like Alphabet, Amazon and JPMorgan. 
• The PIF’s holdings of US stocks stood at $40.7 billion at the end of the quarter. 

Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth fund ramped up bets on US big-cap stocks with more than $7 billion in new investments during the second quarter. 

The Public Investment Fund bought shares of 17 companies, including tech giants Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft; retail chains Home Depot, Costco and Starbucks; plus finance heavyweights JPMorgan and BlackRock.

The buying spree came as US stocks offered discounts, as the S&P 500 index lost 16% and the Nasdaq sank 22% during the second quarter. Meanwhile, high oil prices helped state-owned energy giant Saudi Aramco earn $88 billion in the first half of the year, providing the wealth fund with a capital windfall for investments. 

The total market value of the PIF’s US stocks dipped by $3 billion to $40.8 billion in the second quarter as valuations of other holdings fell during the market sell-off. The fund overall has a total of $620 billion in assets under management. 

The PIF, which is chaired by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is attempting to double its total assets by 2025, while also lowering the country’s dependence on oil.

The PIF is also expanding deeper into tech. The fund expanded on positions in Meta and Paypal, while pouring close to $2 billion into Electronic Arts.