{"id":864749,"date":"2025-07-25T03:17:24","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T08:17:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/25\/why-saudi-arabians-are-back-on-forbes-billionaires-list-for-the-first-time-in-8-years\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T03:17:24","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T08:17:24","slug":"why-saudi-arabians-are-back-on-forbes-billionaires-list-for-the-first-time-in-8-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/25\/why-saudi-arabians-are-back-on-forbes-billionaires-list-for-the-first-time-in-8-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Saudi Arabians Are Back On Forbes’ Billionaires List For The First Time In 8 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Forbes<\/em> removed the Kingdom\u2019s billionaires from our ranking of the world\u2019s wealthiest people in 2018, but they\u2019re back now. Here\u2019s what happened and why.<\/h2>\n
\n

S<\/abbr>even years ago, <\/strong>Forbes<\/em> made the decision not to include billionaires from Saudi Arabia on our annual World\u2019s Billionaires list<\/a>, primarily due to one big event in the country that led to a very high level of uncertainty: the house arrest and reported shakedown of hundreds of wealthy Saudi businessmen, including a prominent member of the royal family. This year, following a burst of new listings on the Saudi stock exchange, the Kingdom\u2019s billionaires are back on the list, published Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Fifteen Saudi Arabians made Forbes\u2019<\/em> 2025 ranking, up from 10 in 2017. They range from the founder of a hospital group, to an operator of grocery stores and malls, to the scion of a prominent banking family. Altogether these billionaires\u2013all men, aged 49 to 95\u2013are worth an estimated $55.8 billion.<\/p>\n

The richest (and only returnee to the list) is Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, with a fortune estimated at $16.5 billion. About 40% of that lies in his ownership stake in Saudi-listed Kingdom Holding, which has investments in the Four Seasons hotel chain, the George V hotel in Paris and had an estimated low-single-digit stake in X (formerly Twitter) alongside Elon Musk. Alwaleed bin Talal last appeared on Forbes\u2019<\/em> billionaires list in 2017, worth an estimated $18.7 billion. (Two of the other 2017-era Saudi billionaires, Saleh Kamel<\/a> and Abduallah Al Rajhi<\/a>, have died, while the others from that period\u2014including brothers Abdul Majeed, Salman and Fawaz Alhokair\u2014failed to make the cut this year due to steep drops in their companies\u2019 share prices.)<\/p>\n

The 14 other Saudi billionaires on this year\u2019s list are all newcomers. Six are founders or cofounders who listed their company\u2019s shares on the Saudi stock exchange in recent years. That includes the second wealthiest Saudi, Sulaiman Al Habib, who is founder and chairman of Riyadh-based hospital group Dr. Sulaiman Al Habib Medical Services Group, known as HMG. Al Habib, a trained pediatrician, launched the group in 1995 and took it public on the Saudi stock exchange in 2020; he owns a 40% stake.<\/p>\n

Others have inherited and built on their family fortunes. Brothers Emad, Essam and Sulaiman Al Muhaidib took over Dammam-based conglomerate Al Muhaidib Group, founded by their late father Abdulkadir, after his death in 1996 and expanded it into consumer products, infrastructure, construction, real estate and finance. The brothers each own 28% of the privately held firm\u2014four other family members own smaller stakes\u2014and together they own shares in at least sixteen publicly traded companies in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, with the largest part of their fortune coming from ACWA Power, a Saudi-listed power generation and desalinated water production company that went public in 2021.<\/p>\n

Why did Forbes <\/em>stop listing Saudi Arabia\u2019s billionaires for seven years? Mainly due to concern about the reliability of available information. In November 2017, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (known as MBS) orchestrated a roundup of the country\u2019s richest people and put them under house arrest in Riyadh\u2019s Ritz Carlton hotel for several months, under allegations of corruption. The Saudi government\u2019s reported goal was to gather $100 billion to bolster its budget. At least four of the Saudi billionaires then on Forbes\u2019<\/em> list were reportedly detained. None would comment on how much they\u2019d handed over to the government. Thus we decided to take them off the list<\/a> in 2018.<\/p>\n

There is still some degree of uncertainty about who really owns what. Several Saudi experts Forbes <\/em>spoke with pointed to the difficulty of getting reliable information on such matters and the general reluctance among Saudis to discuss the topic. \u201cIn the Kingdom, one cannot counter the views of the Crown Prince,\u201d says one expert, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

In the years since 2018, the Saudi Public Investment Fund\u2013a sovereign wealth fund known as PIF for short\u2013has taken stakes in some of the country\u2019s largest public companies, including those run by a couple of the country\u2019s billionaires. In 2022, Alwaleed bin Talal\u2019s Kingdom Holding announced that the PIF was spending $1.5 billion to acquire a 16.9% stake. That resulted in a drop in Alwaleed\u2019s ownership to 78.1%, from a prior 95%.<\/p>\n

In November last year, the PIF acquired 54% of broadcasting firm MBC, founded by billionaire Waleed bin Ibrahim al Ibrahim, for a reported $1.97 billion. The seller was reported to be Istedemah Holding Company, a government-owned entity that is part of the Saudi Ministry of Finance. Istedemah reportedly acquired the stake in MBC following the 2017 Ritz Carlton affair.<\/p>\n

“MBS turned around and said, \u2018It’s time for you guys to start putting into the economy rather than taking out, you\u2019ve been enjoying the high life and now that\u2019s over,\u2019\u201d says Charles Robertson, the London-based head of macro strategy at asset manager FIM Partners. \u201cA few lost everything, but most people just came to a deal. The government’s role now is to incentivize the private sector, for the PIF to take stakes in companies that need that financial support for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from the PIF, foreign investors have also been flooding into Saudi companies. Saudi Arabia first opened its stock market to foreigners in 2015, and foreign participation in the Saudi index has more than quadrupled since 2018, according to stock index provider MSCI. At the same time, more Saudi companies have been going public, with 15 companies launching IPOs on the main Tadawul stock exchange in 2024 alone\u2014more than the total number of listings between 2015 and 2020. Over the past five years, Saudi companies have raised $24 billion selling shares to the public, more than any other country in the Middle East except the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n

Locals have also been pouring into the stock market. \u201cThis is how Saudis gamble, effectively. Instead of Las Vegas, they go and play on the stock market,” says Robertson, pointing to greater interest from Saudis and outside investors alike. “Foreigners have been coming in, there’s been a lot of interest. The stock exchange’s annual event is pretty well attended.”<\/p>\n

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Here are the Saudi billionaires on Forbes\u2019 <\/em>2025 World\u2019s Billionaires list<\/strong><\/h2>\n

NET WORTHS ARE AS OF MARCH 7, 2025<\/sub><\/h4>\n
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#14. (tie) Ammar Soliman Fakeeh<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Net Worth: $1 billion<\/strong> | Source of wealth: Hospitals<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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#14. (tie) Mazen Soliman Fakeeh<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Net worth: $1 billion<\/strong> | Source of wealth: Hospitals<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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#13. Hamad Ali Al-Sagri <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Net Worth: $1.1 billion<\/strong> | Source of wealth: Sports centers, gyms<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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#11. (tie) Khalid Abdul Rahman Saleh Al Rajhi<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Net worth: $1.2 billion<\/strong> | Source of wealth: Banking, investments<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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#11. (tie) Yousuf Mohammad Jamjoom<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Net worth: $1.2 billion<\/strong> | Source of wealth: Pharmaceuticals<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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#10. Waleed bin Ibrahim al Ibrahim<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Net worth: $1.4 billion <\/strong> | Source of wealth: Broadcasting<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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#9. Abdullah Amer Al Nahdi<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Net worth: $2.3 billion<\/strong> | Source of wealth: Pharmacies<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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#7. (tie) Abdullah Al Othaim<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Net worth: $2.5 billion<\/strong> | Source of wealth: Grocery stores, malls<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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#7. (tie) Abdullah bin Sulaiman Al Rajhi<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Net worth: $2.5 billion<\/strong> | Source of wealth: Banking<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n

#6. Mohammad Abunayyan<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Net worth: $3.2 billion<\/strong> | Source of wealth: Diversified<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n

#4. (tie) Essam Al Muhaidib<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Net worth: $3.6 billion<\/strong> | Source of wealth: Diversified<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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#4. (tie) Sulaiman Al Muhaidib<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Net worth: $3.6 billion<\/strong> | Source of wealth: Diversified<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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#3. Emad Al Muhaidib<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Net worth: $3.8 billion<\/strong> | Source of wealth: Diversified<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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#2. Sulaiman Al Habib<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Net worth: $10.9 billion<\/strong> | Source of wealth: Hospital group<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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#1. Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Net worth: $16.5 billion<\/strong> | Source of wealth: Investments <\/strong><\/h4>\n
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More From Forbes<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Forbes<\/span>The 10 Richest Chinese Billionaires 2025<\/span>By Yue Wang<\/span><\/small><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>Forbes<\/span>AI Boom Billionaires: These Tech Moguls Joined The Forbes List In 2025<\/span>By Phoebe Liu<\/span><\/small><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>Forbes<\/span>The 10 Richest People In Latin America 2025<\/span>By Gigi Zamora<\/span><\/small><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>Forbes<\/span>The Richest Women In The World 2025<\/span>By Julie Goldenberg<\/span><\/small><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>Forbes<\/span>How Truth Social And Crypto Helped Trump Double His Fortune In Just One Year<\/span>By Dan Alexander<\/span><\/small><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Kerry A. Dolan, Forbes Staff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Forbes removed the Kingdom\u2019s billionaires from our ranking of the world\u2019s wealthiest people in 2018, but they\u2019re back now. Here\u2019s what happened and why. S even years ago, Forbes made the decision not to include billionaires from Saudi Arabia on our annual World\u2019s Billionaires list, primarily due to one big event in the country that<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":864750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[145504,2059],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-864749","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arabians","8":"category-saudi"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=864749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/864750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=864749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=864749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=864749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}