Saudi FDI Inflows Climb 33.5% to $42.4 Billion as Stock Tops SAR 1 Trillion

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — Foreign direct investment flowing into Saudi Arabia grew 33.5% in 2025 to approximately $42.4 billion (SAR 159 billion).

The total stock of foreign-owned investment in the Kingdom rose 8.3% over the year to about $282.4 billion (SAR 1,059 billion) at the end of 2025, taking it past the threshold of approximately $266.67 billion (SAR 1 trillion) for the first time. Officials presented that rise as a sign of a widening foreign investor base, and said the jump in inflows showed the country's growing pull for overseas capital and its progress toward Saudi Vision 2030 goals.

Measured from 2017, the gains look larger still. Annual inflows are now more than five times their level that year and the investment stock has doubled, which works out to compound annual growth of 24% for inflows and 10% for the stock.

Saudi Arabia attracted US$42.43 billion (SAR 159.1 billion) in foreign direct investment in 2025, up 33.5% from US$31.79 billion (SAR 119.2 billion) in 2024, according to the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT).

Outflows nearly doubled to US$20.72 billion (SAR 77.7 billion) from US$10.45 billion (SAR 39.2 billion). After subtracting outflows, net FDI rose about 2% to US$21.71 billion (SAR 81.4 billion), up from US$21.33 billion (SAR 80 billion) a year earlier.

The longer-term figures show a bigger shift. Annual FDI inflows were more than five times as high as in 2017, while the total stock of foreign direct investment had more than doubled, reaching about US$282.4 billion (SAR 1.059 trillion) by the end of 2025, according to the Saudi Press Agency.

Inflows are one of the yardsticks the NTP uses to track its strategic objective of drawing in both foreign and domestic capital. The program's initiatives are led by the Ministry of Investment, working with other relevant entities, and aim to improve the investment environment and its competitiveness while bringing in high-quality projects, according to the SPA statement.

The statement credited the results to the economic changes and the regulatory and structural reforms made since Vision 2030 was launched. Those reforms, it said, have made Saudi Arabia a more attractive place to invest and lifted international investors' confidence in the economy's opportunities and growth prospects.

Capital market rules have been part of that reform push. In April, the Capital Market Authority approved amendments meant to diversify investment products and encourage private companies to list, chiefly on the Nomu parallel market, including a new route through special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs).

The NTP is one of the programs behind Vision 2030 and contributes to 34 strategic objectives, roughly 35% of the Vision's total. It runs more than 310 initiatives led by seven ministries, with over 50 implementing entities involved, and measures its progress against 78 domestic and international indicators.

The gap between the gross and net figures could shape how the result is read. Inflows rose by a third, but with outflows almost doubling, net flows were close to flat, which may temper the picture of fresh capital arriving in the economy. Gross inflows are the measure the strategy's targets are set against.

Meeting the 2026 target of about $46.93 billion (SAR 176 billion), equal to 3.8% of nominal GDP, would require inflows to grow by roughly 11% from the 2025 level.