(Bloomberg) -- Saudi Arabia will host the biggest names in finance and technology this coming week in a test of investor appetite for the kingdom’s ambitions of transforming itself into a global hub at a time of widening regional conflict.
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International executives will have to contend with a region rocked by geopolitical tensions, with the threat of further military confrontation between Israel and Iran at the highest levels in decades. And they will land in a country that is increasingly facing up to the fact that even its vast oil wealth has limits.
But those arriving at the Future Investment Initiative - often dubbed Davos in the desert - seem undeterred, sensing an opportunity to plug into Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s trillion-dollar Vision 2030 economic remake. Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s David Solomon, Citigroup Inc.’s Jane Fraser and BlackRock Inc.’s Larry Fink have become regulars at the Riyadh summit and are set to return this year.
Reflecting Saudi Arabia’s focus on technology and artificial intelligence, they’ll be joined by prominent names in those industries. Alphabet Inc. President Ruth Porat and TikTok Inc. Chief Executive Officer Shou Chew are set to speak at the summit for the first time. Benjamin Horowitz, tech entrepreneur and co-founder of venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz, is also making an appearance.
Wall Street and Silicon Valley have increasingly turned to the oil-rich Middle East as liquidity gets tighter in other parts of the world, especially China. Saudi Arabia itself commands nearly $1 trillion in sovereign wealth, though the Crown Prince wants titans of industry to stop deploying that money overseas and instead help support his domestic ambitions.
Yet the backdrop is one of increasing uncertainty.
Saudi foreign policy has recently focused on lowering regional tensions in the hope that a more stable region will bring in foreign capital and technological know-how. But events of the past year have served as a reminder of how unstable the region can be.
“The impact of regional instability on the prospects for foreign investment is completely negative, with the possible exception of the defense industry,” said Gregory Gause, Professor of International Affairs at Texas A&M University. Capital is “not attracted to conflict regions, even if the country is not an immediate participant in the conflict.”