On the Record

Speaking at LEAP 2026 as the Public Investment Fund’s AI company announced that the first tranche of a planned gigawatt of AI infrastructure with AMD and Cisco is in production, a collaboration with Applied Intuition to bring autonomous trucks to Saudi roads, and M3, an Arabic large language model trained on more than a trillion Arabic tokens. HUMAIN’s partnerships also anchored the AWS AI zone planned for the first half of 2027.

At the government press conference opening LEAP 2026, the technology conference whose fifth edition runs in Riyadh through September 3, the minister said the Kingdom’s telecommunications access gap has narrowed from 50 percent to 1 percent and the service quality gap from 15 percent to 5 percent, and that more than 3,000 locally manufactured servers have been exported to neighbouring countries.Related coverage

The council of the Digital Cooperation Organization, the multilateral body headquartered in Riyadh, approved Albania, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Zambia for full membership and admitted Tajikistan as an associate member. Once each signs the charter and completes domestic ratification, the organization will span 24 member states and roughly 980 million people, about 12 percent of the world’s population, extending its reach into Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Western Balkans for the first time.Related coverage

The Heritage Commission announced that 34 Oldowan stone tools recovered at the Shoaib Dahdah site in Najran have been dated to between 1.2 and 1.8 million years ago, among the earliest traces of human presence on the Arabian Peninsula. The site, on elevated gravel terraces overlooking Wadi Najran on the eastern slopes of the Sarawat range, was first recorded in a 1980 survey. The tools, worked from local quartzite in the Oldowan tradition, include pebble cutters, polyhedrals, scrapers, blades and hammers.Related coverage

The Royal Commission for Riyadh City’s board approved the launch of a Digital Innovation District organized around six fields: artificial intelligence and big data, cybersecurity, computing and cloud services, the internet of things, blockchain, and robotics and unmanned aerial systems. According to the commission, those sectors account for the majority of global investment in technology innovation companies. The stated aim is to position Riyadh among the world’s top ten technology hubs by attracting international professionals and pairing them with entrepreneurship.Related coverage

Al-Jasser and Syrian Transport Minister Yarub Badr signed two memorandums of understanding in Damascus covering land transport, railways and logistics. The documents commit the two governments to capacity building, exchange of expertise and studies for rehabilitating Syria’s road and railway networks; about half of the country’s 2,552-kilometer rail system is out of service. Riyadh has already eased visa procedures for truck drivers moving goods between the two countries, and a day earlier Damascus and Beirut agreed a joint plan on road and rail links.Related coverage

The National Development Fund disclosed that its Esports and Gaming Financing Program has approved SR421 million ($112 million) to date, reaching 82 entities and supporting the development of more than 127 games. The domestic gaming market was valued at $2.19 billion in 2024, with projections cited alongside the report reaching $4.73 billion by 2033, and the program extends the fund’s earlier venture agreements with the Social Development Bank for the sector. The disclosure arrived days after the Esports World Cup closed its Paris season, with the 2027 edition returning to Riyadh.Related coverage

Two royal orders converted the Ehsan charitable platform into an independent nonprofit foundation, governed by a nine-member board of trustees serving renewable three-year terms. The commerce minister chairs the board, with Minister of Human Resources and Social Development Ahmed Al-Rajhi as vice chair, and members drawn from government, the private sector and the royal family. Since its establishment in 2021, Ehsan has processed more than 440 million donations totaling about SR17 billion ($4.53 billion) across social, religious, educational, food, housing and healthcare programs. Al-Qasabi framed the new status as enabling the foundation to respond to changes in the sector and advance Vision 2030 objectives.

At the 31st Youth Assembly in Geneva, held under the theme "Rise. Reimagine. Rebuild: A World for All," the Misk Foundation and the UN Youth Office announced the establishment of a Global Youth Network whose founding members represent more than 20 million young people across more than 80 countries. The network rests on four pillars: strengthening youth capacity in public policy, access to UN platforms, amplifying youth voices, and equipping member organizations with tools and data. Its formal launch is set for the UN General Assembly in New York in September, building on a Misk-UN partnership dating to 2018.

Speaking at Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University days before the August 23 start of the school year, the education minister announced flexible working hours that let teachers leave when scheduled duties end, a ban on teaching outside one's specialization, and more than 37,500 promotions for teachers and administrators due in September: over 28,000 for educational staff and 9,500 for administrators. He said promotion opportunities have grown to more than 71,000 over two years, against roughly 7,000 in the five years before, and that more than 240,000 teachers will be trained through the Human Capability Development Program.

The Public Investment Fund's 2025 annual report puts revenue at $120 billion, up 9 percent, with net profit more than doubled to $17 billion and assets under management above $900 billion at year-end, from about $530 billion in 2021. The report records 80 percent of assets held inside the Kingdom, cumulative domestic deployment above $199 billion since 2021, and new offices in Paris, Beijing and Shanghai. Al-Johani says the fund's next strategic phase is an evolution toward six interconnected domestic ecosystems.

The Ministry of Tourism approved updated rules for Hajj-season accommodation in Makkah and Madinah ahead of the 1448 season, sorting facilities into economy and first-class grades, each with defined standards for rooms, common areas, reception, cleanliness, maintenance and guest services. Facilities are inspected before licensing, before opening and through the season; the ministry logged more than 19,000 inspections of pilgrim accommodation last season and has told operators to complete maintenance and apply early.

The Saudi Contractors Authority counts 1,648 foreign contracting firms in the Kingdom's market, on a register of 140,000 companies, and expects more than SR3 trillion of projects to reach the market over the next three years. In televised remarks, Al-Ajlan said foreign firms receive no special treatment, describing them as partners of the roughly 18,000 classified Saudi contractors in knowledge exchange rather than rivals, and named financing and payment cycles as the working problems the authority is taking to government entities and banks.

Riyadh hosted the fourth UNESCO Global Forum on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, organized with the Saudi Data and AI Authority and the UNESCO-sponsored International Center for AI Research and Ethics based in the capital. The minister, who chairs the Saudi National Commission for Education, Culture and Science, spoke as the Kingdom marks 2026 as its Year of Artificial Intelligence; the SAMAI training initiative has passed one million participants.

The Future Investment Initiative's tenth edition convenes at the King Abdulaziz International Conference Center in Riyadh from 26 to 29 October under the patronage of King Salman, on the theme The Power of Legacy. The program runs on four tracks: capital that builds, technology that elevates, societies that thrive, and leadership that inspires.

Cirium ranked Saudia first in the world for on-time performance in July, the carrier's third consecutive month at the top of the global table: 87.24 percent of 16,406 flights arrived on schedule through the summer peak. GACA's June scorecard separately recorded the fewest passenger complaints among Saudi carriers, 39 per 100,000 travelers, with 89 percent resolved on time.

Under Ministry of Energy supervision, Saudi developer Mohammed Ahmed Al-Harfi Co. signed three power purchase agreements covering 760 megawatts of solar generation and 1,077 megawatt-hours of battery storage at Widyan Al-Rabie in Rif Dimashq, on terms of 20 to 25 years. Technical cooperation agreements bring in the Saudi Electricity Project Development Co. for engineering services and Siemens Energy for substations, generation and storage systems.

Signed in Makkah by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif after a trilateral summit, at the invitation of King Salman. The joint statement grounds the agreement in historical ties, Islamic solidarity and longstanding defense cooperation, and provides for developing all aspects of defense cooperation among the three states.

The Public Investment Fund, with Silver Lake and Affinity Partners, completed the 55 billion dollar acquisition of Electronic Arts at 210 dollars a share. The publisher has left Nasdaq after more than three decades; PIF had held a minority stake for over five years. Andrew Wilson remains chairman and chief executive.

Chairing the Cabinet in Jeddah, he briefed ministers on his call with the US President. The session welcomed growing international participation in the Multinational Maritime Defense Coalition, established by the Kingdom and 13 partner nations to protect shipping in the Red Sea, Bab Al-Mandab Strait and Gulf of Aden.

Desert Rock and Nujuma, both Red Sea Global properties, became the world's first DarkSky Approved resorts under a certification Red Sea Global developed with DarkSky International, with compliance planned across all 15 of the group's resorts.

The company reported 33.4 billion dollars in adjusted second-quarter net income, up a third from a year earlier, and held its base dividend at 21.9 billion dollars. Nasser cited the East-West Pipeline, storage capacity and export terminals; supply reliability was 98.4 percent.

The Riyad Bank PMI, compiled by S&P Global, read 53.1 in July, a fourth consecutive month of solid growth in the non-oil private sector. Export orders declined for a fifth month on elevated freight costs and regional tensions.

SPA reported the call a day after the US President announced he would hold off on further strikes against Iran, saying the parameters of a deal had been reached with regional partners. The two leaders also reviewed bilateral relations and ways to strengthen them.

Aleppo International reopened to international traffic with same-day inaugurals from Riyadh, Antalya and Düsseldorf, per the Syrian Arab News Agency. The flynas rotation is the first direct Riyadh-Aleppo service since 2012.

In a call with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reported by SPA, the Syrian president affirmed his country's support for the security and sovereignty of the Kingdom. The call was one of a series the Crown Prince held with regional leaders on Friday.

The King of Bahrain telephoned the Crown Prince to commend the establishment of the Multinational Maritime Defense Coalition, with the Kingdom as its leader and permanent base, per SPA.

Marking the reserve's 50,000th patrol in the week of World Ranger Day, the chief executive credited a corps recruited largely from the reserve's own communities: 231 rangers against 27 four years ago, a third of them women.

The official told Al Arabiya the Kingdom remains committed to Iraq and its people, described the strikes as precision operations confined to militia warehouses, and rejected any sectarian framing. The message separates the militias from the Iraqi state they operate within.

Fourteen states signed the founding statement after the ministry convened chiefs of staff from 43 countries in Riyadh. The coalition is described as purely defensive, targeting no state or organization, with its permanent headquarters in the Kingdom and a scope covering Bab al-Mandab, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The Public Investment Fund company opened "Saudi: Sky's The Limit," a six-week showcase of more than 25 Saudi brands at Selfridges in London, running to 5 September.

Hours after the joint strikes in Iraq, the defense minister met President Trump and Vice President Vance carrying a message from the Crown Prince: the strikes do not make Saudi Arabia a party seeking escalation, and the Kingdom will defend itself when attacked. Per Axios, he called de-escalation "a more fruitful path."

Drones launched again from Iraqi territory at Eastern Province oil facilities were intercepted within a day of the joint strikes. The UAE foreign ministry called the attacks "a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of Saudi Arabia" and pledged full solidarity.

US Central Command struck what it described as dozens of Revolutionary Guard command centers and missile, drone and maritime defense sites from Wednesday night, including targets on Qeshm Island and in Bushehr province. Iranian state media reported three killed on Qeshm.

The Kingdom announced its first strikes on Iraqi territory in this war: joint operations with US Central Command against militia logistics and weapons sites linked to the drone attacks on Saudi petroleum facilities. The official statement placed the operation under Article 51 of the UN Charter and said the Kingdom "will not hesitate to take all necessary measures to safeguard its sovereignty" should attacks continue.

The Revolutionary Guard fired ballistic missiles at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base and a CENTCOM facility in Jordan on Tuesday evening, in what Washington described as an attempted surprise attack. Jordan reported downing five missiles. The joint US-Saudi strikes in Iraq followed within hours.

Ninety minutes at the White House with no press conference and no announced decisions, attended by the vice president, the secretaries of state and defense, and the Middle East envoy. Saudi accession to the Abraham Accords was on the agenda; the Kingdom's own civil nuclear agreement, tied by Washington to normalization, stayed unsigned.

Prime Minister Ali Al Zaidi ordered security forces to investigate the launches Riyadh attributed to Iran-backed militias on Iraqi soil, and Baghdad pledged legal action against anyone proven involved, calling relations with the kingdom deep-rooted and fraternal. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq denied involvement. Al Zaidi is due in Riyadh within days, on a visit scheduled before the drones flew.

Said as Oman presented Tehran with a Gulf-backed plan under which Hormuz would reopen under joint regional management funded by voluntary transit contributions. Washington's stated position is that mandatory fees are illegal and that passage should return to pre-war terms; the threat to resume strikes remains the stated alternative.

Spoken ahead of his first White House meeting with Trump since the war began, with Iran's nuclear program at the top of the agenda. The formulation matters in Riyadh, whose own 30-year civil nuclear agreement with Washington has been tied to normalization with Israel and remains unanswered in public.

Said after air defenses intercepted and destroyed drones launched from Iraqi territory at oil facilities in the Eastern Province and the Riyadh region, attacks Riyadh attributed to Iran-backed militias without naming a group. The foreign ministry reserved the right to respond to the sources of the attacks "at the appropriate time and place" and called on the Iraqi government to prevent its territory being used as a launchpad.

The clearest official description of the American pause: a negotiating instrument rather than a ceasefire. By Monday the pause had held through the weekend, through the attack on Aramco, and through the drone launches from Iraq, while Oman, Pakistan and Qatar carried the diplomacy.

In an Iran Daily interview, Araghchi said Tehran has offered to play a role if talks develop between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis, and that Saudi officials are aware of the offer. An Iranian offer to mediate over a militia Riyadh says Iran arms places the kingdom's silence in a familiar position: accepting would concede Tehran's leverage, refusing would forgo a channel.

Spoken after the movement's first strike on Aramco facilities in this war: missiles and drones at the Jizan refinery, two ballistic missiles intercepted over Yanbu. The statement extends the declared blockade from ships to fixed infrastructure, and makes the extension policy rather than incident.

Said as Washington halted its nightly strikes on Iran for the first time in two weeks, with Axios reporting the halt was ordered the same day. The formula that promised to treat the next Houthi attack as an act of Iran was not invoked when that attack came on Saturday, against Aramco itself.

The Patriot battery Greece has operated on the Red Sea coast since 2021, under a bilateral defense agreement, recorded its first combat intercepts of this campaign at Yanbu. The kingdom's air defense is layered and multinational, and Saturday was its clearest live test at the export gateway.

The coalition's first announced strikes since the Houthis declared their blockade, delivered in the vocabulary of restraint: proportionate, military, legitimate. The statement specified a naval base at Hodeidah and a camp on Kamaran Island, and added unprompted that the port was not struck. Al-Maliki promised to respond "without hesitation" to further hostile acts.

The political framing that accompanied the military response. The target of the sentence is the maritime campaign and its sponsors, not Yemen, and the distinction is the point: it prices the campaign without reopening the war.

Posted one day after the 30-year civil nuclear agreement was announced by the two energy ministers, neither of whom had mentioned Israel. The condition moves a signed technical file into the region's hardest political negotiation. Riyadh has not responded.

The declared answer to the strikes on the Encelia and Layla, and the first time Washington has formally tied the Houthi campaign against Saudi shipping to Iran itself. The formula gives the corridor its strongest stated protection since Hormuz closed, while moving the next escalation decision outside Riyadh's control. A companion post said ship damage would be paid out of Iranian money under American control.

Three calls in a day, and the Qatari one is the operative channel: Doha remains the venue where the Houthi file could close by negotiation before it is tested by another launch. The ministry's language stays on de-escalation while Washington's moves the other way.

The kingdom's first response to the Houthi strikes on the tankers Encelia and Layla. The language stays in the register of maritime law rather than retaliation, consistent with the posture Riyadh has held since spring, and notable precisely because the attacks tested it directly.

Issued after the blockade declaration and a day before missiles struck the Encelia. The phrase leaves every option open while committing to none. Which measures, and whose navy provides them, is now the operative question of the Red Sea corridor.

A day of separate calls (Albares, Tajani, Wadephul) two days after the Houthi blockade declaration. The ministry's own framing accuses the Houthis of imposing a maritime blockade on the Kingdom and asks for implementation of Security Council Resolutions 2216 and 2722. The diplomacy is aimed where a declared blockade bites first: European insurers, shippers and the governments behind them.

The same session reaffirmed support for Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan over Iranian violations. Solidarity with the neighbors taking hits, paired with a call to stop the escalation: the two-track posture, restated at the top of government in a week when the war reached Saudi shipping lanes.

The readout disclosed nothing beyond the formula, and the formula is the point: the Washington channel runs on schedule through a war month. It landed the same day as a cabinet reshuffle that handed Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman a combined energy-industry portfolio, a continuity message on both tracks.

Issued following Iranian attacks on Kuwaiti border posts, Emirati tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, and diplomatic missions across the Gulf. The Foreign Minister separately held calls with counterparts in Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Jordan and the US Secretary of State.

Al-Jadaan at Tuesday's cabinet session in Jeddah on the updated state revenue system. He framed the reform as long-term governance infrastructure, not a fiscal crisis response.

Al-Rumayyan distinguishing between NEOM as a whole and The Line specifically, confirming Oxagon remains a core commitment and private sector partners will take on larger delivery roles.

From the Crown Prince's foreword to the 2026 Voluntary National Review, presented at the UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in New York.