[propman]

They have significant geopolitical power. The entire Sunni realm is essentially under their rule. They blockaded Qatar and every Sunni nation followed suit. They don’t have nukes but technically can call on Pakistan for their nukes anytime they want. The avg Saudi lives like an upper class westerner and by upper class I don’t mean upper middle class like the majority of us tech guys. The poor in KSA are all foreign workers, the Saudis barely work at all and are rich with servants and cushy govt jobs.

They have the most influence in OPEC and they are now diversifying. KSA is invested all over SV. Uber, Tesla, Snapchat, biotech firms, SoftBank. Probably only 2nd to Russian oligarchs in terms of SV money. A bunch of princes are multibillionaires exclusively from American and British assets.

[phs318u]

True, but the excess of their riches is matched only by the profligacy of their spending and protected by the USA. Once the oil is gone or irrelevant they lose the protection of America, and become merely a bunch of rich oligarchs. Some will manage it well, most wont.

EDIT: Forgot to add that their geopolitical power doesn’t come from their money but from their control of a global resource. If the unfortunate deaths of various Russian expat oligarchs has proven anything, it’s that no amount of money can buy you protection from a tier-1 state that wants you dead.