[DyslexicAtheist]

what kind of mega projects are they involved in outside oil? I learned that they invested 40B in the SoftBank fund. Is this what you're referring to? Where would I look or what should I read to learn more about this? thanks

[aliswe]

Dunno about good sources, but Neom and Qiddiya AFAIK still have prospected budgets of 500 billion dollars, each. This is of course an approximation and the actual amount is in a state of flux, so these are just two mega-parameters that are obscured by the x-dollars-or-bust statement that I hear so often.

[PopeDotNinja]

They're building a bunch of new cities:

https://www.index-saudi.com/more-info/saudi-mega-projects/

[aliswe]

Please note that these projects are not all governmentally funded and thus do not burden the state budget (affecting the x-usd-per-barrel-or-bust number) per se - Jeddah Tower is built "privately" by prince Waleed and his company if I'm not mistaken.

But, the list does match the OP title "The Saudis ..." ... hehe ...

[edmundsauto]

It was my understanding there isn't much difference between the prince and the company and the country. Is that inaccurate?

[PopeDotNinja]

If the state owned oil companies pay a lot to the royal family, that's kind of like you owning the company and setting your own salary to whatever you want. There's a difference on paper, but not in spirit (to me anyway).

[aliswe]

Just as an example, Prince Waleeds fortune is more or less self made. Furthermore, his company "Kingdom Holding" (IIRC) is to my knowledge not owned by the government (but it's a public company so that big investment fund - is it called the PIF? - could theoretically buy KH stock.)

Some of those real estate projects look private to me.

[DyslexicAtheist]

thanks for this