If you were scrolling through financial news back in 2017, you probably remember the headlines. They were everywhere. Images of the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh turned into a gilded prison for the Saudi elite. And at the center of it all was Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud. For a while, the world’s most famous royal investor just... vanished. People thought it was the end of his era. Honestly, they were wrong.
Fast forward to 2026. The "Arabian Warren Buffett" isn't just back; he’s playing a game that’s fundamentally different from the one he played in the 90s. He’s survived a massive power shift in Saudi Arabia, a global pandemic, and the complete transformation of the tech world. He isn't just a relic of the Citigroup era. You’ve likely used a service he’s funded in the last 24 hours without even realizing it.
The Billion-Dollar Pivot to Silicon Valley
The Prince has always been a contrarian. Remember when he bailed out Citigroup in 1991? Everyone thought he was crazy. He turned an $800 million bet into a $10 billion win. But look at his portfolio now. It’s not just about old-school banking anymore.
Through his vehicle, Kingdom Holding Company (KHC), he’s become one of the most significant power players in the Elon Musk universe. He was an early believer in Twitter, and when Musk took it private to create X, Alwaleed didn't cash out. He doubled down. Today, he and KHC are among the largest shareholders in X, second only to Musk himself.
But it goes deeper than social media. Have you heard of xAI? That’s Musk’s AI powerhouse. Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud has been pouring hundreds of millions into it. Specifically, Kingdom Holding ramped up its investment to around $800 million through various funding rounds. He’s betting that the future isn't just in "holding" value, but in the intelligence that creates it.
He’s still got the classics, of course. He owns about 23.7% of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts (Bill Gates is his partner there). He owns the Savoy in London and the George V in Paris. These are trophy assets, sure, but they’re also cash cows that fund his more aggressive tech plays.
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What Really Happened at the Ritz?
We have to talk about it. You can't mention Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud without someone bringing up the "anti-corruption" crackdown of 2017. It was a seismic event. Critics called it a shakedown; the Saudi government called it a necessary cleaning of the house.
He spent nearly three months in the Ritz-Carlton. There were rumors of mistreatment, which he later denied in a somewhat surreal Reuters interview conducted right inside his hotel suite. He looked thinner, sure, but he insisted it was "business as usual."
The fallout was real, though. In 2022, he sold a 16.9% stake in Kingdom Holding to the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) for $1.6 billion. To some, this looked like the state taking its cut. To others, it was a strategic alignment. By bringing the PIF—the world’s most aggressive sovereign wealth fund—into his company, Alwaleed basically bulletproofed his business against future political shifts. He still owns about 78% of the company. He’s still the boss.
A Net Worth That Refuses to Stay Down
Estimating his wealth is a bit of a nightmare for Forbes and Bloomberg. They’ve actually dropped him from their lists at various points because it’s so hard to verify his private assets.
Current 2026 estimates put his net worth somewhere between $17 billion and $19 billion.
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His wealth is a mix of:
- Publicly traded stocks through KHC (Citigroup, JD.com, Accor).
- Massive private stakes in tech (X, xAI, Snap Inc).
- A real estate empire that includes the under-construction Jeddah Tower, which aims to be the world's tallest building.
- Personal luxury assets like his "flying palace" (a modified Boeing 747) and a 420-room palace in Riyadh.
The Philanthropy Angle: Giving it All Away?
Alwaleed was the first Arab to sign the Giving Pledge. That’s the initiative started by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett where the ultra-wealthy promise to give away most of their fortune.
He didn't just sign a paper. Through Alwaleed Philanthropies, he’s already funneled over $4 billion into projects across 190 countries. We’re talking about disaster relief, women’s empowerment, and bridging cultural divides. He’s funded Islamic studies centers at Harvard, Cambridge, and Edinburgh. It’s a soft-power play, but it’s also a massive logistical operation that most people overlook.
Actionable Insights: The Alwaleed Playbook
If you’re looking to invest like the Prince, you can’t exactly buy a 747. But you can learn from his strategy.
First, look for "unloved" giants. Alwaleed buys when people are panicking. He did it with Citi in the 90s, and he’s doing it now with high-stakes tech. He doesn't care about quarterly fluctuations; he cares about where a company will be in ten years.
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Second, diversify across borders. He’s one of the few investors who is equally comfortable in a Silicon Valley boardroom as he is in a Riyadh palace. He spreads his risk across North America, Europe, and Asia.
Third, align with the "new guard." His partnership with the PIF shows that he knows when to stop fighting the tide and start riding it. In today's Saudi Arabia, you either work with the Vision 2030 plan or you get left behind. He chose to work with it.
Keep an eye on the Jeddah Tower project. It’s been stalled for years, but it’s the ultimate symbol of his ambition. If that building finally touches the clouds, it’ll be the loudest statement yet that Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud is nowhere near finished.
To get a better sense of his current moves, you should monitor the quarterly filings of Kingdom Holding Company on the Tadawul (Saudi Stock Exchange). That is where the real data lives. You can also track the progress of the Jeddah Economic City development, which remains his most ambitious real estate play to date.