Here's Why Saudi Arabians Are Back On Forbes’ Billionaires List For The First Time In 8 Years

Forbes

Forbes removed the Kingdom’s billionaires from our ranking of the world’s wealthiest people in 2018, but they’re back now. Here’s what happened and why.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/2025/04/01/why-saudi-arabians-are-back-on-forbes-billionaires-list-for-the-first-time-in-8-years/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, why Saudi Arabians are back on Forbes' billionaires list for the first time in 8 years.

00:09Seven years ago, Forbes made the decision not to include billionaires from Saudi Arabia on our annual world's billionaires list,

00:16primarily due to one big event in the country that led to a very high level of uncertainty,

00:22the house arrest and reported shakedown of hundreds of wealthy Saudi businessmen,

00:27including a prominent member of the royal family.

00:30This year, following a burst of new listings on the Saudi Stock Exchange,

00:35the kingdom's billionaires are back on the list, which was just published earlier this week on Tuesday.

00:4115 Saudi Arabians made Forbes' 2025 ranking, up from 10 in 2017.

00:47They range from the founder of a hospital group to an operator of grocery stores and malls

00:52to the scion of a prominent banking family.

00:56Altogether, these billionaires, all men aged 49 to 95, are worth an estimated $55.8 billion.

01:05The richest, and only returnee to the list, is Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, with a fortune estimated at $16.5 billion.

01:15About 40% of that lies in his ownership stake in the Saudi-listed Kingdom Holding,

01:20which has investments in the Four Seasons hotel chain, the George Sank Hotel in Paris,

01:25and had an estimated low single-digit stake in X, formerly Twitter, alongside Elon Musk.

01:31Alwaleed bin Talal last appeared on Forbes' billionaires list in 2017, worth an estimated $18.7 billion.

01:41Two of the other 2017-era Saudi billionaires, Saleh Kamel and Abdullah al-Rajhi, have died,

01:48while the others from that period, including brothers Abdul Majeed, Salman and Fawaz al-Huqair,

01:54failed to make the cut this year due to steep drops in their company's share prices.

01:59The 14 other Saudi billionaires on this year's list are all newcomers.

02:04Six are founders or co-founders who listed their company's shares on the Saudi Stock Exchange in recent years.

02:10That includes the second wealthiest Saudi, Suleiman al-Habib,

02:14who is founder and chairman of Riyadh-based hospital group Dr. Suleiman al-Habib Medical Services Group, known as HMG.

02:22Al-Habib, a trained pediatrician, launched the group in 1995

02:26and took it public on the Saudi Stock Exchange in 2020. He owns a 40% stake.

02:32Others have inherited and built on their family fortunes.

02:36Brothers Imad, Issam, and Suleiman al-Muhadib took over Daman-based conglomerate al-Muhadib Group,

02:43founded by their late father Abdul Qadir after his death in 1996,

02:47and expanded it into consumer products, infrastructure, construction, real estate, and finance.

02:54The brothers each own 28% of the privately held firm.

02:58Four other family members own smaller stakes.

03:00And together they own shares in at least 16 publicly traded companies in Saudi Arabia and Egypt,

03:06with the largest part of their fortune coming from ACWA Power,

03:09a Saudi-listed power generation and desalinated water production company that went public in 2021.

03:17So why did Forbes stop listing Saudi Arabia's billionaires for seven years?

03:21Mainly due to concern about the reliability of available information.

03:26In November 2017, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS,

03:32orchestrated a roundup of the country's richest people and put them under house arrest

03:36in Riyadh's Ritz-Carlton Hotel for several months, under allegations of corruption.

03:42The Saudi government's reported goal was to gather $100 billion to bolster its budget.

03:48At least four of the Saudi billionaires then on Forbes' list were reportedly detained.

03:53None would comment on how much they'd handed over to the government.

03:57Thus, we decided to take them off the list in 2018.

04:01There is still some degree of uncertainty about who really owns what.

04:05Several Saudi experts Forbes spoke with pointed to the difficulty of getting reliable information on such matters,

04:11and the general reluctance among Saudis to discuss the topic.

04:15One expert, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, says,

04:25For full coverage, check out Kerry A. Dolan and Giacomo Tagnini's piece on Forbes.com.

04:32This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes. Thanks for tuning in.

04:41Thanks for tuning in.

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