Saudi Arabia Business Setup: October 2026's Biggest Investment & Expansion News
October gave the clearest read yet on how much money is actually arriving. Foreign direct investment into Saudi Arabia hit SR159.1 billion in 2025, up 33.5 percent — though net flows barely moved, because outflows nearly doubled. Underneath that headline: Riyadh's flexible offices are close to full with new entrants, PIF-owned Humain put a $1 billion data centre out to tender, Aramco signed a $200 million lithium deal, the Kingdom approved SR6.7 billion of hotel projects under a new enabler scheme, and UAE developer Arada arrived with a $3.8 billion Riyadh project. For each story we spell out what it means if you're setting up or scaling in the Kingdom.
Photo: Arab News
Investment
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SR159.1bn foreign direct investment into the Kingdom in 2025 (about $42.4 billion) |
Foreign direct investment into Saudi Arabia reached SR159.1 billion (about $42.4 billion) in 2025, up 33.5 percent on the year before, according to the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT). The stock of inward FDI stood at SR1.06 trillion at the end of 2025, an 8.3 percent rise.
Look past the headline, though. Outflows nearly doubled — up 98.5 percent to SR77.7 billion — so net FDI came in at SR81.4 billion, barely moved at 1.7 percent growth. Construction took the largest share of inflows at SR34.5 billion (21.7 percent), with manufacturing close behind at SR33.4 billion (21 percent). Luxembourg recorded the highest net inflows at SR24.4 billion, then the UAE and Egypt at SR9.4 billion each. Vision 2030 targets $100 billion a year by 2030, so 2025 landed at roughly 42 percent of that.
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What this means for your business
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Source: Arab News
Photo: Arab News
Real Estate
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55–60% of flexible-office enquiries come from new company setups |
Flexible office occupancy in Riyadh's Olaya district is approaching 90 percent, with the King Abdullah Financial District in the mid-80s, according to JLL. The two districts hold 45 percent of the capital's flexible workspace supply between them.
Who is taking the space tells the story. International companies make up 50 to 60 percent of flexible-office occupiers in Riyadh — the highest proportion anywhere in the Middle East and Africa — and new company setups generate 55 to 60 percent of all enquiries. That makes flex space a direct read on market-entry volume. The wider market is tight too: Knight Frank put citywide office occupancy at 96 percent in the second quarter of 2026, with Grade A rents up 3.4 percent year on year on a 6.1 million sq m stock that announced projects could lift to 10.6 million by 2028.
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What this means for your business
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Source: Arab News
Photo by panumas nikhomkhai on Pexels
Technology
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6GW proposed campus that the 100MW first building sits inside |
Humain, the AI company the Public Investment Fund (PIF) established in 2025, has invited bids on an estimated $1 billion contract to build a 100-megawatt AI data centre in Riyadh. The site covers 350,200 sq m at Al-Saad, east of the city, and forms part of a proposed six-gigawatt campus. Capacity could later expand to 200 megawatts.
The timetable is tight and public. Bids close on 8 November 2026, construction is expected to start in January 2027, the first phase should be operational by October 2028 and full capacity in early 2029. For scale, total installed data centre capacity across the Kingdom was around 467 megawatts in the first quarter of 2026 — so one campus at one site is a change of order, not an increment.
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What this means for your business
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Source: MEP Middle East
Photo: Arab News
Mining
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2,000 tonnes a year of battery-grade lithium carbonate |
Saudi Aramco and National Energy Services Reunited (NESR) signed an agreement on 8 October to develop a lithium demonstration project in the Kingdom, using direct lithium extraction technology. NESR values the project at roughly $200 million over a potential five-year period.
The plant will produce 2,000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium carbonate a year, with production scheduled to begin in late 2027. The feedstock is what makes it unusual: the lithium is recovered from oilfield water, so the project monetises an existing waste stream rather than opening a new mine. That is a different route into the battery materials chain from the hard-rock exploration work Aramco and Ma'aden agreed earlier this year — Aramco is now running two minerals strategies in parallel.
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What this means for your business
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Source: Arab News
Photo: Arab News
Tourism
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17,000+ jobs expected from the first 19 approved projects |
Saudi Arabia has approved the first 19 projects under its Hospitality Investment Enablers Programme, together worth SR6.7 billion (about $1.78 billion). The Ministry of Tourism runs the scheme with the Ministry of Investment. The projects add more than 3,000 hotel rooms — around 40 percent of them at coastal destinations — and are expected to create more than 17,000 jobs.
Note where they are going: Al-Baha, Al-Ahsa, Jeddah, Asir and the Eastern Province, rather than the Riyadh and giga-project core. Participants include BSF Capital, Sedal, Rikaz and Jenan. By 2030 the programme is projected to add more than SR2.4 billion a year to GDP and more than SR5.3 billion in local content. The first project is scheduled to open by the end of 2026, with further openings running through 2029.
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What this means for your business
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Source: Arab News
Photo: The National
FDI
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$3.8bn first Riyadh project (Dh14 billion) |
Sharjah-based developer Arada is entering the Saudi market with a Dh14 billion ($3.8 billion) residential project in Riyadh's Al Rimal district, in the city's north-eastern growth corridor. The scheme covers 3,500 villas and town houses. Construction starts in mid-2027 and runs for five years.
The entry structure is worth studying. Arada has set up Arada KSA with Saudi property investor Xtopia, whose chairman Mohammed AlDhabaan chairs the new company. Funding runs through a Capital Market Authority-regulated investment structure managed by Al Rajhi Capital — Arada contributes some equity, with the majority coming through the fund and a bank. Arada KSA has access to a 10 million sq m land bank across the Kingdom worth Dh49 billion, and plans 100,000 homes in Saudi Arabia over the next three to five years.
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What this means for your business
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Source: The National
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