Muhammad bin Salman’s risky bet in Saudi Arabia

SIX YEARSPIFPIF ago almost no one outside Saudi Arabia had heard of the Public Investment Fund (), an entity that held government stakes in blue-chip firms and had fewer employees than a typical supermarket. Today it aspires to become the world’s largest sovereign-wealth fund. It spent billions last year on foreign investments, buying stakes in Western oil firms and cruise lines and even bidding for Newcastle United, an English football club. At home it is building resorts, a financial district and a futuristic city on the Red Sea.Sovereign-wealth funds in the Gulf are meant to provide for a post-oil future. This can be a contradictory task: they must act as responsible stewards of oil wealth while investing in risky projects to drive diversification at home. The is trying to do both simultaneously and at great scale. Yet its boundless ambition risks running up against the hard realities of maths.