The Future Investment Initiative Institute, or FII Institute, is a non-profit organization run by the

Public Investment Fund The Public Investment Fund (PIF; ar, links=no, صندوق الإستثمارات العامة) is the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia. It is among the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world with total estimated assets of $620 billion ...

, Saudi Arabia's main

sovereign wealth fund A sovereign wealth fund (SWF), sovereign investment fund, or social wealth fund is a state-owned investment fund that invests in real and financial assets such as stocks, bonds, real estate, precious metals, or in alternative investments such ...

Future Investment Initiative

The Future Investment Initiative was announced in September 2017 by the

, Saudi Arabia's main sovereign wealth fund, in the context of the Saudi Vision 2030 program of economic and social reform. FII Institute's Board of Trustees includes HE

Yasir Al-Rumayyan Yasir bin Othman Al-Rumayyan ( ar, ياسر الرميان) is a Saudi businessman who is Governor of the Public Investment Fund (PIF), the sovereign wealth fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He also serves as the Chairman of English football ...

, HRH Princess

Reema bint Bandar Al Saud Reema bint Bandar Al Saud ( ar, ريما بنت بندر بن سلطان بن عبدالعزيز آل سعود; born 15 February 1975) is a member of House of Saud and the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States. She took office as ambassa ...

, HE

Mohamed Alabbar Mohamed Alabbar ( ar, محمد علي العبار), (born November 8, 1956) is an Emirati businessman who is best known as the founder of Emaar Properties, the developer of assets such as the Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Mall, as well as the cha ...

, HE

Matteo Renzi Matteo Renzi (; born 11 January 1975) is an Italian politician who served as prime minister of Italy from 2014 to 2016. He has been a senator for Florence since 2018. Renzi has served as the leader of Italia Viva (IV) since 2019, having bee ...

, Dr.

Peter Diamandis Peter H. Diamandis (; born May 20, 1961) is a Greek Americans, Greek-American engineer, physician, and entrepreneur best known for being founder and chairman of the X Prize Foundation, cofounder and executive chairman of Singularity University a ...

, Professor

Tony F. Chan Tony Fan-Cheong Chan () is a Chinese American mathematician who has been serving as President of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) since 2018. Prior that, he was President of the Hong Kong University of Science an ...

, Professor

Adah Almutairi Adah Almutairi ( ar, غادة المطيري; born November 1, 1976) is an American scientist and professor at University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Her work focuses on nanomedicine, nanotechnology, chemistry and polymer science. Forbes h ...

, and CEO

Richard Attias Richard Attias (born 19 November 1959) is a Moroccan events producer, founder and former chairman of PublicisLive and currently the executive chairman of Richard Attias and Associates. He is also the founder of The New York Forum and the co-foun ...

. The first board meeting took place in April 2020. The first Future Investment Initiative conference took place in

Riyadh Riyadh (, ar, الرياض, 'ar-Riyāḍ, lit.: 'The Gardens' Najdi pronunciation: ), formerly known as Hajr al-Yamamah, is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the R ...

from 24–26 October 2017. Notable participants included the managing director of the IMF

Christine Lagarde Christine Madeleine Odette Lagarde (; née Lallouette, ; born 1 January 1956) is a French politician and lawyer who has been serving as President of the European Central Bank since 2019. She previously served as the 11th managing director of the ...

US Treasury Secretary The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...

Steven Mnuchin,

BlackRock BlackRock, Inc. is an American Multinational corporation, multi-national investment company based in New York City. Founded in 1988, initially as a Enterprise risk management, risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager, BlackR ...

CEO

Larry Fink Laurence Douglas Fink (born November 2, 1952) is an American billionaire businessman. He is the chairman and CEO of BlackRock, an American multinational investment management corporation. BlackRock is the largest money-management firm in the w ...

, and

SoftBank is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management. The Group primarily invests in companies operating in technology, energy, and financial sectors. It also runs the ...

CEO

Masayoshi Son Masayoshi Son ( ja, 孫正義, translit=Son Masayoshi, ko, 손정의, translit=Son Jeong-ui) (born 11 August 1957) is a Korean-Japanese billionaire technology entrepreneur, investor, financier and philanthropist. A 3rd generation "Zainichi Kore ...

. In an address to the conference, Crown Prince

Mohammad bin Salman Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud ( ar, محمد بن سلمان آل سعود, translit=Muḥammad bin Salmān Āl Su‘ūd; born 31 August 1985), colloquially known by his initials MBS or MbS, is Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia. H ...

said Saudi Arabia was returning to a more moderate form of Islam "open to all religions and to the world". The event was colloquially referred to by some media and commentators as "Davos in the Desert". The

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...

, which organises the annual conference held in

Davos , neighboring_municipalities= Arosa, Bergün/Bravuogn, Klosters-Serneus, Langwies, S-chanf, Susch , twintowns = } Davos (, ; or ; rm, ; archaic it, Tavate) is an Alpine resort town and a municipality in the Prättigau/Davos R ...

, Switzerland, has objected to the use of "Davos" in such contexts for any event not organised by them. The fourth edition of FII took place in a hybrid format on 26–28 January 2021. The

has used the conferences to make announcements, including its goal to increase its assets under management to $400 billion by 2020, as well investments.

Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi

Following the killing in Turkey of Saudi journalist

Jamal Khashoggi Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi (; ar, جمال أحمد خاشقجي, Jamāl ʾAḥmad Ḵāšuqjī, ; 13 October 1958 – 2 October 2018) was a Saudi journalist, dissident, author, columnist for ''Middle East Eye'' and ''The Washington Post'', and a ge ...

in October 2018, some speakers and sponsors who had planned to attend the event withdrew, as part of an attempt to distance themselves from the government of Saudi Arabia. These included ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' owner

Patrick Soon-Shiong Patrick Soon-Shiong (born July 29, 1952) is a Chinese-South African transplant surgeon, billionaire businessman, bioscientist, and media proprietor. He is the inventor of the drug Abraxane, which became known for its efficacy against lung, brea ...

, the president of the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...

Jim Yong Kim Jim Yong Kim (; born December 8, 1959), also known as Kim Yong (/金墉), is an American physician and anthropologist who served as the 12th president of the World Bank from 2012 to 2019. A global health leader, Kim was formerly the chair of ...

, and

Viacom Viacom, an abbreviation of Video and Audio Communications, may refer to: * Viacom (1952–2006), a former American media conglomerate * Viacom (2005–2019), a former company spun off from the original Viacom * Viacom18, a joint venture between Par ...

CEO Bob Bakish. Media outlets including ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

'',

CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...

Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician and m ...

, and

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

withdrew as partners.

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

also issued a statement stating that Google Cloud Chief Executive

Diane Greene Diane B. Greene (born June 9, 1955) is an American technology entrepreneur and executive. Greene started her career as a naval architect before transitioning to the tech industry, where she was a founder and CEO of VMware from 1998 until 2008. ...

would not be attending Future Investment Initiative Summit in Riyadh.

Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), package ...

Chief Executive

Dara Khosrowshahi Dara Khosrowshahi ( fa, دارا خسروشاهی, ; born May 28, 1969) is an Iranian-American businessman and the chief executive officer of Uber. Khosrowshahi was previously CEO of Expedia Group, a company that owns several travel fare aggreg ...

said amid the concerns over Khashoggi disappearance, Uber would not be a part of the summit.

JPMorgan Chase JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, the ...

CEO

Jamie Dimon James Dimon (; born March 13, 1956) is an American billionaire businessman and banker who has been the chairman and chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase – the largest of the big four American banks – since 2005. Dimon was previously on ...

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

Executive Chairman Bill Ford,

CEO

The Blackstone Group Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. Blackstone's private equity business has been one of the largest investors in leveraged buyouts in the last three decades, while its real estate bu ...

CEO Stephen Schwarzman, and US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin also withdrew from the conference.

References

{{Portal, Saudi Arabia Business conferences 21st-century conferences Economy of Saudi Arabia Annual events in Saudi Arabia