Riyadh - Sharikat Mubasher: BlackRock, the global asset manager and technology provider, plans to double its investment in Saudi Arabia and the broader Middle East region, looking to tap into activity in areas from infrastructure to AI, according to Kashif Riaz, BlackRock’s Managing Director of Financial Markets Advisory business in the Middle East.

The company has already invested over $35 billion in the Kingdom across equities, fixed income, and infrastructure, and now has four investment teams in Riyadh focused on strategies across the Middle East, Riaz stated in an interview with Bloomberg.

He noted that the infrastructure sector is expected to offer the strongest opportunities as Saudi Arabia injects hundreds of billions of dollars into projects, such as the Riyadh metro, to develop the non-oil economy and serve a growing population.

“The bulk of capital deployment has been in energy infrastructure, but I think that’ll broaden to transportation, things around digital infrastructure, data centers, et cetera,” Riaz said.

Moreover, BlackRock is set to launch multiple new mutual funds in partnership with the Public Investment Fund (PIF), and is working with the Kingdom to develop the market for residential-mortgage-backed securities.