FIVE BY CAPITALSA
WEDNESDAY, 11 NOVEMBER 2026
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Today’s Five
01 / WEALTH FUND
Good morning from Riyadh.
PIF wants to keep investing without putting in more of its own money. The $900 billion wealth fund is at an early stage of studying new ways to raise cash.
The big idea: securitization. PIF could raise money against the steady income some of its companies already earn, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters. Think of a landlord selling years of future rent for a lump sum today. PIF keeps the companies, and investors are repaid from their earnings over time.
The other options: selling stakes in mature assets to fund younger ones, trimming its listed holdings, selling bonds to international investors or borrowing through export credit agencies, another person said. Reuters also reported that PIF-owned developer ROSHN is looking for investors for a key project.
Why now: PIF has spent nearly a decade building companies in real estate and technology, plus a new airline, and many are years from paying back. Government transfers have slowed and Aramco's smaller dividends have cut its income. Borrowing filled the gap, with $26 billion of debt raised in 2025, and the Iran war has added pressure for returns.
What PIF says: asked for comment, the fund pointed Reuters to its 2026 to 2030 strategy, which promises "greater private sector and capital markets participation in Saudi Arabia."
Why it matters: for a decade PIF wrote the cheques behind almost every big Saudi project. This would shift more of that cost to outside investors and make the fund more of a recycler of capital.
What to watch: which companies go first. Mature businesses with steady, predictable income are the natural candidates.
Read more:
02 / EVs
The fund looking for others to share its costs is still writing cheques of its own. PIF agreed to expand a loan facility to Lucid, the US electric-car maker it has backed for years, by $1.75 billion, Lucid said in a filing on Monday alongside its third-quarter results.
The numbers: revenue rose 4% to about $350 million, in a US electric-vehicle market that shrank 41%. Cash burn fell 30% to $1.04 billion after Lucid cut production and inventory, but it still lost $1.08 billion, or $2.74 a share.
The runway: the new facility lifts Lucid's liquidity to $3.75 billion, which it says is enough to fund operations into the fourth quarter of 2027. That carries it past the planned start of its cheaper midsize model in the second half of that year.
The Saudi angle: Lucid expects to inaugurate its AMP-2 plant in Saudi Arabia, its first factory outside the US, in early 2027. Keeping Lucid funded keeps that factory on track.
Why it matters: the money is a delayed-draw loan, so Lucid can pull it down in stages. Investors weren't fully reassured: the shares fell about 5% in extended trading.
What to watch: Lucid's mid-term plan, due early next year, and production dates for the midsize car in the first quarter of 2027.
A GOOD BRIEFING TRAVELS
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THE CLOSE · TUESDAY, NOV 10
10,168.10 ▲ 0.61%
Tadawul All Share Index (TASI)
Banks Offset Aramco
The Saudi market made it two gains in a row, closing at its highest level in about three weeks. About 4.9 billion Riyal ($1.3 billion) changed hands.
Banks did the lifting: the sector rose 1.7%, with Al Rajhi up 2.6%. Capital goods gained 3% and transport 2.7%.
Aramco held it back: energy fell 1.8% as Aramco slipped 1.9% to SR25.60, the most traded stock, after Monday's oil slide.
Broad buying: 243 stocks rose and 36 fell.
TOP GAINERS
Aslak · SR18.86 ▲ 9.97%
Retal · SR7.51 ▲ 9.96%
Mutakamela · SR9.80 ▲ 9.50%
TOP LOSERS
Smasco · SR4.72 ▼ 5.22%
Al Hammadi · SR21.63 ▼ 2.57%
Behind the moves: steel pipe maker Aslak's quarterly profit more than tripled, while homebuilder Retal hit the daily limit with no news. Staffing firm Smasco fell after its third-quarter profit dropped 12%.
Today's test: Wednesday is the deadline for third-quarter results, so expect more big single-stock moves.
Source: Saudi Exchange
03 / SHIPPING
Saudi oil is going back through the Strait of Hormuz, and the US military is helping it get there. Bahri, the national shipping company that carries most Saudi crude exports, sent four tankers through the strait on Tuesday in coordination with the US military, Khalid Alhammad, president of Bahri Ship Management, told an industry event in Dubai.
Government to government: the kingdom is working with Washington at a government level to support the crossings, he said. "We have to keep moving the energy."
Why it matters: since the war choked Hormuz, Saudi exports have leaned on the East-West pipeline to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, which carries about four million barrels a day. That line was hit again on Monday. A second route out lowers the risk, and crossings like Bahri's have pushed Middle East oil shipments close to prewar levels.
The danger: on Sunday, Iran's Revolutionary Guard said it struck three tankers near the strait for using "unauthorised routes" in coordination with the US military. Two Bahri crew members were killed in attacks last quarter.
The upside: the risk pays. Bahri's third-quarter profit jumped tenfold as tanker rates hit records, and revenue at its oil-shipping unit rose $3.2 billion from a year earlier.
What to watch: how many Saudi cargoes move through Hormuz under US cover, and whether Iran escalates against the ships that do.
Read more:
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DATA POINT
$1.4 trillion
The valuation Anthropic, the company behind the Claude chatbot, is seeking in its IPO, filed on Tuesday. Qatar and Abu Dhabi are among its backers. Saudi Arabia isn't. Story 05 explains why.
04 / OIL
The war premium is draining out of oil. Brent fell as much as 3.1% on Tuesday and slipped below $90 a barrel for the first time since August, after sliding about 6% on Monday.
What changed: President Donald Trump said more strikes on Iran wouldn't be necessary, as he faces pressure to end the nine-month war after his Republicans' heavy midterm losses. "Iran is effectively finished militarily," he said after meeting Qatar's prime minister.
The trader view: the market is betting Trump won't restart attacks, said Arne Lohmann Rasmussen, chief analyst at Danish advisory firm Global Risk Management. Prices could fall further, "but I think we've passed the biggest drop."
Why it matters: prices hit a six-month high at the end of October. For the kingdom, cheaper oil means less money on every barrel just as the budget runs past its deficit forecast. The offset is volume, with more barrels leaving through Hormuz again.
The catch: talks are still stuck on Iran's demand that the US lift its naval blockade and sanctions, and the East-West pipeline was hit again on Monday.
What to watch: OPEC's monthly oil report on Wednesday and the International Energy Agency's on Friday.
Read more:
05 / AI
The biggest AI listing yet will make two Gulf states richer. Saudi Arabia isn't one of them. Anthropic, the US company behind the Claude chatbot, is seeking a valuation of about $1.4 trillion in its initial public offering, it said in a US filing on Tuesday.
The deal: Anthropic and its co-founders aim to raise up to $90.4 billion through the IPO and a private placement. The base offering alone would raise up to $64.4 billion, at $70 to $78 a share. It would be the first frontier AI lab to go public.
The Gulf winners: Qatar's wealth fund, QIA, backed Anthropic in a 2025 round that valued it at $183 billion, and again in later rounds. Abu Dhabi tech investor MGX joined a $30 billion round in February and a $65 billion round in May.
The Saudi angle: in 2024, Anthropic ruled out taking Saudi money, citing national security, CNBC reported at the time. It later opened its doors to Qatar and the UAE. Riyadh built its own champion instead: PIF's Humain, now 49% owned by Aramco after a $2.6 billion cash injection.
Why it matters: it tests two Gulf strategies at once. Qatar and Abu Dhabi bought into Silicon Valley's leaders and are about to book big gains. Saudi Arabia is betting it can grow its own, a slower and costlier route that has yet to prove itself.
What to watch: the final IPO price and first-day trading, and whether the valuation pushes Humain to seek outside investors.
Read more:
PLUS / SOCIETY
Riyadh's phones buzzed again on Tuesday. Residents got text alerts to take shelter as air defenses intercepted a ballistic missile and a cruise missile over the capital. An all-clear followed, and no one was hurt.
What happened: a second ballistic missile was downed over the south of the country, coalition spokesman Major General Turki Al-Maliki said, blaming Yemen's Houthis. It came a day after the East-West pipeline was hit near Madinah, and two days after falling debris damaged several floors of Aramco's tower in KAFD.
The toll: Houthi attacks have killed 26 people in the kingdom since September, 23 of them at airports, according to AFP. The group has warned airlines that most Saudi airspace is "unsafe," and flights have resumed only on a limited basis.
The money angle: markets don't look worried. The TASI closed at a three-week high the same day, and oil fell on peace bets. People living in the capital are paying in other ways: emptier office towers, fewer flights and schools that moved back online this week.
So, is it holding? For investors, so far yes. For the families and companies who live with the alerts, every new one makes the answer less certain.
What to watch: whether airlines widen their Saudi routes again, and whether US-Iran talks slow the strikes.
PLUS / CARTOON
Some business stories are easier to tell in pictures. Our cartoon desk took one of the strangest of the week and drew it out, panel by panel.
The story: Jensen Huang, who co-founded the world's most valuable chipmaker, admitted to an affair in a letter to employees on Sunday. It came after reports linked him to a woman US intelligence suspects of spying for China. Nvidia's board is now investigating.
The denials: Nvidia says his dealings with her former employer were routine, and Beijing calls the reports groundless. No one has been charged.
Why it matters here: Saudi Arabia is building its AI industry on Nvidia chips, and every big shipment to the Gulf needs US export approval. More heat in Washington could make those approvals slower.
THE WEEK AHEAD
What We’re Watching
Wednesday / Results. Last day for listed Saudi companies to report third-quarter results. DIP Holding also debuts in Dubai, with PIF among its new shareholders.
Wednesday / Oil. OPEC publishes its monthly oil market report.
Friday, 13 November / Oil. The International Energy Agency's monthly report shows how fast supply is recovering.
Wednesday, 25 November / Dividend. Aramco pays its $21.9 billion base dividend.
Thursday, 3 December / Vote. Homebuilder Retal's shareholders vote on issuing 55 million new shares to buy into Ajdan.
BEFORE YOU GO
Who Keeps Paying?
Tuesday's stories shared one thread: money that has to keep moving. PIF wants others to share the cost of its companies, even as it hands Lucid another $1.75 billion.
Bahri keeps tankers sailing through a war zone because the oil has to get out. And the cheapest oil since August means each of those barrels is worth a little less when it does.
Have a good Wednesday.
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