Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — United States President Donald Trump said Saudi Arabia has a large sovereign wealth fund and the US will seek to catch up through its own sovereign fund. He made the remarks on Monday while signing an executive order directing the U.S. administration to take steps to start developing a government-owned sovereign wealth fund.

Trump noted that many other nations have such investment funds, and predicted that the United States could eventually top Saudi Arabia's wealth fund size. "Eventually, we'll catch it," he said while referring to Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF). “I think in a short period of time, we’d have one of the biggest funds,” he said. Trump also floated the idea that this fund could buy up the social media platform TikTok.

Sovereign wealth funds invest in assets, such as stocks, bonds and real estate. They are typically funded by a country’s budgetary surpluses, which the U.S. currently does not have. There are over 90 sovereign wealth funds around the world that mange over $8 trillion in assets.

The Saudi sovereign wealth fund, PIF, is the sixth largest sovereign wealth fund in the world, with assets amounting to $925 billion. These assets are set to rise to $2 trillion by 2030.