Conclusion

 Investment as State Power in a Market-Based World

This research has focused on the role of the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia as a tool for the domestic diversification agenda of the country. However, the role of the PIF has also been explored as part of the global politics agenda of the Vision 2030 strategy.

On the domestic side, it helps ensure that legitimacy is reinforced, and on the international side, it helps integrate Saudi Arabia into industries that are strategically important to its interests. Saudi investments also increase the costs of disengagement for states when they partner with Saudi Arabia.

Importantly, the effects of PIF’s strategy are not limited to Saudi Arabia. On the contrary, the involvement of foreign capital backed by the state within strategic sectors has implications for host countries as well. Such investments may range from technology to energy and manufacturing, among other sectors that provide material incentives to the involved stakeholders.

However, the project is particularly illustrative of the limitations of influence through investment. Reputational efforts are subject to constraints when politics are at stake and when there are continuing controversies. The usefulness of PIF as an instrument of foreign policy is ultimately dependent upon the performance and visibility of PIF investments and the political contexts in which they are situated.

Taken together, this case is illustrative of a broader shift in the political economy of the global system. The increased use of state power through markets suggests that institutions of sovereign investment, such as PIF, are central to a new understanding of how influence is produced through control of economic systems in practice. This requires a reconsideration of how economic leverage is reshaping the balance of international power.

In this sense, PIF demonstrates how economic tools can substitute for traditional forms of state power without fully replacing them. Influence is exercised not through direct pressure but through sustained participation in the structures that govern growth, production, and innovation.