Saudi Power Broker Pitches Kingdom's AI Pivot to Wall Street

Saudi Arabia’s annual investment showpiece kicks off this week against a steady drumbeat of headlines on the kingdom’s strained finances: The deficit has grown as oil prices persist below levels needed to balance the budget, forcing spending to be reprioritized and parts of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s trillion-dollar ambitions to be scaled back.

At the center of it all will be Richard Attias, who has spent the past decade courting investors to back the kingdom’s economic transformation. The Moroccan-born power broker is ensconced at the heart of Saudi Arabia’s global outreach, often pictured with Prince Mohammed, Yasir Al Rumayyan, who runs the $1 trillion Public Investment Fund, and even US President Donald Trump.