I was reading the Forbes 2025 rankings and one thing caught my attention: Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal has returned as the richest billionaire in the Arab world with $16.5 billion. It’s not just the number that’s impressive, it’s the way this guy builds wealth—completely different from most billionaires I know.

So, the prince is not just anyone. Grandson of the Arabia Saudita founder, he was already on the Forbes list in 2017 with $18.7 billion; then he disappeared for years when Forbes stopped counting the sauditi. Now in 2025 he’s back, and you won’t believe it: he’s the only one among the sauditi billionaires from 2017 to reappear. Global rank 128.

But here’s the best part. Most of his wealth comes from Kingdom Holding Company, a group he founded 45 years ago and still owns 78% of. This stake alone is worth about $6.4 billion. But what about Kingdom Holding’s total portfolio? $19 billion as of the end of 2024, strategically distributed across three macro-sectors and 18 sub-sectors.

What’s interesting in tech is what he’s doing. Kingdom Holding is the second-largest shareholder of Musk’s X and his xAI—in the past year, he doubled his investment in xAI to $800 million through Series B and C rounds. Alwaleed saw Twitter’s potential before anyone else when Musk acquired it in 2022, and when the merger between X and xAI was announced in March, he doubled down on the bet. He expects this investment could reach $4-5 billion in the future. He also has positions in Meta, Uber, Didi, Lyft.

Then the hospitality sector accounts for almost 31% of the portfolio. He owns 23.7% of Four Seasons—thanks to a long-standing joint venture with Bill Gates’ fund. Not long ago, he had 47.5%, but sold half to Gates for $2.21 billion in 2021. In addition, Kingdom Holding owns 6.8% of Accor, the French group with brands such as Fairmont and Raffles.

In the financial sector, his historic investment in Citigroup in 1991—$800 million—grew to $10 billion by 2005. Now, Kingdom Holding has 1.06% of Citigroup and is the largest shareholder of Banque Saudi Fransi with 16.2%, about $1.8 billion.

Real estate accounts for 25.9% of the portfolio, with signature projects such as the Kingdom Centre in Riyadh and Jeddah Tower—it should surpass 1,000 meters, the tallest in the world. Total contract value: $1.9 billion.

In aviation, Kingdom Holding owns 37.2% of Flynas, the low-cost carrier that operates 61 aircraft. Alwaleed announced on X that it will do an IPO this year on Tadawul, with a target of at least $2 billion.

Then there are smaller but interesting sectors: healthcare with 4.9% in Dallah Health and Kingdom Hospital, education with 89.8% of the Kingdom School System, which saw a +14% increase in enrollments last year.

You see, what strikes me about this guy isn’t just that he’s rich—it’s that he diversifies intelligently. He doesn’t put everything into one sector, and he doesn’t chase random trends. Technology, hospitality, finance, infrastructure, healthcare, education. It’s as if he’s building an ecosystem. This is the kind of strategy that creates lasting wealth in the long term.