Skift Take

Diriyah Gate wants over half of its development cost covered by foreign investors. That's more FDI than the entire country brought in last year.

Josh Corder

Diriyah Gate, one of Saudi Arabia's largest and costliest projects, has been funded so far by the nation's sovereign wealth fund, PIF. But Diriyah Gate Development Authority group CEO Jerry Inzerillo is confident at least half of its $64 billion budget will ultimately be covered by foreign investors.

"This morning I met with an Italian investor who’s doing two hotels and an apartment complex with us," Inzerillo told Skift on the sidelines of the Future Investment Initiative (FII) in Riyadh. "We [Diriyah] are building those hotels, but the investor is taking out that equity. Then we had a Colombian [investor] who wanted to invest in a fund to fund all of our [37] hotels. Big numbers, we’re talking almost $2 billion. Then we have the Emiratis coming, the Kuwaitis, the rest of the GCC."

Inzerillo added: "We’ve already spent $15 billion of the $64 billion. We’ll spend the whole 64 but I'm very confi