Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund Public Investment Fund (PIF) aims to have at least $2 trillion of assets under management by 2030, said its managing director in his first-ever interview.

Speaking exclusively to Bloomberg TV at the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh, Yasir Al Rumayan said the sovereign wealth fund is targeting investment returns of 8 to 9 per cent.  

Al Rumayan said the state wealth fund was constantly looking for new partners; in May, the PIF agreed to commit $20 billion to an infrastructure investment fund with Blackstone Group and to invest as much as $45 billion in a technology fund run by SoftBank.

These deals followed a $3.5 billion investment in US ride-hailing company Uber Technologies in June 2016, he said in the interview.

The PIF is central to the government’s effort to diversify its economy away from oil.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman had recently announced that the kingdom plans to transfer ownership of state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco, to the fund, which could eventually control more than $2 trillion.-TradeArabia News Service