Investment titan and General Atlantic CEO and Chair Bill Ford is doubling down on a bullish outlook for the United States, Saudi Arabia, and the GCC more broadly while expressing serious concerns about Europe’s economic future.
Speaking to Al Arabiya’s Hadley Gamble during the Future Investment Initiative (FII) summit in the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh, Ford, who has a history of groundbreaking investments in companies like Alibaba, Airbnb, ByteDance (the parent company of TikTok), and Facebook, lauded Saudi Arabia’s rapid transformation.
“Earlier this week, we announced the opening of our office here in Saudi Arabia,” Ford revealed, underscoring an expansion by the company, with almost $100bn under management, into the region’s burgeoning venture capital scene.
“Five years ago, Saudi venture capital was $150 million per year. Today, it’s $1.4 billion per year… We’ve been active in the region for about ten years, but now we’ll have a team on the ground looking for investments throughout the whole GCC,” Ford added.
Ford highlighted a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem fueled by an influx of skilled Saudis returning to contribute to the private sector. “A lot of young Saudis who went abroad to be educated or maybe to work are coming back here to go into the private sector and either start companies or join early-stage companies.”
The New York-based investor declared a keen eye on the U.S. political landscape. While not weighing in on politics, he expressed a clear preference for the business implications of a Trump presidency.
Ford said, “I do think, you know, President Trump, if he does win, would be very good for business, not just in the United States, but I think here in the Middle East. He’s always had a pro-business agenda,” Ford asserted, adding he thought Trump could ‘unleash’ a lot of energy ‘that’s been pent up for the last four years.”
He, however, painted a less rosy picture for Europe, citing concerns over energy security, government intervention in the private sector, and a lack of economic dynamism. “I’m worried about Europe,” he told Gamble.
“I’m worried about the economic dynamism in Europe. I’m worried about their energy security. I’m worried about their level of government intervention into the private sector and what that means in the long term.”
“You’ve got the U.S., which continues to plough ahead at, you know, 3% kind of growth rates with a lot of dynamism. And I think they’re going to have to really get their act together if they want to compete.”
Within Saudi Arabia, Ford sees fintech and AI as sectors with potential, he added. “The most exciting thing happening here in Saudi is the fintech explosion. They’ve always had some great financial institutions. But the amount of innovation in financial services is really on par with what we’re seeing in other parts of the world, and that’s really exciting.”
While acknowledging the immense potential of AI, he also highlighted the significant capital investment required to develop and deploy AI technologies, arguing countries with abundant energy resources and capital, such as Saudi Arabia, are well-positioned to lead the AI revolution.
“It has two of the things that are absolutely essential to make AI work. One, as you said, Hadley, is power. The second is capital. This is unlike the internet cycle. This is a very capital-intensive business. To build AI, the data centres, you need the computing power”, he said.