The Al Saud family, or House of Saud, is the ruling dynasty of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Al Saud family is both one of the richest royal families and one of the richest business families in the world by net worth.
The family has played a prominent role in Saudi Arabia’s history since the early 18th century. Through conquests, alliances and diplomacy, the family maintained its hold and influence, albeit with some interruptions, on the Arabian Peninsula. In fact, it is the family that lent its name to what is known as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia today.
Oil came as a boon to both family and the country. Much of the wealth of the members of the royal family is because of the mid-20th century oil boom. Oil wealth has helped the family become so rich that their combined fortune is more than the GDP of several mid-sized economies, not just the richest people in the world.
All about the Al Saud family and their net worth
Early history of the Al Saud family
King Abdulaziz (1876-1953), popularly known as Ibn Saud, is widely known as the creator of modern Saudi Arabia. However, the Al Saud family was in power even before he created the Third Saudi State.
The Al Saud was founded by Muhammad I, or Muhammad bin Saud Al Muqrin, who founded the Emirate of Diriyah, or the First Saudi state (1727–1818). He entered into an alliance with Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab of the Wahhabi Islamic religious movement and went on a conquest of what is now Saudi Arabia from his smaller emirate at a time when parts of the country were controlled by the Ottoman Empire.
The Second Saudi State (1824-1891) was established by Muhammad ibn Saud’s grandson Turkī (reigned 1823–34), who made Riyadh his capital. The Second Saudi State fell due to the civil war between the grandsons of Turki.
Establishment of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
The Al Saud family lost their position in 1890 when they were exiled from Riyadh. Twelve years later, in 1902, King Abdulaziz, the son of Abdul Rahman bin Faisal, the last Imam of Second Saudi State, recaptured the city and established the Third Saudi State, which continues to this day. King Abdulaziz went on a greater and grander conquest spree, capturing almost all of central and north Arabia, including Nejd and Hejaz, over the next three decades.
In 1932, he founded what is now known as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and became its first king. His work on Islamic revival helped the massive growth of pan-Islamism around the world. It was during his reign that petroleum was found in Saudi Arabia in 1938 — a discovery that greatly boosted the fortunes of both Saudi Arabia and the Al Saud family.
All the six rulers of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia following King Abdulaziz’s death in 1953 have been his sons. They are King Saud II (reigned 1953–64), King Faisal (reigned 1964–75), King Khalid (reigned 1975–82), King Fahd (reigned 1982–2005), King Abdullah (reigned 2005–15), and the current monarch King Salman, who began his reign in 2015.
Who are the current members of the Al Saud family?
King Salman is the head of the Al Saud family as the ruler of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. But he is not the only prominent face or power centre in the country’s political landscape.
Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, popularly known by his initials MBS, is the Prime Minister and current Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. He is the seventh son of King Salman and grandson of King Abdulaziz. According to the media, he is the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia and is widely recognised as one of the world’s most powerful people.
As the heir to the throne, he is poised to be the seventh monarch from the family to head the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the first from the third-generation descendants of King Abdulaziz.
Besides King Salman and Mohammed bin Salman, several other members of the royal family have held or continue to hold important positions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Among them are several other sons of King Abdulaziz. These include Abdul llah bin Abdulaziz, former governor of Al Jawf Province and former special advisor to King Abdullah; former deputy minister of interior Ahmed bin Abdulaziz; and, Muqrin bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the former Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.
Women in the family are also increasingly emerging in positions of power. Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud was appointed as Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the US in 2019. Princess Sora bint Saud Al Saud, the granddaughter of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, is the founder of the fashion brand SO. by Sora, which began in 2018. Princess Haifa bint Muhammad Al Saud is the Saudi vice minister of tourism since 2022.
In all, the Al Saud family is believed to comprise an estimated 15,000 members. But only around 2,000 of them have power, wealth and influence. This group of 2,000 is what is considered for all net worth estimates of Al Saud, or the House of Saud.
The net worth of the al Saud family
The estimated net worth of the Al Saud family, or House of Saud, is around USD 1.4 trillion. Leave alone the net worth of King Charles III, the Saudi royal family’s wealth around 16 times that of the net worth of the British royal family.
But this figure could be more than what it appears. This is because Saudi Arabia’s nominal GDP is around USD 1.1 trillion, according to 2024 estimates by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
According to Bloomberg, the Al Saud family has a net worth of around USD 112 billion, as of 2023. This makes the House of Saud the eighth richest family in the world.
But the report notes that the total is “likely much higher” if the wealth of all 15,000 members of the family is taken into account.
There are two more wealth estimates in the Bloomberg report. The first is that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has more than USD 700 billion in assets in its sovereign wealth fund, Public Investment Fund (PIF). The second is that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman “personally controls” more than USD 1 billion in assets.
Of course, oil has been the primary source of the family as well as the nation’s wealth. Saudi Arabia has one-fifth of the world’s proven petroleum reserves.
When seen at a micro level, much of the fortune relies on the state-owned Saudi Aramco — the world’s largest integrated oil and gas company and the second-largest company in the world by revenue. Saudi Aramco has a market capitalisation of USD 1.8 trillion, which makes it the sixth most valuable company in the world as of June 2024. It is also the only fully state-owned company in the top 10.
The PIF has a 4 per cent stake in Saudi Aramco. This means that the sovereign wealth fund has a share of around USD 72 billion in Saudi Aramco.
Homes and other assets owned by Al Saud family
It is extremely difficult to know about the exact number of assets that the members of the Saudi Royal family own. But there are multiple reports of unnamed Saudi royals buying and selling properties in Europe, the US and elsewhere.
Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud, a grandson of King Abdulaziz, was once the most famous member of the Al Saud family on account of his publicly known personal fortune. He was listed by Forbes as the 34th-richest man in the world, with an estimated net worth of USD 22.6 billion, in 2015. He was once again listed the following year as the 7th-richest person with a net worth of USD 39.8 billion. At the time, his assets included Paris’ Four Seasons Hotel George V. But little is known about him today since an anti-corruption purge carried out by Mohammed bin Salman.
An April 2022 report by The Wall Street Journal, Saudi princes sold over USD 600 million worth of real estate, yachts and artwork in the US and Europe since Mohammed bin Salman began tightening the purse strings of members of the royal family. Those who sold their assets included senior princes who bought the properties years ago using windfalls from the oil booms of the 1970s and 1980s.
While details of Saudi Arabian royals may be sketchy, there is some information about Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
“I’m a rich person and not a poor person. I’m not Gandhi or Mandela. I’m a member of the ruling family that existed for hundreds of years before the founding of Saudi Arabia,” MBS told CBS’ 60 Minutes about his spending and personal life in 2018.
Reports suggest that he bought Leonardo da Vinci’s 500-year-old painting Salvator Mundi through a proxy for USD 450 million in 2017. He also reportedly owns the Château Louis XIV in France, which he purchased for USD 300 million. The château has 10 bedrooms, indoor and outdoor pools, a wine cellar, a moat with a transparent underwater chamber, and a cinema.
He also owns the expensive superyacht Serene, which he bought for around USD 550 million in 2014. Some reports suggest that while King Salman has a personal net worth of USD 20 billion, MBS is richer than his father by USD 5 billion. But based on the wealth of MBS, it can be assumed that King Salman is the one who is actually richer given that he is the ruler of the country and the head of the Al Saud family.
(Hero image: Courtesy of Ian Jones – Buckingham Palace reception/CC BY 2.0/Wikimedia Commons; Featured image: Kremlin.ru/CC BY 4.0/Wikimedia Commons)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The Al Saud family traces its roots to the ancient Arab tribe of Banu Hanifa, whose original lands were in Wadi al-irdh.
There are varying accounts of the net worth of the Al Saud family. According to some accounts, they could be the richest royal family in the world. By others, they are among the richest.
The Al Saud family has close to 15,000 members. However, only about 2,000 of them have real power and influence.
King Saud was forced to abdicate by his half-brother and Crown Prince, Faisal, due to his inability to control rising debt.
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Manas Sen Gupta writes at the intersection of tech, entertainment and history. His works have appeared in publications such as The Statesman, Myanmar Matters, Hindustan Times and News18/ETV. In his spare time, Manas loves studying interactive charts and topographic maps. When not doing either, he prefers reading detective fiction. Spring is his favourite season and he can happily eat a bowl of noodles any time of the day.
