Acwa Power, the Saudi utility developer, now has a market value of $34.9 billion, placing it among the largest private desalination companies in the world, according to a Bloomberg report cited by Enterprise. The Public Investment Fund is the biggest shareholder with 44.2 per cent, while the Abunayyan and Al Muhaidib families together hold at least 26.3 per cent, turning the company into one of the kingdom’s largest private-sector sources of wealth.
The valuation shows how water investments, rather than oil, have produced one of Saudi Arabia’s biggest private fortunes. Desalination, clean energy and renewables all remain core to Saudi Arabia’s long-term development plans, and Acwa has grown alongside that agenda. The company has secured government approval for the exclusive right to export Saudi green hydrogen, began expanding into China in 2024 and is studying an entry into the United States.
The scale of the business also brings exposure to regional risk. Kuwait and Bahrain reported strikes on desalination projects earlier this year, and Acwa said in a June investor report that some of its facilities in the region had come under attack. The company said it had an operational framework in place to manage such risks. The report links the company’s rise directly to that backdrop of regional risk, as investors weigh how exposed critical water infrastructure is to conflict.
Analysts see two buffers. Prateek Bhatnagar, an analyst at Jefferies, told Bloomberg that Acwa’s long-term water contracts partly shield it from short-term downturns. He also pointed to geographic spread as a defence, noting that diversification partly reduces the impact of any single attack. Acwa runs more than 100 assets across a range of markets, including Morocco, Uzbekistan, Egypt and Turkey as well as the Gulf, which means that disruption at any one plant affects only part of a much wider portfolio. For the Abunayyan and Al Muhaidib families, the combination of state backing, long-dated contracts and a growing international portfolio has turned their stake into one of the most valuable private holdings in Saudi Arabia. With the Public Investment Fund as anchor shareholder and the families retaining more than a quarter of the shares, the ownership structure ties the families’ wealth closely to the kingdom’s water and energy strategy, as well as to Acwa’s expansion in China and its study of a possible move into the United States.
