Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund is poised to receive approximately $5 billion in quarterly dividend payments from its stake in Aramco following the government's decision to allocate it more shares in the state-controlled oil giant. This move coincides with Aramco's announcement of an increase in shareholder payouts, with dividends expected to reach at least $124 billion this year. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's directive to transfer an 8% stake in Aramco to the Public Investment Fund (PIF) has boosted the fund's ownership to 16%. This stake, valued at about $333 billion, translates to an annual dividend of no less than $20 billion.

The additional revenue stream comes as a timely boost for the PIF, especially as it gears up for substantial expenditure on ambitious projects like Neom, a $500 billion city development initiative along Saudi Arabia's western coast. As the PIF aims to intensify domestic spending, with plans to allocate $40 billion annually to diversify the country's economy away from oil dependence, questions have arisen about its financial capacity. Governor Yasir Al Rumayyan has outlined a plan to increase annual deployment to $70 billion by 2025.