Saudi Arabia has postponed its flagship Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference until 2027, organisers announced Monday, 19 October, after a surge in deadly Houthi attacks on the kingdom.
The 10th edition of the event, informally dubbed “Davos in the Desert,” had been scheduled for 26 to 29 October in Riyadh. Organisers said they will announce a new date “very soon,” adding that they want the gathering to deliver the scale and quality participants expect.
The decision follows a series of missile and drone strikes by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis on military, energy and civilian infrastructure, including Aramco’s headquarters in Dhahran, and Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport. Strikes at the airport this month killed at least 18 people and wounded hundreds, disrupting air travel and heightening security concerns.
The state-backed conference has become a must-attend event for global financiers, showcasing the kingdom’s drive to attract the billions needed to move its economy away from hydrocarbons and toward tourism, sports and technology. The U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, UK-based international bank Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters, and U.S. banking group Citi CEO Jane Fraser were among the expected speakers.
Organisers had weighed a hybrid format allowing executives to join remotely, according to Reuters. Semafor, a U.S. global news website, reported Monday that major banks and private-equity firms had privately voiced safety concerns about attending, and that CEOs felt pressure to show up, to Public Investment Fund Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan.
Other events have also been rescheduled. Intersec Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom’s premier trade fair and exhibition platform, has moved to October 2027, and the Saudi Retail Forum to March 2027.
The delay adds to disruption across the Gulf’s events calendar this year. The US-Israeli war with Iran led to several conferences in the UAE and Qatar being cancelled, postponed, or retooled earlier in the year, when those countries bore the brunt of attacks while Saudi Arabia suffered fewer hits.
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