Saudi Arabia just postponed its flagship investment summit after repeated Houthi strikes
1 hour ago · 21 October 2026Share
The Full Moon Illuminates the Riyadh Skyline Behind a City Tower, 2026. File photo. Unknown author Unknown author · CC BY-SA 4.0
Saudi Arabia just postponed its biggest investment event.
It was supposed to start in five days.
It's called Davos in the Desert. The real name is the Future Investment Initiative, FII10. It was meant to run from 26 to 29 October in Riyadh.
Now it's pushed to 2027. No exact date yet.
The FII Institute announced it two days ago.
So here's the thing. Their own statement doesn't mention security. It doesn't mention the Houthis at all.
It just says the postponement will help the milestone tenth edition deliver the full scale, quality and impact that partners, members, speakers and delegates expect. And that a new 2027 date is coming very soon.
Princess Dr Maha bint Mishari Al Saud runs the FII Institute as its chief executive.
But the timing says what the statement doesn't.
Eleven days ago, a Houthi ballistic missile hit Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport. Between 12 and 13 people were killed. The toll went up by one the next day, after an Indian citizen died of his injuries. More than 300 people were wounded.
Outlets covering the war are calling it the deadliest attack on Saudi Arabia in more than a decade. And the deadliest since the war between America, Israel and Iran started in late February.
And it wasn't one strike. The same airport got hit again and again between 6 and 12 October. More strikes were intercepted. Abha International Airport was hit too, in a separate attack.
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Contains NASA astronaut photography of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia at night taken from the International Space Station during Expedition 6 on April 4, 2003. Astronauts · Public domain
So the news outlets reporting this have drawn the line themselves: the attacks, then the cancellation. The FII Institute hasn't. And Saudi Arabia's government hasn't issued any statement on the cancellation at all.
Here's what was riding on this event. Last year's conference pulled in more than 9,000 delegates from around 90 countries. Twenty heads of state showed up. It produced more than $50 billion in signed deals and pledges.
This year was supposed to bring Larry Fink, the chief executive of BlackRock. Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase. Goldman Sachs chief executive David Solomon. Blackstone chief executive Stephen Schwarzman. Citigroup chief executive Jane Fraser.
A consultant working with Saudi companies told AFP that international executives were hesitant about travelling to Riyadh to attend conferences this month.
CNBC reported that some people planning to attend had already arranged to fly into Bahrain instead, then drive roughly five hours to Riyadh, rather than fly straight in. Then the postponement made that plan pointless.
FII was launched in 2017 by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. Its whole job is to promote Vision 2030 — the kingdom's plan to move its economy away from oil.
This event was supposed to show the world Saudi Arabia is open and safe for business. Instead, it's gone, right after a missile hit the airport most of those guests would have flown into.
And it's not just FII. The National reports Saudi Arabia has also postponed Intersec Saudi Arabia, originally due in mid-November, now pushed to October 2027. The Saudi Retail Forum, originally due in late November, is now pushed to March next year. A planned Saudi-EU summit has reportedly been postponed too, along with several sporting and cultural events.
Steve Lutes, vice president of Middle East Affairs at the US Chamber of Commerce, says this postponement does not define FII's future and does not weaken what he calls strong continued interest from American companies.
That's an American business body calling this a pause, not a retreat.
What we don't know: when FII10 will actually happen, and whether Saudi Arabia will offer any security guarantees to get Western executives back on planes to Riyadh. The FII Institute hasn't said either way.
So here's where this leaves things. The conference built to prove the kingdom could keep growing through a war is the first thing the war has actually stopped.
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