A LIFE · 1955 – 2025

WaleedBin Talal

A life in motion — investor, philanthropist, founder, father.

Hero portrait · 2024

scroll to begin

01His Story

A boy of Riyadh,
a student of the world.

Moments from a Riyadh childhood to the publication of the memoir decades later. Each one opens a fuller view of the archive.

ARCHIVAL · 1971

Born in Riyadh in the spring of 1955, Waleed grew up between two worlds — the formal courts of the Kingdom and the open horizons of post-war global commerce. By the time he left for Menlo College in California, the shape of an ambition was already taking form: build something enduring, give most of it away.

1955

Born in Riyadh

Spring, into the family of Prince Talal.

1968

Schooled abroad

Lebanon, then a return to the Kingdom.

1979

Menlo College

Three years in California. Returns in autumn.

1980

First fund

A Riyadh office. Three employees.

1995

Family founded

Marriage and the start of a household.

2002

Foundation formalized

A decade of private giving made public.

2024

Memoir published

A first authorized account of the life.

02Family

A house of houses.

The family in brief — portraits and the briefest biography. The longer version lives in print, by request.

Prince Abdulaziz

Grandfather, paternal

Prince Abdulaziz

1882 – 1953

[Placeholder] A statesman of the founding generation whose hand is felt across every decision that followed. Three sentences here to suggest the weight of his presence in the family's longer arc — the kind of figure whose choices ripple forward for a century.

Prince Talal bin Abdulaziz

Father

Prince Talal bin Abdulaziz

1931 – 2018

[Placeholder] A reformer and a diplomat by turns. His correspondence — much of it preserved in the family archive and excerpted in the memoir — sketches a portrait of a man who set unusually high expectations for his children and met them only halfway, by design.

Princess Mona al-Solh

Mother

Princess Mona al-Solh

b. 1944

[Placeholder] Lebanese by birth, with a Beirut childhood that left her trilingual and at ease in a dozen cities at once. The biographical note here is brief by design — the longer telling is reserved for print.

Prince Khaled bin Waleed

Eldest child

Prince Khaled bin Waleed

b. 1978

[Placeholder] Schooled in Riyadh and abroad. The first of the next generation to take a board seat at the holding — a decision the family has described, in print, as both deliberate and overdue.

Princess Reem bint Waleed

Daughter

Princess Reem bint Waleed

b. 1982

[Placeholder] A photographer and editor whose work has, in recent years, returned to subjects close to home. The family archive she has curated forms the visual spine of this site.

Patience is capital. Time, the only multiplier worth trusting.

From a 2007 interview

03Business

Forty years of conviction bets.

$32B+

Assets under management

globally · 2025

40+

Companies founded or held

since 1980

80+

Countries of operation

across six continents

44yr

Investment horizon

and still counting

Sectors

Forty years of conviction across the sectors that built the portfolio.

04Philanthropy

Giving as vocation.

From the founder's letter, 2002 — when the foundation was first formalized and the pledge made public.

Two decades on, the work has crossed many countries: schools rebuilt in the aftermath of disaster, scholarships for women across the Middle East, health initiatives in regions the world's eye does not often reach. Every grant is named, every outcome reported — published annually, in plain language.

Visit the foundation

Education

$4.2 B

42 programs · 60+ countries

Health

$3.8 B

Maternal · pediatric · access

Disaster Relief

$2.1 B

24 emergency responses

Women & Youth

$1.7 B

18 long-term partners

Skip to next section

In focus

1980

First fund founded

A small Riyadh office. Three employees. The first vehicle that would, four decades later, hold positions across the globe.

[Placeholder] A more expansive paragraph would live here — the conditions of the moment, the names of the first hires, the deals that would not have happened without a particular phone call to a particular bank. Two to three sentences of context that turn a one-line milestone into a fuller account.

01 / 07·Scroll for next milestone

1980

In focus

1991

Landmark banking stake

A contrarian bet on a major U.S. financial-services firm — vindicated within a decade. The deal that announced the global thesis.

[Placeholder] The terms of the transaction; the analysts who called it a mistake; the meeting in which the position was first sized. Filler text for the visual layout — to be replaced with the real account once the entry is finalized.

02 / 07·Scroll for next milestone

1991

The measure of a life is not what one keeps. It is what one gives, and what survives the giver.

From the founder's letter · 2002

contact@waleedbintalal.com Begin an inquiry →

WaleedBin Talal

A boy of Riyadh,
a student of the world.

A house of houses.

Forty years of conviction bets.

Hospitality

Banking

Media

Technology

Real Estate

Aviation

Giving as vocation.

First fund founded

Landmark banking stake

Hospitality empire begins

Foundation formalized

Public wealth pledge

Restructure & re-listing

Memoir published

A thousand frames,
a hundred articles.

"The investor of patience: forty years in."

"A generation of capital, given away."

"At home in Riyadh."

"Inside the Kingdom Holding."

Write to the office.

WaleedBin Talal

A boy of Riyadh,a student of the world.

A house of houses.

Forty years of conviction bets.

Hospitality

Banking

Media

Technology

Real Estate

Aviation

Giving as vocation.

First fund founded

A thousand frames,a hundred articles.

"The investor of patience: forty years in."

"A generation of capital, given away."

"At home in Riyadh."

"Inside the Kingdom Holding."

Write to the office.

A boy of Riyadh,
a student of the world.

A thousand frames,
a hundred articles.