RIYADH: Energy giant Saudi Aramco has retained the top spot in Forbes Middle East’s Top 100 listed companies for 2024, with $660.8 billion in assets and $1.9 trillion in market value.
The firm was followed by Saudi National Bank, the largest commercial financial institution in the Kingdom. The body has $276.6 billion in assets and $59.1 in market value.
UAE-based International Holding Co. and Qatar National Bank Group grabbed the third and fourth spots, respectively.
The ranking comes just days after Aramco announced its second public offering of 1.545 billion shares worth more than $11 billion, one of the biggest such stock sales in recent years.
On June 9, the energy giant revealed that following the completion of its secondary offering, the company’s allocation to international investors reached 0.73 percent of total shares.
“To construct the list, Forbes Middle East collected data from listed stock exchanges in the Arab world and ranked firms based on their reported sales, assets, and profits for the 2023 financial year, along with market value as of April 26, 2024,” said Forbes in the press statement.
It added: “Each metric was given equal weight, and companies with the same final scores were given the same rank. Companies that had not disclosed their 2023 audited financial statements as of April 26, 2024, were excluded.”
In its report, Forbes also outlined some of the major moves taken by the energy giant during the first quarter.
“In January, Aramco and Rongsheng Petrochemical announced their plans to buy stakes in each other’s units. In the same month, the energy giant also allocated an additional $4 billion to its global venture capital arm, Aramco Ventures, increasing its total investment allocation to $7 billion,” said Forbes.
First Abu Dhabi Bank and Emirates NBD came in the fifth and sixth spots, followed by Saudi Arabia’s Al-Rajhi Bank and UAE’s TAQA Group in the seventh and eighth places, respectively.
Saudi Electricity Co. was another entry from the Kingdom, garnering the ninth spot in the list, followed by Kuwait Finance House in tenth place.
Companies from the Gulf Cooperation Council region dominated the list with 92 entries, led by the UAE with 32 firms and 31 from Saudi Arabia.
The ranking also featured 14 companies from Qatar, 10 from Kuwait, and four from Morocco.
Three Bahraini firms were included on the list, while two entries each came from Egypt, Jordan, and Oman.
According to the report, the banking and financial services sector was the most represented, with 45 entries generating aggregate sales of $223.5 billion and $3.3 trillion in assets.
However, the energy sector, represented by five companies, was the most profitable, with a combined profit of $127.5 billion, thanks to Aramco.
In May, the energy giant revealed that its net profit hit $27.27 billion in the first quarter of this year, representing a 2.04 percent rise compared to the last three months of 2023.
In April, another report released by UK-based Brand Finance revealed that Saudi Aramco maintained its position as the Middle East region’s most sought-after brand with a value of $41.5 billion.
In its analysis, Brand Finance said that Saudi Aramco continued to dominate as the most valuable label in the region despite an 8 percent drop in its brand value, driven by a fall in crude oil prices and lower sales volumes.
Saudi Arabia looks to Swiss-led geospatial AI breakthroughs
IBM’s Zurich lab is shaping tools policymakers could use to protect ecosystems
Updated 6 sec ago
Waad Hussain
ZURICH: For Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia, AI-powered Earth observation is quickly becoming indispensable for anticipating climate risks, modeling extreme weather and protecting critical national infrastructure.
That reality was on display inside IBM’s research lab in Zurich, where scientists are advancing geospatial AI and quantum technologies designed to help countries navigate a decade of accelerating environmental volatility.
The Zurich facility — one of IBM’s most sophisticated hubs for climate modeling, satellite analytics and quantum computing — provides a rare look into the scientific foundations shaping how nations interpret satellite imagery, track environmental change and construct long-term resilience strategies.
Entrance to IBM Research Europe in Zurich (left); inside IBM’s hardware development lab, (top, right); and IBM’s Diamondback system. (AN Photos by Waad Hussain)
For Saudi Arabia, where climate adaptation, space technologies and data-driven policy align closely with Vision 2030 ambitions, the lessons emerging from this work resonate with growing urgency.
At the heart of the lab’s research is a shift in how satellite data is understood. While traditional space programs focused largely on engineering spacecraft and amassing imagery, researchers say the future lies in extracting meaning from those massive datasets.
As Juan Bernabe-Moreno, director of IBM Research Europe for Ireland and the UK, notes, satellites ultimately “are gathering data,” but real impact only emerges when institutions can “make sense of that data” using geospatial foundation models.
r. Juan Bernabe Moreno, Director of IBM Research Europe for Ireland and the UK/(AN Photo by Waad Hussain)
These open-source models allow government agencies, researchers and local innovators to fine-tune Earth-observation AI for their own geography and environmental pressures. Their applications, Bernabe-Moreno explained, have already produced unexpected insights — identifying illegal dumping sites, measuring how mangrove plantations cool cities, and generating flood-risk maps “for places that don’t usually get floods, like Riyadh.”
The relevance for Saudi Arabia is clear. Coastal developments require precise environmental modeling; mangrove restoration along the Red Sea is a national priority under the Saudi Green Initiative; and cities such as Riyadh and Jeddah have recently faced severe rainfall that strained existing drainage systems.
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The ability to simulate these events before they unfold could help authorities make better decisions about zoning, infrastructure and emergency planning. Today’s satellites, Bernabe-Moreno said, provide “an almost real-time picture of what is happening on Earth,” shifting the challenge from collecting data to interpreting it.
This push toward actionable intelligence also reflects a larger transformation in research culture. Major advances in Earth observation increasingly depend on open innovation — shared data, open-source tools and transparent models that allow global collaboration. “Open innovation in this field is key,” Bernabe-Moreno said, noting that NASA, ESA and IBM rely on openness to avoid the delays caused by lengthy IP negotiations.
Scientific posters inside IBM’s research facility showcasing decades of breakthroughs in atomic-scale imaging and nanotechnology. (AN Photo by Waad Hussain)
Saudi Arabia has already embraced this direction. Through SDAIA, KAUST and national partnerships, the Kingdom is moving from consuming global research to actively contributing to it. Open geospatial AI models, researchers argue, give Saudi developers the ability to build highly localized applications adapted to the region’s climate realities and economic priorities.
Beyond Earth observation, IBM’s Zurich lab is pushing forward in another strategic frontier: quantum computing. Though still in its early stages, quantum technology could reshape sectors from logistics and materials science to advanced environmental modeling.
Alessandro Curioni, IBM Research VP for Europe and Africa and director of the Zurich lab, stressed that quantum’s value should not be judged by whether it produces artificial general intelligence. Rather, it should be viewed as a tool to expand human capability.
Dr. Alessandro Curioni, VP of IBM Research Europe and Africa & Director of IBM Research Zurich/ (AN Photo by Waad Hussain)
“The value of computing is not to create a second version of myself,” he said, “it’s to create an instrument that allows me to be super-human at the things I cannot do.”
Curioni sees quantum not as a replacement for classical computing but as an extension capable of solving problems too complex for traditional machines — from simulating fluid dynamics to optimizing vast, interdependent systems. But he cautioned that significant challenges remain, including the need for major advances in hardware stability and tight integration with classical systems. Once these layers mature, he said, “the sky is the limit.”
DID YOU KNOW?
• Modern satellites deliver near real-time views of Earth’s surface.
• Geospatial foundation models transform vast satellite datasets into clear, actionable insights.
• These tools can produce flood-risk maps for cities such as Riyadh, analyze how mangroves cool urban areas, and even detect illegal dumping sites.
Saudi Arabia’s investments in digital infrastructure, sovereign cloud systems and advanced research institutions position the Kingdom strongly for the quantum era when enterprise-ready systems begin to scale. Curioni noted that Saudi Arabia is already “moving in the right direction” on infrastructure, ecosystem development and talent — the three essentials he identifies for deep research collaboration.
His perspective underscores a broader shift underway: the Kingdom is building not only advanced AI applications but a scientific ecosystem capable of sustaining long-term innovation. National programs now include talent development, regulatory frameworks, high-performance computing, and strategic partnerships with global research centers. Researchers argue that this integrated approach distinguishes nations that merely adopt technology from those that ultimately lead it.
Inside IBM’s hardware development lab, where researchers prototype and test experimental computing components. (AN Photo by Waad Hussain)
For individuals as much as institutions, the message from Zurich is clear. As Curioni put it, those who resist new tools risk being outpaced by those who embrace them. Generative AI already handles tasks — from literature reviews to data processing — that once required days of manual analysis. “If you don’t adopt new technologies, you will be overtaken by those who do adopt them,” he said, adding that the goal is to use these tools “to make yourself better,” not to fear them.
From geospatial AI to emerging quantum platforms, the work underway at IBM’s Zurich lab reflects technologies that will increasingly inform national planning and environmental resilience.
For a country like Saudi Arabia — balancing rapid development with climate uncertainty — such scientific insight may prove essential. As researchers in Switzerland design the tools of tomorrow, the Kingdom is already exploring how these breakthroughs can translate into sustainability, resilience and strategic advantage at home.
