How the ‘Warren Buffett of Arabia’ Built His Fortune

When the Saudi king had dozens of powerful princes and businessmen arrested on Nov. 4 in a crackdown on corruption, none of the names grabbed global attention quite like that of Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. The world’s 61st-richest person, the royal is practiced at grabbing attention. For decades he’s been a celebrity on Wall Street, known for his sizable stakes in companies such as Citigroup, Apple, Twitter, and Lyft and a tabloid-friendly embrace of excess. The owner of a 282-foot superyacht he bought from Donald Trump, Alwaleed flies around in a retrofitted Boeing 747 and has a zoo at his resort on the outskirts of Riyadh.

The defining feature of Riyadh’s skyline is Kingdom Centre, a 992-foot-tall glass edifice he built in 2002 that serves as his headquarters. Its curved sky bridge is visible across much of the city. The tower is 9 miles away from where Alwaleed and others are rumored to be detained at the Ritz-Carlton. (He owns the rival Four Seasons across town.) Other detainees, such as the former head of the country’s powerful National Guard, are a more direct political threat to the purge’s initiator, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, but Alwaleed’s global influence is palpable. He’s been charged with money laundering, bribery, and extortion, according to a senior Saudi official.