Prince Al Waleed bin Talal – Richest of the rich amid much poverty

In March 2013, Forbes listed Al Waleed as the 26th-richest man in the world, with an estimated net worth of US $20 Billion. Prince al Waleed disputes the Forbes valuation, and believes his wealth to be $26 billion. Bloomberg later estimated his wealth as $30 billion.
Arabian Business Magazine estimated his wealth at $31.2B in December 2013.

Prince al Waleed began his business career in 1979. Operating from a small pre-fabricated office in Riyadh, he became active in construction contracts and real estate and amassed a sizeable fortune. He was first profiled by Forbes magazine in 1988. Following the end of the Saudi oil boom, Al-Waleed altered strategies and acquired United Saudi Commercial Bank, an underperforming Saudi Arabian bank. He rapidly turned around the bank and through subsequent mergers with Saudi Cairo Bank and SAMBA turned it into one of the leading Middle Eastern banks.

His activities as an investor came to prominence in the West when he bought a substantial tranche of shares in Citicorp in 1991 when the company was in crisis.  In 1997, Time Magazine reported that Al Waleed owned about 5% of News Corporation. In 2010, Alwaleed's stake in News Corp. was about 7% worth $3Bn. In 2013, News Corp. had a $175 million (19%) investment in Al Waleed's Rotana Group, the Arab world's largest entertainment company. This review of his holdings also referred to the Al Waleed investment AOL as if it was perhaps in the past.

He also made large investments in AOL, Apple Inc., MCI Inc., Motorola, Fox News, and other technology and media companies.[21] Al Waleed's stake in Apple was sold in 2005. Al Waleed also invested in Eastman Kodak and the airline TWA, these investments have both performed poorly.

His real estate holdings have included large stakes in the Four Seasons hotel chain and the Plaza Hotel in New York. He sold half of his shares in the latter in August 2004. He has made investments in London's Savoy Hotel and Monaco's Monte Carlo Grand Hotel. He currently holds a 10% stake in Euro Disney SCA, the company that owns, manages, and maintains Disneyland Paris in Marne-la-Vallee.

In January 2005, Al Waleed purchased the Savoy Hotel in London for an estimated GBP £250 million, to be managed by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts; his sister, Sultana Nurul owns an estimated 16% stake. In January 2006, in partnership with the U.S. real estate firm Colony Capital, Kingdom Holding acquired Toronto, CA-based Fairmont Hotels and Resorts for an estimated $3.9 billion.

In 2009, it was reported that Al Waleed owned 35% of Research and Marketing Group (SRMG), reportedly the largest media company in the Middle East.

In August 2011, Al Waleed announced that his company had contracted Binladen Group to build the next tallest building in the World, the Kingdom Tower at a height of at least 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) for SR 4.6 billion.

In December 2011, Al Waleed invested $300 Million in Twitter through the purchase of secondary shares from insiders. The purchase gave Kingdom Holding a "more than 3% share" of the company, which was valued at $8Bn in late summer 2011.

Prince Al Waleed’s vast fortune stands in stark contrast of Saudi Arabia’s poverty. With so many Saudis leaving below the threshold of poverty, many feel Prince Al Waleed’s money flaunting is simply obscene.