Soudah Peaks KPI snapshot: the Public Investment Fund’s Aseer mountain tourism project is planned around 3,015 metres of elevation, 635 square kilometres, 2,700 hospitality keys, 1,336 homes, and a two million annual visitor target by 2033. The PIF-owned Soudah Development Company, chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and led operationally by CEO Husameddin AlMadani, is developing Saudi Arabia’s first year-round mountain destination across Soudah and parts of Rijal Almaa. The master plan — unveiled by the Crown Prince in September 2022 — is structured into six unique development zones (Tahlal, Sahab, Sabrah, Jareen, Rijal, Red Rock) and delivered across three phases through 2033, with 80,000 square metres of commercial space and 3,022 staff accommodation units supporting the ultra-luxury hospitality model.
The institutional positioning of Soudah Peaks within the broader PIF tourism giga-project portfolio is structurally distinctive. Where NEOM operates as the coastal mega-development on the Red Sea, The Red Sea Project (Red Sea Global) operates as the marine-anchored luxury tourism destination, AMAALA operates as the wellness-focused Red Sea coastal destination, Diriyah Company operates as the cultural-heritage urban destination, and Qiddiya operates as the entertainment-and-sports mega-development, Soudah Peaks is the singular PIF mountain tourism asset in the broader portfolio. The institutional uniqueness reflects the geographic uniqueness — the Aseer mountains’ 3,000+ metre elevations, the relatively cool year-round climate, the dense juniper forests, and the broader landscape combination provide Saudi Arabia with the natural foundation for mountain tourism that no other PIF tourism destination can replicate, and the Soudah Peaks development is the institutional vehicle through which that natural foundation is converted into operational tourism infrastructure.
The 2026 institutional momentum around Soudah Peaks has been substantial. The January 2026 SAR 1.3 billion ($347 million) agreement with National Grid SA — the Saudi Electricity Company subsidiary — to develop the integrated electrical network supporting the destination represents one of the more institutionally consequential infrastructure commitments of the past year. The agreement covers a 380/132 kilovolt central substation with 500 megavolt-ampere capacity plus two 132/13.8 kilovolt high-voltage substations — power infrastructure capacity calibrated to support the projected ultra-luxury hospitality, residential, and commercial loads that the destination will operate at full delivery. The infrastructure commitment is institutionally consequential because it converts the Soudah Peaks programme from a master plan into an operational reality with the underlying utility infrastructure that ultra-luxury mountain hospitality requires. The total investment commitment to Soudah Peaks has reached approximately $3 billion ($800 million for primary, secondary, and tertiary infrastructure including roads, energy, and microgrids) as of CEO AlMadani’s confirmation at the Future Investment Initiative summit, with substantial additional capital deployment expected as the development advances through Phase 2 (2027-2029) and Phase 3 (2030-2033).
Quick Facts
- Project type: Ultra-luxury year-round mountain tourism destination
- Operating entity: Soudah Development Company (closed joint-stock company, wholly owned by Public Investment Fund)
- Established: 2021
- Chairman: HRH Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (Crown Prince and Prime Minister)
- Chief Executive Officer: Husameddin AlMadani
- Master plan unveiled: September 2022 by Crown Prince
- Location: Aseer region, southwestern Saudi Arabia
- Elevation: 3,015 metres above sea level — Saudi Arabia’s highest peak
- Site coverage: ~635 square kilometres (Soudah + parts of Rijal Almaa)
- Six development zones: Tahlal · Sahab · Sabrah · Jareen · Rijal · Red Rock
- Hospitality keys (full completion): 2,700 across 18-20 hotels
- Residential units (full completion): 1,336
- Commercial space (full completion): 80,000 square metres
- Staff accommodation units (full completion): 3,022
- Annual visitor target (by 2033): 2 million
- Investment secured: ~$3 billion / SR 11 billion
- Infrastructure investment: $800 million (roads, energy, microgrids)
- January 2026 power agreement: SAR 1.3 billion with National Grid SA
- Power infrastructure: 380/132 kV central substation, 500 MVA capacity, plus two 132/13.8 kV high-voltage substations
- Phase 1 completion target: 2027 (391 residential units, 940 hotel keys, 32,000 sq m retail)
- Phase 2 completion target: 2029
- Phase 3 completion target: 2033
- Sustainability commitment: 1+ million trees planted across Soudah and Rijal Almaa by 2030 (Saudi Green Initiative)
- Strategic anchor: Vision 2030 · Saudi Tourism Authority 150M visitors target · Aseer Development Strategy · PIF 2026-2030 Strategy
What Soudah Peaks Is
Soudah Peaks is structured as the institutional vehicle through which Saudi Arabia’s only major mountain tourism destination is being developed. The geographic foundation — the Aseer region of southwestern Saudi Arabia, including the highest peak in the Kingdom at 3,015 metres elevation — provides the natural environment that distinguishes Soudah Peaks from every other PIF tourism giga-project in the portfolio. The dense juniper-tree-covered mountains, the cool temperate climate that distinguishes the Aseer highlands from the broader Saudi desert environment, the rich cultural heritage of the local communities (with Rijal Almaa designated as a UNESCO World Heritage cultural village), and the broader landscape combination provide the substantive content base that ultra-luxury mountain tourism requires.
The strategic logic underpinning Soudah Peaks operates on five distinct registers, each contributing to the institutional case for the substantial PIF capital deployment.
The first is mountain tourism diversification of the Saudi tourism portfolio. Saudi Arabia’s contemporary tourism positioning is substantially anchored on coastal/marine tourism (Red Sea, AMAALA, NEOM), heritage/cultural tourism (Diriyah, AlUla), entertainment tourism (Qiddiya), and religious tourism (the existing Hajj/Umrah architecture). Mountain tourism — a substantial international tourism sub-sector in which the Alpine economies, the North American Rockies, the Andes, the Himalayas, and other mountainous jurisdictions have built substantial international tourism infrastructure — has been a structural gap in the Saudi tourism portfolio. Soudah Peaks closes that gap, providing Saudi Arabia with the singular high-elevation luxury mountain destination that complements the broader tourism portfolio.
The second register is Aseer regional development. The Aseer Development Strategy — the broader Saudi government commitment to substantial capital deployment across the Aseer region — operates through multiple institutional vehicles, of which Soudah Peaks is the most institutionally visible. The regional development logic provides geographic diversification of Saudi tourism investment beyond the Riyadh-Jeddah-Eastern Province concentration, supports rural and small-city economic development across the Aseer region, and provides the broader portfolio of regional economic outcomes that the Vision 2030 regional development commitment requires.
The third register is 2 million visitor target contribution to Saudi Tourism Authority KPI achievement. The Saudi Tourism Authority’s 150 million annual visitor target by 2030 — and the broader 120+ million cumulative visitor count already achieved per April 2026 — depend on the operational delivery of substantial new tourism capacity. Soudah Peaks’ 2 million annual visitor target by 2033 represents a meaningful contribution to the broader visitor target architecture.
The fourth register is non-oil GDP contribution and job creation. The PIF tourism giga-project portfolio provides one of the more concrete vehicles through which Vision 2030 non-oil GDP targets are achieved. Soudah Peaks specifically — through the construction phase capital deployment, the operational employment across hotels and commercial assets, the broader supply chain engagement, and the indirect economic activity — contributes to Saudi non-oil GDP at scales that the headline economic targets require.
The fifth register is luxury hospitality positioning vis-à-vis international peer destinations. International ultra-luxury mountain destinations — Aspen, Vail, St. Moritz, Courchevel, Verbier, Aman Resorts at Aman Le Mélézin, the broader portfolio — operate at scales and price points that establish the international benchmark Soudah Peaks is being calibrated against. The Saudi institutional positioning of Soudah Peaks at the international ultra-luxury tier — rather than at mass-market mountain tourism scale — reflects the broader PIF preference for premium positioning across the tourism portfolio.
The combination of these five registers produces an institutional case for Soudah Peaks that operates beyond pure tourism economics, justifying the substantial PIF capital deployment and the broader institutional resources committed to the project’s delivery.
Leadership and Institutional Architecture
Soudah Peaks is developed and operated by Soudah Development Company — a closed joint-stock company wholly owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), established in 2021 and operating under the institutional structure that places the Crown Prince as Chairman of Soudah Development Company. The Chairmanship structure replicates the institutional template applied across the major PIF strategic-priority companies (NEOM, HUMAIN, Diriyah Company, Alat, and the broader cohort), placing Soudah Peaks at the senior tier of PIF strategic priority.
Chief Executive Officer Husameddin AlMadani provides the operational leadership for Soudah Development Company. AlMadani’s background combines real estate development, tourism, and major project execution experience, with the senior-level engagement with both Saudi institutional partners and international investment community providing the operational architecture that the broader development requires. AlMadani’s framing of the project — that “we believe that this infrastructure is necessary today to attract even more investments” — captures the institutional self-conception that has anchored the Soudah Peaks development trajectory.
The institutional architecture nests within the broader PIF 2026-2030 strategy approved by the PIF Board of Directors in early 2026. The PIF strategy structures investments into three portfolios — Vision Portfolio, Strategic Portfolio, and Financial Portfolio — with Soudah Development falling within the Vision Portfolio, which “catalyzes development of six ecosystems within the local economy” and includes the broader PIF tourism giga-project cohort. The Vision Portfolio architecture provides the institutional positioning that supports continued capital deployment across the Soudah Peaks delivery horizon.
The PIF capital deployment scale supporting Soudah Peaks operates within the broader PIF capital architecture. PIF’s overall capital position — assets under management exceeding $900 billion as of the 2026-2030 strategy approval, with $199 billion invested in new projects across Saudi Arabia from 2021 to 2025, contributing $243 billion to real non-oil GDP from 2021 to 2024 (equivalent to approximately 10% of Saudi Arabia’s total non-oil GDP in 2024), and $157 billion spent with the local private sector from 2021 to 2024 — provides the capital scale against which the Soudah Peaks $3 billion investment commitment is calibrated.
The institutional partnerships supporting the Soudah Peaks delivery include:
National Grid SA — Saudi Electricity Company subsidiary delivering the SAR 1.3 billion power infrastructure under the January 2026 agreement.
International hospitality operators — the international ultra-luxury hospitality brand cohort (Aman, Six Senses, Edition, Mandarin Oriental, the broader luxury operator portfolio) likely to operate the boutique hotels under management agreements with Soudah Development.
International architectural and master planning consultants — the design and master planning teams developing the project architecture.
Local construction and contracting cohort — the Saudi construction industry providing the operational delivery capability for the multi-phase construction programme.
The Master Plan Architecture
The Soudah Peaks master plan was formally unveiled in September 2022 by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at a launch event marking the project’s transition from preliminary planning to operational delivery commitment. The master plan covers approximately 635 square kilometres across Soudah and parts of Rijal Almaa — the historic UNESCO World Heritage cultural village that provides the heritage anchoring for the broader project area. The cumulative geographic scope places Soudah Peaks among the larger mountain tourism master plans globally by area.
The Six Development Zones
The master plan is structured around six unique development zones, each with distinctive substantive content positioning:
Tahlal — anchoring the broader entry experience to the Soudah Peaks destination.
Sahab — the elevation-focused zone leveraging the high-altitude positioning that distinguishes Soudah Peaks from international peer destinations.
Sabrah — providing the natural-landscape-focused experience zone.
Jareen — supporting the broader cultural and heritage content programme.
Rijal — anchored on the proximity to Rijal Almaa, providing the cultural-heritage programming that connects Soudah Peaks to the broader Aseer cultural foundation.
Red Rock — leveraging the distinctive geological foundations of the broader Aseer region.
The six-zone architecture provides the spatial differentiation that prevents the destination from operating as an undifferentiated mountain resort, with each zone delivering distinctive substantive content that supports the broader visitor proposition.
Phased Delivery Architecture
The master plan delivery is structured across three phases to manage construction complexity, capital deployment cadence, and operational commissioning across the full delivery horizon.
Phase 1 (completion target 2027):
- 391 residential units
- 940 hotel keys
- 32,000 square metres of retail space
Phase 2 (completion target 2029):
- Cumulative total reaching 1,735 hotel rooms, 641 residential units, and 2,150 staff accommodation units (incremental over Phase 1)
Phase 3 (completion target 2033):
- Final cumulative total: 2,700 hotel rooms, 1,336 residential units, 3,022 staff accommodation units, 80,000 sq m commercial
The phased architecture enables operational opening from Phase 1 completion in 2027, providing visitor revenue contribution before Phase 2 and Phase 3 capital deployment is complete. The overlap between operational and construction phases is an institutional design choice that supports the broader cash-flow architecture of the project.
Substantive Content Programme
Soudah Peaks’ substantive content programme spans across multiple domains:
Hospitality — predominantly boutique hotels (selected to ensure minimal impact on the destination character) plus some large-scale resorts providing the volume capacity required to support the 2 million annual visitor target.
Residential — second homes as summer houses available for sale in Soudah, providing the residential ownership tier that ultra-luxury mountain destinations typically include.
Wellness — wellness programming leveraging the high-altitude environment, the natural landscape, and the broader experiential positioning.
Retail and commercial — the 80,000 square metres of commercial space supporting hospitality services, retail offerings, and the broader visitor experience economy.
Outdoor attractions — sports, adventure, wellness, and culture programming spanning across the natural landscape.
Cultural and heritage — programming connecting visitors to the rich Aseer cultural foundation, particularly through the Rijal zone’s UNESCO World Heritage anchoring.
The January 2026 Power Infrastructure Agreement
The most institutionally consequential single development commitment of the 2026 calendar year for Soudah Peaks was the January 2026 SAR 1.3 billion (USD 347 million) agreement between Soudah Development and National Grid SA — the Saudi Electricity Company subsidiary — to develop the integrated electrical network supporting the destination.
The technical specifications under the agreement include:
Central substation: A 380/132 kilovolt central substation with 500 megavolt-ampere (MVA) capacity — the high-voltage infrastructure that converts grid-level transmission voltage to the distribution-level voltage required by the destination’s substantial connected load.
Two high-voltage substations: 132/13.8 kV substations providing the medium-voltage distribution architecture across the destination footprint.
Integrated network design and construction: National Grid SA assumed both the design and construction responsibility, providing the integrated single-vendor delivery model that simplifies the institutional coordination.
The infrastructure capacity is calibrated to support not just the Phase 1 hospitality and residential load but the cumulative Phase 3 load at full destination operational scale. The forward-looking capacity provisioning is institutionally consequential because it eliminates the substantial cost and operational disruption that incremental capacity additions would create across the multi-decade development horizon.
National Grid SA CEO Eng. Waleed Al-Saadi’s framing of the agreement — that the partnership represents “a pivotal milestone in developing the electrical infrastructure for the Soudah Peaks project” — captures the operational significance of the commitment. The infrastructure delivery converts the Soudah Peaks programme from a master plan to an operational reality with the underlying utility infrastructure that ultra-luxury mountain hospitality requires.
The Sustainability Architecture
Soudah Peaks operates within a substantive sustainability framework. The most concrete commitment is the announcement at the Green Saudi Initiative Forum of a programme to plant more than one million trees across Soudah and parts of Rijal Almaa by 2030. The afforestation commitment supports the broader Saudi Green Initiative afforestation targets, provides the ecological restoration that enhances the destination’s natural-landscape proposition, and demonstrates the substantive sustainability commitment that contemporary ultra-luxury tourism requires.
The broader sustainability architecture extends across the master plan in multiple dimensions: the boutique hospitality scale calibrated to “ensure minimal impact on the destination” rather than imposing mass-tourism infrastructure; the energy infrastructure designed for clean power integration alongside the National Grid SA delivery; the water and waste management systems calibrated to the natural environment carrying capacity; and the broader operational commitment to environmental preservation that the master plan articulates.
The sustainability commitment is institutionally important beyond its environmental dimension. International ultra-luxury mountain tourism increasingly operates against substantive sustainability expectations from both the visitor cohort and the broader institutional investor community. The credible sustainability architecture provides Soudah Peaks with the institutional positioning that supports its competitive proposition against international peer destinations operating under similar sustainability expectations.