Outlook and Opportunities in GCC Projects into 2026 and Beyond

Strong Contract Award Values and Resilient Outlook

The GCC Projects market has continued to perform strongly against its ten-year average spend (around US$ 164b¹“Saudi Arabia Projects Market 2025” MEED, August 26 2025) and is on track to perform at similar levels to 2023 and 2024.²“Middle East contract awards: October 2025”, MEED, 20 November 2025 (https://www.meed.com/middle-east-awards-october-2025#) As of October this year, the region had awarded about approximately US$ 249b³Ibid worth of projects contracts, and significant opportunities continue to be announced in nearly every sector.⁴“The Saudi Giga Projects Market Latest Updates”, MEED, 25 November 2025 This client alert covers select opportunities that we are seeing in the market with a focus on PPPs, event driven projects, utilities, real estate and transportation.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE markets remain the largest regional projects markets and are expected to keep leading. Both countries have continued to award steady streams of contracts throughout 2025 (with each having awarding over US$ 50b worth of contracts to the end of August and just over US $6b of Projects in October alone)⁵Supra, note 1 underpinning large and visible pipelines. Saudi Arabia’s US$ 1.65t pipeline is the third largest globally (behind only the USA and China) and the UAE’s is valued at almost $875b.⁶Ibid Other GCC markets also have significant pipelines of upcoming projects and, between them and around the region there is approximately US$ 3.1t of known, planned and unawarded project spending. ⁷Ibid. For an overview of notable PPP projects being announced around the GCC, please refer to King & Spalding’s “Middle East PPP Legal Report”, August 2025

Unsurprisingly, most of the planned expenditure is set to be in the construction sector (particularly to support Saudi Arabia’s Gigaproject Pipeline – which currently has approximately US$ 55b worth of contracts out for tender on its various Gigaprojects⁸“The Saudi Giga Projects Market Latest Updates”, MEED, 25 November 2025), supplemented with large numbers of power, transport and water projects being announced across the region. ⁹Supra, note 1

Opportunities

Even with a relative slowdown from the record contract award levels of the last two years, there are still significant opportunities in the region, including:

1. The Golden Age of PPPs. PPP adoption is accelerating across the GCC.¹⁰For more detail on the rise of PPPs for “social infrastructure” projects such as hospitals, schools, transportation, hospitality / tourism facilities, etc., see our previous client alert “Third Wave of PPPs in the GCC: Expanding Horizons in Social and Economic Infrastructure”, 2 July 2025      In Saudi Arabia, PPP awards of around US$ 20b in both 2023 and 2024, lifted PPP’s share of total projects spending to an average of nearly 21% (up from 10.2% or less prior to 2022. As PPPs continue to be deployed in a diverse range of sectors, their increase in popularity is expected to continue. In Saudi Arabia, the NCP has announced a pipeline of 175 projects, including 77 upcoming opportunities and 42 live transactions.¹¹“Investors Portal”, National Centre for Privatization and PPP (https://investors.ncp.gov.sa/) The Kingdom has also recently issued tenders for its first stadium (Prince Faisal bin Fahad Sports City Stadium), EOIs for more venues (the Qiddiya National Athletics Stadium) and rail PPPs (Q-Express).¹²Supra, note 1 Outside of Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi intends to use PPPs to procure a US$ 54b pipeline of infrastructure,¹³“$54bn private investment sought for Abu Dhabi infrastructure” Arabian Gulf Business Insight, 2 December 2024 (https://www.agbi.com/infrastructure/2024/12/54bn-private-investment-sought-for-abu-dhabi-infrastructure/) and Dubai continues to tender numerous significant projects using the model (including its recent US$ 22b Strategic Sewer Tunnels Project).¹⁴“Dubai tenders first two packages of £17bn sewerage tunnels project”, Ground Engineering, 9 April 2025 (https://www.geplus.co.uk/news/dubai-tenders-first-two-packages-of-17bn-sewerage-tunnels-project-09-04-2025/) For deeper analysis, please refer to King and Spalding’s recent PPP though leadership, available in the footnote links below.¹⁵See footnotes 3, 5 and our previous thought leadership pieces: “Delivering Infrastructure Projects Under a Public-Private Partnership Model (2nd Edition)”, August 4 2025 and “PPP Projects: Challenges and Opportunities”, August 7 2025
   
   
2. Event Driven Projects (particularly in Saudi Arabia). Preparations for marquee events like Riyadh Expo 2030, the FIFA World Cup 2034, the 2027 Asian Football Championship and the 2029 Asian Winter Games will require rapid development of venues and enabling infrastructure, creating a near-term wave of opportunities.
   
   
3. Utilities Infrastructure (particularly water and power). Utilities remain a priority to support the demand of larger populations around the GCC. Saudi Arabia anticipates record spending in the water sector,¹⁶For instance, Saudi Arabia has already announced more than 40 water projects “Public-Private Partnerships in Saudi Arabia: Trends, Frameworks, and Investment Opportunities”, Aninver Development Partners, 22 March 2025 (https://aninver.com/blog/public-private-partnerships-in-saudi-arabia-trends-frameworks-and-investment-opportunities) and will require at least 20GW of new renewable power per year.¹⁷Supra, note 1 Governments around the region are using their established, successful project models to speed up procurement (the UAE’s EWEC, for example, is anticipated to award six major generation projects in 2025).¹⁸“Madinat Zayed project has three bidders”, MEED, 11 April 2025 (https://www.meed.com/madinat-zayed-project-has-three-bidders
   
   
4. Increased emphasis toward real estate‑anchored funding. With delivery costs increasing and greater selectivity on state balance sheets, sponsors are increasingly mobilising private capital through real estate‑led structures to anchor core infrastructure. Recent examples include Jeddah Central Development Company’s approximately $1.8b in hospitality investment agreements with leading global operators (including Mandarin Oriental, One and Only, Hilton), and Al-Balad Development Company’s recently announced $3.6b investment portfolio to develop hospitality assets in Jeddah Historic District.¹⁹Supra, note 5
   
   
5. Transportation. Continued investment in transport infrastructure is also critical to support the GCC’s expanding populations. Numerous significant roading, metro and rail projects are currently being procured around the region, like the Saudi Landbridge,²⁰“Saudi Arabia launches Landbridge design tender”, MEED, 4 April 2025 (https://www.meed.com/saudi-arabia-launches-landbridge-design-tender),       Q-Express and other Riyadh Metro extensions,²¹“Riyadh prepares Q-Express metro PPP invitations” MEED, 25 July 2025 (https://www.meed.com/riyadh-prepares-q-express-metro-ppp-invitations) the Hafeet Rail network linking Oman and the UAE,²²“Aces wins Hafeet rail project subcontract” MEED, 14 July 2025 (https://www.meed.com/aces-wins-hafeet-rail-project-subcontract) and Abu Dhabi’s recently announced US$ 46b package of upgrades to strategic roads, Etihad Rail’s high-speed passenger rail between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and rail and tram services.²³“UAE unveils $46bn road and rail spending plan”, MEED, 6 November 2025 (https://www.meed.com/uae-unveils-46bn-road-and-rail-spending-plan)

King & Spalding has extensive experience advising both public and private-sector clients on the procurement, delivery and ongoing management of the world’s largest construction, infrastructure, energy and utilities projects, including under PPP models. For more information, or to discuss a specific opportunity, please contact one of our core team.