Around 600 multinational companies now run their Middle East regional headquarters out of Saudi Arabia, according to figures released in March 2025. The Vision 2030 target was 480 by the end of the decade. The Kingdom passed that number five years early, and the arrivals list includes PepsiCo, Bechtel, IHG Hotels & Resorts, PwC and Morgan Stanley.
The number matters less than what sits behind it. Between February and April 2025, Saudi Arabia replaced the two laws that governed how a foreign company enters its market: the Foreign Investment Law of 2000 and the old commercial registration regime. A board weighing a Gulf expansion in 2026 is working from a different rulebook than one that ran the same exercise in 2023. Here is what changed, and where the real work now sits.
The foreign investment licence no longer exists
The new Investment Law took effect in February 2025 and repealed the Foreign Investment Law that had stood since 2000. The structural change is simple to state: licensing is out, registration is in. Foreign investors no longer apply for a foreign investment licence. They register with the Ministry of Investment (MISA), and the law commits the state to treating local and foreign investors equally.
That shift has a direct effect on timelines. Business setup in Saudi Arabia now follows a defined registration path: register with MISA, receive the commercial registration certificate, then collect whatever operational licences the specific activity requires. Most sectors allow 100% foreign ownership. The exceptions sit on a published Negative List, and activities on that list need ministry approval before registration can proceed.
Two caveats deserve attention before anyone books flights. Capital requirements still vary by activity, and regulated sectors such as banking, insurance and certain professional services carry their own approval layers. The registration route removed discretion from the general case. It did not remove sector regulators.
One commercial registration, valid across the Kingdom
The second change arrived in April 2025, when the new Commercial Registration Law came into force. Under the old regime, a company operating in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam carried separate registrations for its branches. The new law creates a single national register: one certificate, valid Kingdom-wide, covering every branch and, if a company chooses, several unrelated activities at once.
The certificate also no longer expires. Companies confirm their commercial registration in Saudi Arabia once a year instead of renewing it, and existing businesses have a five-year grace period to fold branch registrations into the main certificate. For a foreign company mapping a multi-city rollout, this is the difference between administering one registration and administering five.
The layer that catches companies after setup
Entry is now faster. Operating is another matter, and this is the gap that expansion plans most often misprice.
Day-to-day compliance in Saudi Arabia runs through government platforms: Qiwa for employment contracts and labour matters, GOSI for social insurance, Mudad for payroll compliance, Muqeem and Absher for residency records. On top of the portals sit Saudization quotas under Nitaqat, iqama issuance and renewal for every foreign employee, and filing deadlines that do not move because a company is new.
This is where timelines slip. A registration completed in weeks can be followed by a first hire that takes months if work visas, contract attestation and portal registrations are sequenced in the wrong order. It is why most foreign entrants hand this layer to GRO services in Saudi Arabia, government relations specialists who process visas, manage ministry paperwork and keep portal obligations current, rather than building that expertise in-house during the most expensive phase of an expansion.
The budgeting rule is blunt: plan the operating layer before the first hire, not after.
The incentive case for entering at headquarters level
For larger groups, the regional headquarters programme changes the arithmetic further. Qualifying RHQ entities receive a 30-year package that includes 0% corporate income tax and 0% withholding tax on approved activities, announced in December 2023. RHQ status also connects to government procurement, since state bodies direct contracts toward companies with a regional base in the Kingdom.
The wider goal is explicit. Saudi Arabia wants annual foreign direct investment inflows of $100 billion by 2030, and the entry reforms of 2025 exist to serve that number.
What this means for a 2026 expansion plan
The sequence for a foreign company now looks like this. Check the Negative List and any sector regulator first. Choose the structure; an LLC remains the standard vehicle for most trading and services activity. Register with MISA and obtain the single national commercial registration. Then, before hiring anyone, map the Qiwa, GOSI and visa workflow with someone who has run it before.
Saudi Arabia has spent four years making its front door easier to open. The companies that expand well in 2026 will be the ones prepared for what sits behind it.
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