ACWA Power: Ownership, Leadership and Projects

Last updated: October 5, 2026

ACWA Power is a Saudi Arabian developer, investor and operator of power generation, water desalination and green hydrogen plants, and one of the largest private players in the Middle East’s utility sector. Headquartered in Riyadh and majority-owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), the company has grown from a domestic power-and-water contractor into a portfolio spanning 16 countries across the Middle East, Africa, Central Asia and China.

Overview

Who Owns ACWA Power?

ACWA Power is a publicly traded, majority state-backed company. Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF) — through direct holdings and its Sanabil Investments subsidiary — is the single largest shareholder, with a stake reported at approximately 44.2% as of 2026 market data. Vision International Investment Company, a private Saudi investor group associated with founder Mohammad Abunayyan, holds roughly 22.8%. The remainder trades as free float on the Saudi Exchange following the company’s October 2021 IPO, which raised about $1.2 billion and saw ACWA Power shares rise roughly 30% on their Tadawul debut.

Earlier in the company’s history, PIF’s stake moved through several steps — from an initial 13.7% held via Sanabil in 2013, to 24.98% combined direct and indirect ownership, to a reported 50% following a 2020 increase — before the 2021 IPO and subsequent secondary offerings diluted all existing holders to today’s percentages. The Public Pension Agency of Saudi Arabia and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a World Bank Group member, were early strategic investors; their current holdings are not separately disclosed in recent company materials.

This ownership structure makes ACWA Power majority state-aligned but operationally run as a commercial, Tadawul-listed company — distinct from a fully state-owned national champion like Saudi Aramco or a federal entity like ADNOC.

Leadership

Mohammad Abunayyan, who co-founded the business in 2004, has been reappointed chairman of the board multiple times and also chairs ACWA Power International and the family’s Abunayyan Holding conglomerate.

Day-to-day executive leadership passed to Dr. Samir J. Serhan on March 1, 2026, in what the company and Saudi trade press described as a planned succession. Serhan replaced Marco Arcelli, who had led ACWA Power since March 2023. Arcelli in turn succeeded co-founder Paddy Padmanathan, the company’s long-serving president and CEO who stepped back from the role in 2022–2023. See the full profile of CEO Samir Serhan for his career background.

Business Segments

• Power generation — gas, oil, coal (legacy), solar PV, wind and battery storage, developed and operated across the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
• Water desalination — one of the world’s largest private desalination operators by capacity, serving Saudi Arabia and export markets for desalination technology and operations.
• Green hydrogen and ammonia — anchored by its one-third stake in the NEOM Green Hydrogen Company joint venture (see Major Projects below).
• Operations & maintenance — through in-house units branded ACWA Operations and ACWA Field Services, which run plants for ACWA Power and third parties.

Scale and Capacity

ACWA Power reports its figures at two levels: an operational portfolio of plants already generating revenue, and a broader total managed portfolio that includes assets under construction and in development. For FY2025 (reported March 2026), the company stated an operational portfolio of approximately 43 GW of power generation capacity and 6.3 million m³/day of desalinated water capacity, alongside roughly 5.6 GWh of battery storage. Company marketing materials in 2026 cite a larger total managed portfolio of about 98 GW of generation capacity — of which roughly 52.3 GW (around 56%) is renewable — plus up to 9.7 million m³/day of desalination capacity once projects under development are included, and an early-stage green hydrogen output in the low thousands of tonnes per year as the NEOM project ramps up. ACWA Power states this total portfolio represents about $126.6 billion in assets under management across 111 assets, supplying power to more than 16 million households and desalinated water to 6.8 million households worldwide. These are company-reported figures; independent verification of the full pipeline total was not found in audited filings.

Major Assets and Projects

• NEOM Green Hydrogen Project — ACWA Power holds roughly one-third of this three-way joint venture with Air Products and NEOM Company, targeting one of the world’s largest green ammonia plants.
• Taiba 1 and Qassim 1 gas plants — two Saudi combined-cycle gas plants that began commercial operations in late September 2026, adding domestic generation capacity.
• Sudair Solar PV Plant — a large-scale Saudi solar facility that was among the lowest-cost utility solar projects globally at financial close.
• Rabigh, Jubail and Shuaibah — long-running Saudi power and desalination IWPP/IWP assets central to ACWA Power’s original domestic portfolio.
• Uzbekistan solar and storage — twin 500 MW solar PV plants in the Samarkand and Bukhara regions paired with battery energy storage systems (combined 1,336 MWh), under a 25-year PPA with Uzbekistan’s national grid operator.
• Morocco wind and storage — a joint development agreement with Gotion Power Morocco for a 500 MW wind plant paired with a 2,000 MWh battery system.
• Egypt desalination — a memorandum of understanding with Egypt’s Ministry of Housing and Egyptian Electricity Holding Company to develop sustainable desalination capacity.

At the Future Investment Initiative (FII9) in Riyadh in October 2025, ACWA Power announced agreements worth a combined $10 billion spanning financing, renewable generation and storage projects across the GCC, China, Central Asia and Africa — underscoring the pace of new deal-making entering 2026.

Countries of Operation

ACWA Power operates across approximately 16 countries, with its largest concentration of assets in Saudi Arabia and additional operating or development positions in the UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, South Africa and China, among others, plus a regional office network of roughly 13 locations.

Careers at ACWA Power

ACWA Power recruits globally for engineering, operations, finance and graduate-development roles, primarily through its official SAP SuccessFactors careers portal. TDE maintains a continuously verified list of open ACWA Power roles at ACWA Power Careers: Open Positions Right Now, including the company’s Graduate Development Program.

Recent News

• March 1, 2026 — Dr. Samir J. Serhan became CEO in a planned succession from Marco Arcelli.
• March 2026 — ACWA Power reported SAR 1.9 billion in net profit for FY2025 and 20% operating-income growth, alongside continued portfolio expansion.
• Late September 2026 — Taiba 1 and Qassim 1 gas plants started commercial operations.
• October 2025 — ACWA Power signed roughly $10 billion in new agreements at FII9, covering renewables, storage and financing across multiple regions.

Related Entities

• Samir Serhan — CEO of ACWA Power
• NEOM Green Hydrogen Project — ACWA Power joint venture
• ACWA Power Careers — verified open roles
• ADNOC — fellow Gulf state-linked energy major
• Saudi Aramco — Saudi Arabia’s national oil company

Sources

• ACWA Power official website and media center (acwapower.com) — corporate overview, portfolio figures, FY2025 results release
• Saudi Exchange (Tadawul) — listing, ticker 2082
• Arab News, Argaam — chairman reappointment, CEO succession coverage
• Hydrogen Insight, SmartWaterMagazine, PeopleMatters Middle East — Samir Serhan appointment coverage
• SolarQuarter, Saudi Gulf Projects — FY2025 financial results, FII9 agreements coverage
• Public Investment Fund (pif.gov.sa) — historical stake-acquisition press releases

Frequently Asked Questions

Who owns ACWA Power?
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is the largest shareholder, with roughly 44.2% as of 2026, followed by the private Vision International Investment Company (~22.8%) and public free float on the Saudi Exchange.

Who is the CEO of ACWA Power?
Dr. Samir J. Serhan has been CEO since March 1, 2026, succeeding Marco Arcelli.

Is ACWA Power a government-owned company?
No — it is majority state-aligned through PIF’s large minority stake but is a Tadawul-listed commercial company, not a wholly state-owned entity.

What does ACWA Power do?
It develops, invests in and operates power generation, water desalination and green hydrogen/ammonia plants, primarily through long-term power and water purchase agreements.

How much power does ACWA Power generate?
Its operational portfolio was about 43 GW as of FY2025, with a broader total managed portfolio (including projects under construction and development) of around 98 GW reported by the company in 2026.

Illustrative image. Photo: B.alotaby, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons — source