Why foreign investors love Boston
FT News Briefing
Forhecz Topher
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 4 June 2026
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Saudi Arabia’s wealth fund is swapping foreign CEOs for local ones and Reed Hastings officially steps down from the board of Netflix. Plus, FT-Nikkei names Boston as the best US city for foreign investment.
Mentioned in this podcast:
Saudi wealth fund replaces foreign CEOs with locals
Netflix’s Reed Hastings: an icon of good leadership and bad governance
Boston tops FT-Nikkei ranking as global companies seek skilled workers
Americans lead AI data centre backlash, global poll finds
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The FT News Briefing is produced by Victoria Craig, Sonja Hutson, Saffeya Ahmed, Katya Kumkova, and Fiona Symon. Our editor is Marc Filippino. Our show was mixed by Sam Giovinco. Additional help from Gavin Kallmann, Michael Lello and David da Silva. Our intern is Cole van Miltenburg. Our executive producer is Topher Forhecz. The show’s theme music is by Metaphor Music.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Good morning from the Financial Times. |
| 0:04.3 | Today is Thursday, June 4th, and this is your FT News Briefing. |
| 0:09.3 | Saudi Arabia is making some changes to focus inward, and Netflix says goodbye to its co-founder. |
| 0:16.2 | Plus, international investors, they're shipping up to Boston. |
| 0:19.9 | Workforce talent is really the shining star |
| 0:22.0 | that brought Boston to the top of our list this year. I'm Mark Filipino and here's the news you |
| 0:27.3 | need to start your day. Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund is making big changes at some of its portfolio companies. |
| 0:48.3 | The public investment fund, or PIF, is replacing foreign executives with local hires. |
| 0:55.1 | Some examples include the manufacturing company Elat and Biopharma Group Lifeera. |
| 1:00.1 | Why the change? |
| 1:01.3 | Well, after a decade of spending a ton globally, PIF is shifting its focus to domestic projects. |
| 1:08.3 | It's all part of Saudi Crown prince Muhammad bin Salman's ambitious plan |
| 1:11.8 | to diversify his country's economy away from oil revenues. One PIF executive also said, |
| 1:18.2 | back in April, that big upcoming events like the 2034 World Cup caused the country to shift |
| 1:24.4 | priorities. |
| 1:36.3 | Reid Hastings is officially leaving Netflix after its annual shareholder meeting today. |
| 1:41.6 | He co-founded Netflix in 1997 as a DVD rental service. |
| 1:43.0 | Remember DVDs? |
| 1:46.0 | Well, he moved on from discs, and over the next three decades, he grew the company into the world's largest streaming platform. Hastings stepped down |
| 1:51.4 | as CEO in 2023, but stayed on as chairman of the board. I've got with me John Foley, who's |
| 1:56.9 | head of the FT's Lex column and recently wrote about Hastings Legacy. Hi, John. |
| 2:06.4 | Hi, thanks for having me on. Good to have you. So what was Hastings approach during his tenure at Netflix? |
... |
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