• Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal lifts his Snapchat stake to 40.8M shares valued at USD 133.5M, reinforcing his long-term bet.
• Despite strong competition from TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, Snapchat maintains a loyal North American user base and private messaging appeal.
• Trump’s plan for U.S. control of TikTok could reshape the ad market, with potential ripple effects across Snap’s business.

Snapchat 

Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal has increased his investment in Snapchat (Snap Inc.). by purchasing 15.2 million shares. This brings his total stake to 40.8 million shares, representing approximately 2.8% of the company’s total shares.. 

The value of the purchased shares is estimated to be USD 133.5 million based on Snap’s stock price as of Monday morning’s share price.

Prince Al Waleed first disclosed his stake in Snapchat in 2018 and since then its shares have fallen by approximately 20%. Furthermore, its shares are down almost 90% from its record high in 2021. 

Alwaleed, is world’s 156th-richest person with a $16.5 billion net worth per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He is a seasoned investor and chairs the publicly listed Kingdom Holding Co. and also holds a stake in Elon Musk’s xAI.

Competition 

With TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube pulling in users and advertisers, Snap’s revenue growth has taken a hit. In fact, according to Bloomberg, the company has not reported an annual profit since going public in 2017.

This comes amid US President Donald Trump’s recent move to bring TikTok’s U.S. operations under domestic control.  This could add more pressure on Snap which competes with the platform in the realm of youth-dominated  short-form video. 

Snapchat still holds a solid North American user base and appeals to young people as a private messaging hub. However, a stronger U.S. footing for TikTok could see advertisers redirect more spending its way once the threat of a ban disappears.