19 June 2006,
Directed by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) liaised with a consortium of Saudi corporations headed by the Savola Group with the participation of Project Management Development Co. (PMDC), Taiba Investments & Real Estate Development Co., and Quad Int'l Real Estate Development Co. to form an investment vehicle for the development of the King Abdullah Foundation property to the east of Al-Madinah to compliment the foundation's work, act as a cultural landmark serving visitors, and become a national icon for knowledge-based industrial development, which announced the third Economic City in the Kingdom "Knowledge Economic City" with a total investment of SR 30 Billion.