In December 2024, Apple said it would begin opening flagship stores in Saudi Arabia starting in 2026, with an early plan built around an “iconic” location in Diriyah, a UNESCO World Heritage site outside Riyadh. With 2026 now more than two-thirds finished, Apple’s own store-news page has confirmed no physical store as open in the country. That gap between the announcement and the record is the story here, and Apple’s own releases are the only source needed to tell it.
Apple has not gone silent on Saudi Arabia entirely. It has published one concrete step since the 2024 announcement, and it was online rather than physical.
Apple’s December 2024 announcement is unusually specific for a company that rarely names a store’s city years before it opens. Naming Diriyah, and naming its UNESCO status, are both details Apple chose to publish on the record, which is part of why the lack of a follow-up update since is worth tracking rather than assuming.
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Key facts
| Date | What Apple published |
|---|---|
| December 2024 | Apple announces plans for flagship retail stores in Saudi Arabia, “starting in 2026” |
| Same announcement | Apple describes itself as “in the initial stages of planning” an iconic store in Diriyah |
| July 21, 2025 | Apple Store online launches in Saudi Arabia |
| As of September 12, 2026 | No physical Saudi Arabia store confirmed open on Apple’s store-news page |
The two releases, read together
| Release | What it says |
|---|---|
| December 2024, retail expansion announcement | “Begin opening the first of several flagship Apple Store locations in Saudi Arabia starting in 2026”; Diriyah store “in the initial stages of planning” |
| July 2025, online store launch | Apple Store online arrives in Saudi Arabia, no physical opening date given |
Diriyah is named specifically in the 2024 release as the site of a planned “iconic” store, and Apple ties that plan to the location’s status as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Apple has not published a construction update, a revised timeline or a confirmed opening date for Diriyah or any other Saudi location since. The word “initial” in the original release, describing the planning stage nearly two years ago, is the most specific status Apple has given.
Why the online launch is not the same claim
Apple’s July 2025 release is specifically about apple.com becoming available as a storefront for Saudi Arabia, letting customers order online and have Apple products shipped within the country. That is a real and published step, and it lets Saudi buyers order the iPhone 18 Pro, Apple Watch Series 12 and AirPods 5 this month without a physical store nearby, once iOS 27 and the rest of Apple’s software updates arrive Monday. It is not, however, the flagship retail store the 2024 announcement described. Apple’s own releases keep the two apart, and conflating an online storefront with a physical opening would misstate what either release says.
How this compares with Apple’s other pipelines
Saudi Arabia is not the only market where Apple has announced retail intent without a confirmed opening this year. Apple’s most recent confirmed physical store anywhere is Apple Sainte-Catherine in Montreal, which opened January 16, 2026, and its store-news page has named nothing since, in any country. Measured against that page, a Saudi Arabia opening would be the first new physical store Apple has confirmed globally since Montreal, whenever it happens. Apple has not said when that will be. The two pipelines differ in one respect: Apple has never published an opening-year target for Montreal or any other individual store the way it did for Saudi Arabia, which makes the Saudi case the more directly checkable of the two against a date Apple itself set.
What Apple has not said
- A confirmed opening date for the Diriyah store or any other Saudi Arabia location.
- Construction status, an architect, or a store size for Diriyah.
- How many stores Apple plans for Saudi Arabia beyond “several,” the word used in 2024.
- Whether the 2026 target announced in 2024 still stands.
As of Saturday, September 12, 2026, with roughly fifteen weeks left in the year Apple named as its target, no Saudi Arabia store opening has appeared on Apple’s newsroom. Whether one arrives before the year ends is not something Apple has said either way.