Saudi Arabia has invested billions in Activision, EA and Take-Two

Mohammad bin Salman, the controversial crown prince of Saudi Arabia, has pushed his country to acquire stakes in three major video game publishers. Recent spotted by show that Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, chaired by bin Salman, bought more than $ 3.3 billion in shares in Activision-Blizzard, EA and Take-Two. This is the same fund that bought a huge Uber in 2016.

In total, he bought 14.9 million shares of Activision, 7.4 million shares of EA and 3.9 million shares of Take-Two towards the end of last year. These investments give the Public Investment Fund, or PIF, $ 1.4 billion, $ 1.1 billion, and $ 826 million stakes in these companies in an attempt to reduce Saudi Arabia’s dependence on it. with regard to oil.

Notably, this isn’t the first time Ben Salman has invested in video games – or at least trying to do so. Last year, Riot’s (LEC) announced a partnership with Saudi Arabia’s Neom, a smart city project that divides the prince. Less than a day later, Riot canceled the sponsorship deal after the LoL business community spoke out against it in effect. In the same year, bin Salman’s MiSK youth charity bought an SNK, the Japanese developer of , and said he plans to take over the majority of the company in the future.

In 2018, the CIA implicated bin Salman in the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Although Saudi Arabia initially denied knowledge of the murder, Shalaan al-Shalaan, the country’s deputy prosecutor, later said the assassination was ordered by the head of a “negotiating team” sent to investigate. bring Khashoggi back to the country.