Mohammad bin Salman, the controversial crown prince of Saudi Arabia, has driven his country to take an interest in three major video game publishers. Recently noticed by shows that Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, chaired by Bin Salman, has bought more than $ 3.3 billion worth of shares in Activision-Blizzard, EA and Take-Two. This is the same fund that bought a large amount in Uber in 2016.
In total, he bought 14.9 million shares in Activision, 7.4 million shares in EA and 3.9 million shares in Take-Two at the end of last year. These investments give the public investment fund, or PIF, $ 1.4 billion, $ 1.1 billion and $ 826 million in these companies as efforts to reduce Saudi Arabia’s dependence on oil.
This is especially the first time that bin Salman has invested in video games – or at least tried to do so. Last year, Riot (LEC) announced a partnership with Saudi Arabia’s Neom, a divisive smart city project by the prince. Less than a day later, Riot rescinded the sponsorship deal after the professional LoL community took effect. In the same year, Bin Salman’s MiSK youth organization bought a stake in SNK, the Japanese developer of , and said he plans to take majority ownership of the company in the future.
In 2018, the CIA involved bin Salman in the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Although Saudi Arabia initially denied any knowledge of the killings, Shalaan al-Shalaan, the country’s deputy state prosecutor, later said the assassination was ordered by the head of a “negotiating team” sent to bring Khashoggi back to the country. to bring.