The Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), the country’s investment group chaired by controversial crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, has scooped up shares in big-name game publishers Activision Blizzard, EA and Take-Two worth more than $3.3bn.
The investments were made in the fourth quarter of last year, and have come to light now in a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing reported by Al Jazeera.
That filing shows the PIF now owns $1.3bn in shares in Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard and $1bn in shares for FIFA maker EA. This equates to around 3.5 per cent and 2.6 per cent respectively of those companies’ share totals.
It has also invested $825m in GTA publisher Take-Two, about 3.5 per cent of that company’s total shares.
The PIF also owns shares in various non-video game companies, such as around $1bn in live events conglomerate Live Nation Entertainment. It has a $4.4bn stake in Uber, and a modest $150m investment in NovaGold, a company seeking to mine gold in Alaska.