The sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, which is controlled by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has acquired shares in major US firms, including Amazon and the parent companies of Facebook and Google.
The country’s new investments became public through a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing made on August 15.
According to the SEC filing, the Saudi Public Investment Fund bought shares in a number of companies, including:
- Video game company Activision Blizzard ($2.9 billion)
- Adobe Systems ($419 million)
- Google’s parent company Alphabet ($464 million)
- Amazon ($432 million)
- JPMorgan Chase ($433 million)
- Costco ($496 million)
- Fedex ($255 million)
- Home Depot ($450 million)
- Facebook’s parent company Meta ($474 million)
- Microsoft ($473 million)
- PayPal ($492 million)
- Starbucks ($482 million)
- Uber ($1.5 billion)
- Walmart ($96 million)
- Zoom ($507 million)
Saudi Arabia’s buying spree is believed to be part of efforts to minimize its dependence on oil exports.
In February 2021, a US intelligence report found that the 2018 murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi took place with Mohammed bin Salman’s approval.
A United Nations (UN) report in June 2019 also concluded that there was credible evidence to launch further investigations into the involvement of the crown prince and other Saudi officials in Khashoggi’s killing.
Khashoggi, a Saudi national and US resident, was killed by a 15-member assassination team in the country’s consulate in Istanbul, Turkey on October 2, 2018. His body was dismembered and disposed of, UN reports confirmed.
