- The Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund bought 5% of Nintendo shares as part of the business diversification strategy
- It is the same fund that has already bought part of Nexon, Capcom and Koei Tecmo, three other Japanese game companies.
- It also bought a piece of Activision Blizzard, the Call of Duty developer that Microsoft announced last year it was acquiring.
The Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) bought a part of Nintendo.
It is one more action in the path of diversification in which the world’s largest oil producing countries are advancing, knowing that the horizon of crude oil has its years numbered.
Specifically, the PIF took over 5 percent of the shares of the Japanese Nintendo Co. Ltd.
It is not the first time that this sovereign wealth fund has invested in a company focused on video games, exposure to this type of company had begun before, when it acquired shares in Activision.
The sovereign wealth fund chaired by the crown prince Mohammed bin Salman he had previously bought stakes in video game companies Nexon, Capcom and Koei Tecmo.
Arab funds target Nintendo
The PIF is part of the so-called Vision Fund, SoftBank Group’s $100 billion fund, but it also independently invests in Bin Salman’s idea of transforming Saudi Arabia’s economy toward a future without oil.
This same Arab fund, which manages more than 600 billion dollars, as we explained before, had acquired a significant stake in Activision Blizzard, the developer of “Call of Duty” that Microsoft announced last year that it was going to buy.
PIF also launched a video game and esports company of its own: Savvy Gaming.
Nintendo, which announced a stock split in early May with the aim of attracting more minor investors, will have a bad year in terms of sales of the Switch console. The problem: the shortage of chips.
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