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Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has disclosed its latest investments, and they include a number of big-name gaming companies.
The PIF spent $1.06 billion to acquire 7.4 million shares in Electronic Arts, along with 14 million shares of Activision Blizzard, at a price of $1.4 billion. The fund also increased its stake in Rockstar Games parent company Take-Two Interactive to round out its gaming investments.
As analyst Matthew Kanterman reported on Twitter, with these new investments, the PIF now holds about 2% of Activision Blizzard shares, 2.6% of EA, and 3.5% of Take-Two.
Gaming companies have uniquely benefitted from the COVID-19 pandemic that has kept people in their homes, playing more games and spending more money on them. Stock prices across EA, Activision, and Take-Two–just to name a few of the publicly traded video game stocks–have risen sharply in the past year.
The PIF is among the largest such wealth funds in the world, with its accounts totalling around $400 billion right now. The organization is looking to grow the size of its portfolio to more than $1.07 trillion by the end of 2025, according to Markets Insider.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman runs the account and has announced his intention for the oil-rich kingdom to try to create a new image for itself amid claims of its “addiction” to oil. Diversifying its portfolio for the wealth fund is seemingly a step toward doing that.
