While U.S. VCs Accept Billions From Saudi Arabia, It's Only Publicly Backed One European Firm - Forbes   

The Riyadh-based Public Investment Fund has emerged as significant backer of venture capital firms as the Saudi government body moves to make big bets on tech, sports, and video gaming with its $700 billion portfolio.

Saudi Arabia’s $700 billion Public Investment Fund has disclosed that Swedish venture capital fund Northzone has taken investment from its venture investment arm Sanabil — the only European VC firm known to have done so. The disclosure was part of Sanabil’s decision earlier this year to name the venture, growth and buyout funds it has backed in a move toward transparency that exposes Saudi Arabia’s growing influence in the tech industry.

That list of investment funds includes some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley like Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, Andreessen Horowitz and Iconiq Capital. The Middle Eastern kingdom is in the midst of an unprecedented push to use state money to not only to break its own economy’s reliance on fossil fuels but to become a major dealmaker in tech, sports and video gaming. And after a cooling off period resulting from the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, Silicon Valley has started to publicly embrace Saudi money again, with a16z cofounder Ben Horowitz hailing the kingdom as a “startup country” in March.

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