A Saudi sovereign wealth fund has become the largest outside shareholder in the Japanese gaming giant Nintendo.
The Saudi Public Investment Fund, a state investment vehicle chaired by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has increased an earlier stake in Nintendo from 7.08 percent to 8.26 percent, a Japanese regulatory filing shows.
The move is another sign that the nation is seeking to expand and diversify its financial reach beyond oil, the principal source of its wealth.
In recent years, the fund has poured money into a dizzying array of business interests outside the petroleum trade, including taking large stakes in American companies, among them Boeing, Citigroup, Disney and Uber, financial filings show. The investments stem from a broader plan touted by Mohammed, whose “Vision 2030” plan seeks to lessen the kingdom’s dependence on oil.
Several of those investments have gone to video game companies. The Saudi fund owns a gaming company, Savvy Games Group, that plans to invest $37.8 billion with hopes of making the kingdom a global gaming hub, according to a September 2022 announcement from the Saudi state news agency SPA. Saudi Arabia has bought stock in leading American game-makers Activision Blizzard and EA Games, financial filings show.
Cate Brown contributed to this report.
