Dubai, Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Co. is weighing its first investment in Saudi Arabia together with the kingdom’s sovereign fund and started talks to invest in US technology companies.
The sovereign fund is considering investing in the technology, real estate and industrial sectors in Saudi Arabia, Chief Executive Officer Khaldoon Al Mubarak said in an interview with Bloomberg TV in Riyadh on Tuesday. The kingdom is “a tremendous market” and Mubadala is exploring investments with the Public Investment Fund, he said.
Sovereign wealth funds in Gulf Arab states are looking at opportunities in new areas, such as technology, to lessen their reliance on volatile oil markets.
Mubadala plans to invest as much as $15 billion (Dh55 billion) over five years in SoftBank Group Corp.’s Vision Fund. Mubadala last week said it was opening an office in Silicon Valley to manage this commitment.
Mubadala has also started talks to invest in US technology companies after opening its office in the country.
“After we started our relationship with SoftBank, it became clear to us that we needed to go deeper,” said Al Mubarak. “In order to go deeper, we needed to be closer to the market.”
