Saudi Arabia’s mountain of cash has upended the world of professional golf. But that is only a small sliver of the money it is sinking into a number of prominent businesses elsewhere around the globe as the kingdom moves to diversify away from a dependence on oil income – and as the petro-kingdom tries to achieve its political goals. The Saudi Public Investment Fund is a government-controlled fund that has $650 billion in assets under management, according to its most recent filing.
For example, it has a total of $7.5 billion in investments in several leading video game companies, according to its most recent filing, giving it a 9% stake in Electronic Arts\n \n , a 7% stake in Take-Two Interactive and nearly a 5% stake in Activision Blizzard\n \n . It also owns more than 5% of Live Nation\n \n , the concert promoter and owner of Ticketmaster, and significant stakes worth hundreds of millions each in cruiser operator Carnival Corp\n \n ., Uber\n \n and Zoom\n \n .