The Public Investment Fund (PIF), Saudi Arabia’s wealth fund discloses a 5.02% stake in Nexon, a video-game company behind famous ones as MapleStory and Dungeon&Fighter, just after making an investment in Activision Blizzard.
The fund took a stake worth about US$883 million in a Japanese firm that makes titles popular in South Korea and has a tie-up with Hollywood directors behind the Avengers movies to turn their films into computer games.
It said the purpose for holding the shares is “pure investment,” and the filing showed the latest purchases were made in the market from Jan 25 to Jan 27.
The PIF, as the US$500 billion funds are known, has been building up stakes in video game makers and e-sports over the past two years. Its purchase of about 37.9 million shares in Activision Blizzard, which it began acquiring in late 2020, was losing money until Microsoft. agreed to buy out the studio behind the Call of Duty series. The Saudi fund also has stakes in Electronic Arts Inc and Take-Two Interactive Software.
Thus, operated by Crown Prince Mohammed Salman, the PIF has planned about $10 billion for the purchase of global stocks that focuses on areas of e-commerce and renewable alternatives. Nexon also made an investment of $400 million in AGBO, an independent film company as well as a purchase of $100 million Bitcoin.