Saudi Arabia Owns 5% Of Nintendo

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which is the country’s bottomless pit of money used to diversify into sectors beyond oil, has a new acquisition in place: a small chunk of the Big N.

Saudi Arabia now has 5.01% stake in Nintendo according to a Bloomberg report that detailed a recent Japanese Finance Ministry filing. Other companies with some of its stake and shares owned by Saudi Arabia include EA, Capcom, Take-Two, Activision, and SNK. This makes the fund company the fifth-largest shareholder. The fund is run by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

As to why this is controversial to many, one can argue that the PIF is just a way to whitewash the Saudi Arabian government’s human rights violation records. There’s also the fact that the country was involved with the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the backing of the ongoing Yemeni genocide.