Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund has purchased a 5% stake in Nintendo, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, making it the fifth-largest shareholder in the company.
The Saudi fund, which is worth $500 billion and referred to as the PIF, said the Nintendo purchase was made for investment purchases in a filing with Japan's Finance Ministry. It used that same explanation when purchasing 5% stakes in Capcom and Nexon earlier this year. It also holds stakes in EA, Activision Blizzard and Take-Two, plus a majority stake in SNK.
A Nintendo spokesman told Bloomberg the company learned about the Saudi investment from news reports and declined to comment on individual shareholders.
The PIF is run by Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a leader with an atrocious human rights record. Under his regime, Saudi Arabia has maintained laws making homosexuality a criminal act punishable by death. The CIA has also accused bin Salman himself of ordering the assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
