DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund is in talks with American venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and other companies to create a $40 billion fund to invest in artificial intelligence. About. New York Times report This was later confirmed by CNBC sources.
The move is a deal between Saudi Arabia’s $925 billion Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Andreessen Horowitz, one of Silicon Valley’s biggest venture capital firms, two people familiar with the matter told CNBC. A partnership will be formed between them.
The people concerned emphasized that negotiations have not yet been finalized and declined to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the press. They also said they were not aware of anyone other than Andreessen Horowitz and PIF who might be involved in negotiations.
PIF and Andreessen Horowitz did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.
Saudi Arabia’s PIF has been on a buying spree as it aims to diversify the kingdom’s revenue away from oil, a key pillar of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 initiative. The company has poured billions of dollars into stock purchases and joint funds with major international companies such as Uber, Bank of America, Citi, SoftBank and Blackstone.
Andreessen Horowitz and Total assets under management are $35 billion, has backed successful companies such as Airbnb, Coinbase, Facebook, and Slack, and its portfolio includes nearly 100 AI startups.
Co-founder Marc Andreessen wrote in a June 2023 blog post on the company’s website:Â Aggressively pursuing global AI dominance is considerable. ”