The role of sovereign wealth funds in big tech

Jawbone had to turn to the Kuwait Investment Authority for cash just to stay afloat, never a good sign, given that sovereign wealth funds are not exactly the smart money in Silicon Valley. 20 They tend to come in big but late, offering loads of cash when others will not, or when start-ups want to inflate their valuations prior to an IPO. Indeed, many of the Big Tech platform firms that took money from the Middle East have come to regret it. Uber, for example, which received funding from the Saudi government, went to great pains to distance itself from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the autocrat accused of ordering the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi (a charge that he naturally denies), by awkwardly pulling out of a Saudi investment conference known as “Davos in the Desert” (along with a number of other high-profile U.S. businesspeople) right after that horror broke.