Saudi Arabia in talks with Andreessen Horowitz to create AI fund

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund is in talks with American venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and potentially others to create a $40 billion fund to invest in artificial intelligence, according to reporting by The New York Times, which was later confirmed by CNBC sources.

The move, which two people with knowledge of the matter told CNBC has been under discussion for months, would see a partnership formed between Saudi Arabia’s $925 billion Public Investment Fund and Andreessen Horowitz, one of Silicon Valley’s largest venture capital firms.

The people stressed that talks 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 other potential parties to the talks besides Andreessen Horowitz and the PIF.

The PIF and Andreessen Horowitz did not immediately reply to CNBC’s request for comment.

Saudi Arabia’s PIF has been on a buying spree as it seeks to diversify the kingdom’s revenues away from oil, a key pillar of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 initiative. It has poured billions of dollars of investment into stake purchases and joint funds with major international companies like Uber, Bank of America, Citi, SoftBank and Blackstone.

Andreessen Horowitz, with $35 billion in assets under management, has backed successful companies including Airbnb, Coinbase, Facebook and Slack, and has nearly 100 AI-related startups in its portfolio.

Co-founder Marc Andreessen wrote in a blog post on the firm’s website in June 2023 that “The threat of not aggressively pursuing global AI dominance … is considerable.”