“The proposed transaction poses a number of significant foreign influence and national security risks, beginning with the PIF’s reputation as a strategic arm of the Saudi government,” the Senators wrote in their letter. “As Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the PIF has made dozens of strategic investments in sports (including a bid for the U.S. PGA Tour), video games (including a $3.3 billion investment in Activision Blizzard), and other cultural institutions that ‘are more than just about financial returns; they are about influence.’ Leveraging long term shifts in public opinion, through the PIF’s investments, ‘Saudi Arabia is seeking to normalize its global image, expand its cultural reach, and gain leverage in spaces that shape how billions of people connect and interact.’ Saudi Arabia’s desire to buy influence through the acquisition of EA is apparent on the face of the transaction—the investors propose to pay more than $10 billion above EA’s trading value for a company whose stock has ‘stagnated for half a decade’ in an unpredictably volatile industry.”
Americans are worried about China while Saudi Arabia buys up all of their companies.
This is like worrying about Japanese investors buying a stadium, the article is very misleading because they would never employ writers who would explain why the US benefits from the global ruling class recycling its dollars into asset markets here. Basically, there is nowhere else to put it that won’t get left behind by the bubble and devalued.
This isn’t Saudi Arabia buying the USA. This is one of the USA’s dogs getting a bone to chew on. Same with Qatar. Don’t be so shortsighted.
But yes, China isn’t a threat to Americans. They literally want the quality of life of Americans to go up, and the financial leverage of the US to go down. The main thing stopping Americans from living a good life is the financial leverage of their middle class and elites. (Most private equity funds are managing retirements and pensions, which most workers do not have. Same deal with housing.)