Saudis are smart to invest in tech when future of oil is questionable. That's despite the game of thrones "fun" going on there right now. And tech despite its "progressive" PR doesn't care about source of money anyway; purity is for tech plebs, not for rulers.
Saudi Money Fuels the Tech Industry. It’s Time to Ask Why
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Re: Saudi Money Fuels the Tech Industry. It’s Time to Ask Why
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
...How? How do you get a diverse and often quarrelsome world to agree on something that huge?
Minimum standards of conduct before a nation is allowed to do trade another nation or to join a trade agreement...or basically like most other negotiations.
Just quoting @l33tbro >
Re: Saudi Money Fuels the Tech Industry. It’s Time to Ask Why
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even if it isn’t nefarious, maybe we still shouldn’t let them profit off our liberal democracy while they exploit their own citizens, enslave foreigners, fund terrorism, and abuse women. Maybe we shouldn’t let them have their cake and eat it too. Make them pick between human rights and investing in the S&P500.
The best way to bring countries into the fold of western civilization, to convince them to adopt our beliefs and values, is to engage with them in trade. Exclusionary tactics have not had great results, historically.
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Re: Saudi Money Fuels the Tech Industry. It’s Time to Ask Why
#24The tech industry has, historically and in aggregate, had pretty solid rates of returns. If I was sitting on a dwindling store of natural resources as my primary store of wealth, I would probably want to try to diversify that wealth into other areas and grow that wealth aggressively while my potentially limited income source is still highly profitable. I'm not sure that more nefarious aims need to be posited than sim…
Agreed. Occam's razor is well applied here. Everyone else is investing in tech to get rich, I see no reason to suppose card carrying capitalist Saudi's wouldn't be driven by the allure of profit as well.
Re: Saudi Money Fuels the Tech Industry. It’s Time to Ask Why
#25Why seems pretty obvious. Instead of asking why, it would be better to ask how. I don't know of any Saudi VC firms on Sand Hill Road. But then there's a ton of Saudi money out there. Softbank just opened a Saudi fund with $93B.
http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/21/technology/saudi-softbank-te...
KSA investors seem to be acting as extremely large limited partners which makes a lot of investment sense for them.
Dunno if CFIUS can look at this but isn't that what they're there for?
Re: Saudi Money Fuels the Tech Industry. It’s Time to Ask Why
#26The tech industry has, historically and in aggregate, had pretty solid rates of returns. If I was sitting on a dwindling store of natural resources as my primary store of wealth, I would probably want to try to diversify that wealth into other areas and grow that wealth aggressively while my potentially limited income source is still highly profitable. I'm not sure that more nefarious aims need to be posited than sim…
Even if it isn’t nefarious, maybe we still shouldn’t let them profit off our liberal democracy while they exploit their own citizens, enslave foreigners, fund terrorism, and abuse women. Maybe we shouldn’t let them have their cake and eat it too. Make them pick between human rights and investing in the S&P500.
I agree with a lot of what you're saying, but we aren't innocent either. I'd say perhaps on a spectrum they are worse than us on human rights, but there was the Iraq war, Vietnam , etc. Are we supposed to no longer pay taxes or use government provided infrastructure?
Re: Saudi Money Fuels the Tech Industry. It’s Time to Ask Why
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
...How? How do you get a diverse and often quarrelsome world to agree on something that huge?
Minimum standards of conduct before a nation is allowed to do trade another nation or to join a trade agreement...or basically like most other negotiations.
This is the same country that the US funnels weapons into, and uses for leverage in the region. Does it make the US complicit in the actions that Saudi Arabia does? Now does it make sense to ask for Saudi Arabia to be sanctioned when it comes to business investments?
Re: Saudi Money Fuels the Tech Industry. It’s Time to Ask Why
#28I think you could argue that it is actually inhumane to deny certain people the right to investment gains from american companies. Sure you may not like the Saudi Arabian government but ultimately they are trying to create a plan to secure the future of real people who are not all evil, though it may look that way from our cultural vantage point. The Saudis haven’t tended to try and influence their investments, they…
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Re: Saudi Money Fuels the Tech Industry. It’s Time to Ask Why
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even if it isn’t nefarious, maybe we still shouldn’t let them profit off our liberal democracy while they exploit their own citizens, enslave foreigners, fund terrorism, and abuse women. Maybe we shouldn’t let them have their cake and eat it too. Make them pick between human rights and investing in the S&P500.
The best way to bring countries into the fold of western civilization, to convince them to adopt our beliefs and values, is to engage with them in trade. Exclusionary tactics have not had great results, historically.
I see your point, but practically speaking they can give tech company is money and still stop women from driving. It seems like they take the profits from trade and give it to terrorists, so we should probably brainstorm other solutions and not create dead ends with pseudo-platitudes
Re: Saudi Money Fuels the Tech Industry. It’s Time to Ask Why
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
...How? How do you get a diverse and often quarrelsome world to agree on something that huge?
You apply pressure on companies taking investment from the Saudis collectively. If you can’t support Uber because of an atmosphere of sexually harassment, how can you support them when their investment dollars are coming from a country that subjugates women? That creates an indentured servant class from imported labor? That sort of argument. It’s blood money, and that’s the narrative you use (if one was so inclined).…
You apply pressure on companies taking investment from the Saudis collectively.
That's just rephrasing it... how do you apply pressure? Everyone needs oil, many don't care about these issues, so how do we make them toe a line? What pressure do we exert? How much political capital do we burn without a hope of return?
At the end of the day though, you say "blood money" as though both sides aren't drenched in it. Moreover, whoever the Saudis are killing, it's with our weapons systems. They're newcomers to a game that the US has been playing for centuries, and Europe much longer. They're something between our rogue asset in the region, and our abusive soon-to-be-ex-spouse. Everyone sees it coming, especially the Saudis who are going so far as to clean house and contemplate an Aramco IPO to avoid being reclaimed by the desert.