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Saudi Money Fuels the Tech Industry. It’s Time to Ask Why

nytimes.com

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Re: Saudi Money Fuels the Tech Industry. It’s Time to Ask Why

#81

Post by [deleted] »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #13
QAPereo wrote: post #12

Earlier 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).…

[deleted]

Re: Saudi Money Fuels the Tech Industry. It’s Time to Ask Why

#82

Post by ZenoArrow »

SubiculumCode wrote: post #20
diogenescynic wrote: post #7

Same reason they invest in Fox News—aim the weapon at your enemy, like Iran. It’s no coincidence the media is always screaming about Iran, who is actually more moderate than our supposed ally Saudi Arabia. It’s a way to buy themselves a free pass from criticism.

Iran may be moderate, but they are also aligned with Russia. I'd like Iran to align with the West, but too many sides are in their trenches.

> "Iran may be moderate, but they are also aligned with Russia."

Why is that a problem? The Cold War is over. The Russian influence on the world stage is not what it once was (China has definitely superseded it), and it's a capitalist society so their interests are mostly aligned with capitalist societies elsewhere.

Re: Saudi Money Fuels the Tech Industry. It’s Time to Ask Why

#83

Post by [deleted] »

diogenescynic wrote: post #10
megaman22 wrote: post #5

The 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.

[deleted]

Re: Saudi Money Fuels the Tech Industry. It’s Time to Ask Why

#84

Post by supercanuck »

psergeant wrote: post #59
brighteyes wrote: post #41

There is something to this argument, but it's ruined. The author and many others don't like Saudi Arabia and Russia. That's the main reason for advocating a boycott of their investment money, because while the author mentions the poor human rights records of those two countries as the reason, there are plenty of other countries with such records. The main example of which is China, which is of course not mentioned. T…

> you should mention more than > the easiest targets, if only > to avoid the appearance of > bias You’re arguing for purity over pragmatism

...also whataboutism.

Re: Saudi Money Fuels the Tech Industry. It’s Time to Ask Why

#85

Post by 3131s »

pizza wrote: post #37
l33tbro wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well if you want to talk sanctions, I'd say selling them $110 billion in weapons a few months back is slightly more concerning than slamming shut the bank counter screens on them.

"Psst.. You wanna see how far the nefariousness goes? Follow the money.., follow the orb... " https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/8559731/Ge...

And learn who the guy in the red head scarf is:

http://www.almrsal.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/king-abdul...

http://s4.freebeacon.com/up/2015/05/AP95102601735-540x439.jp...

http://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Gett...

Re: Saudi Money Fuels the Tech Industry. It’s Time to Ask Why

#86

Post by kakarot »

Barrin92 wrote: post #53
harryh wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same answer: simple avarice. There is a lot of Saudi money and they are willing to invest it. And their money is just as good for hiring programmers and renting servers as anyone else's.

yep kind of confused to. The silicon valley is a for-profit sector, when they write "diversity, inclusiveness, fairness" and so forth on their banners they are very much qualifying this within a business context. People need to be a little more honest and accept that those slogans are marketing messages, nobody in the valley is seriously going to turn an investment away for moral reasons

I took that as people need to be a little more honest and accept that those slogans are lies and bullshit.

This kind of attitude is exactly the problem. Sure, they are for profit, but since when is that the only thing that matters? I would never knowingly take blood money from a dictator, even if it meant I lived an impoverished life. If the company I worked for took such money, I would begin looking for alternate employment.

No one is asking why do people take money from bad people, no one is that naive and it's naive to think that they are. We're all familiar with the concept of greed. What they're asking is why do we let this happen in a country that boasts about its commitment to democracy and human rights?

Re: Saudi Money Fuels the Tech Industry. It’s Time to Ask Why

#87

Post by kregasaurusrex »

It's worth noting that the larger companies mentioned like Uber, Slack, and Twitter which received money from the Vision Fund occurred in their later respective funding rounds, often shortly before going into an IPO or full-on acquisition by a publicly traded company. My guess would be that this fund is targeting modest returns while not wanting to incur the both the risk associated with a company in its earlier funding rounds, and a guaranteed path towards liquidity if the fund managers desire to exit. I see this purely as an investment vehicle since investments at these stages aren't expected to provide the investors with significant numbers of voting shares.

Re: Saudi Money Fuels the Tech Industry. It’s Time to Ask Why

#89

Post by erikb »

Honestly, if someone offers you 300 million plus would you say no, because this someone belongs to a different culture group? The discussion as well as the headline of the article seems quite strange. I mean you want a free market or not. If you want, then all these examples should make you proud not worried.

Re: Saudi Money Fuels the Tech Industry. It’s Time to Ask Why

#90

Post by dba7dba »

kakarot wrote: post #86
Barrin92 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yep kind of confused to. The silicon valley is a for-profit sector, when they write "diversity, inclusiveness, fairness" and so forth on their banners they are very much qualifying this within a business context. People need to be a little more honest and accept that those slogans are marketing messages, nobody in the valley is seriously going to turn an investment away for moral reasons

I took that as people need to be a little more honest and accept that those slogans are lies and bullshit. This kind of attitude is exactly the problem. Sure, they are for profit, but since when is that the only thing that matters? I would never knowingly take blood money from a dictator, even if it meant I lived an impoverished life. If the company I worked for took such money, I would begin looking for alternate em…

I guess some people see it troubling that the guardians of human rights of modern world are so willing to take funding from nations that doesn't value such rights.

Basically Silicon Valley companies are very vocal about protecting human rights (which is good), and turn around and accept funding from nations that don't value them.

And it's not like these SV Companies didn't have any other source of funding.

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