vault backup: 2026-10-13 18:58:30
This commit is contained in:
parent
b4af588f5a
commit
973895149e
32 changed files with 2476 additions and 176 deletions
|
|
@ -36,8 +36,30 @@ relations:
|
|||
start: 2023-05
|
||||
role: "co-investor, Series C; co-lead, 2025 token sale"
|
||||
fn: 6
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[Nash (company)]]"
|
||||
start: 2021-09
|
||||
role: "seed investor, fall 2021; co-founders Mahmoud Ghulman and Aziz Alghunaim"
|
||||
fn: 13
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[Nash (company)]]"
|
||||
start: 2022-07
|
||||
role: "led Series A, announced July 26, 2022"
|
||||
fn: 13
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[Sanabil Investments]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 2026-01
|
||||
role: "Sanabil, the venture arm of the Public Investment Fund, lists the firm among its holdings, per TechCrunch January 2026"
|
||||
fn: 10
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[MGX]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 2026-03
|
||||
role: "co-lead, per Bloomberg, of a roughly 10 billion dollar OpenAI financing announced for close the following week; see OpenAI page"
|
||||
fn: 11
|
||||
created: 2026-09-22
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-22
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-13
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Andreessen Horowitz, known as a16z, is a venture capital firm founded in 2009 by [[Marc Andreessen]], co-founder of [[Netscape]], and [[Ben Horowitz]]. It invests in consumer software, cryptocurrency, biotechnology and, through its "American Dynamism" practice, defense and national-security technology, the category that also anchors [[Founders Fund]] and [[Palantir Technologies]]. In March 2019 the firm gave up its venture-capital registration and registered with the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] as an investment adviser, freeing it from the rule that limits venture funds to about twenty percent of holdings in liquid securities and allowing it to buy crypto tokens, public stocks and secondary shares. In April 2024 it raised 7.2 billion dollars across five funds, including a 3.75 billion dollar growth fund and a 600 million dollar American Dynamism fund, and by January 2026 it had raised more than 15 billion dollars in a single round, taking its assets under management above 90 billion dollars.[^1][^2]
|
||||
|
|
@ -50,6 +72,24 @@ Andreessen and Horowitz endorsed [[Donald Trump]] in July 2024 on their podcast,
|
|||
|
||||
The firm led the seed round of about 2 billion dollars, at a 12 billion dollar valuation, of [[Mira Murati]]'s [[Thinking Machines Lab]] in July 2025, alongside Nvidia, Accel, ServiceNow, Cisco, AMD and [[Jane Street Capital|Jane Street]].[^4] It invested in [[Ilya Sutskever]]'s [[Safe Superintelligence]] in its round of September 2024 at a 5 billion dollar valuation and in April 2025 at 32 billion.[^5] Its crypto fund joined the 115 million dollar Series C of [[Sam Altman]]'s [[Worldcoin]] in May 2023 and co-led its 135 million dollar token sale in May 2025.[^6] Andreessen's "Techno-Optimist Manifesto," published by the firm on October 16, 2023, listed "existential risk," "trust and safety" and "tech ethics" among its enemies and named the neoreactionary [[Nick Land]] among its "patron saints."[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
### Saudi Arabia and the Gulf
|
||||
|
||||
In 2016 the firm and Founders Fund sold shares in [[Lyft]] to Saudi Arabia's [[Alwaleed bin Talal]] and his [[Kingdom Holding]], according to TechCrunch.[^8] In 2017 Marc Andreessen agreed to join the advisory board of [[NEOM]], the project led by Crown Prince [[Mohammed bin Salman]].[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
In October 2022 Ben Horowitz spoke at the "Davos in the Desert" investment conference in Saudi Arabia, and in 2023 the firm's 350 million dollar investment in [[Flow]] was discussed at a conference organized by a nonprofit backed by one of Saudi Arabia's largest sovereign funds.[^8] TechCrunch wrote in April 2023 that the firm "has never made public who its limited partners are," and that it had reached out to the firm with questions and had not received a reply.[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
On March 20, 2024 CNBC reported that Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, the [[Public Investment Fund]], was in talks with the firm. Two people with knowledge of the matter told CNBC that the talks would see "a partnership formed between Saudi Arabia's $925 billion Public Investment Fund and Andreessen Horowitz," and that "talks have not yet been finalized." The reported vehicle was an AI fund of about 40 billion dollars.[^9]
|
||||
|
||||
TechCrunch reported on January 9, 2026 that a16z had raised "a little more than $15 billion" in new funding, bringing its assets under management to more than $90 billion. The article states that "Sanabil Investments, the venture arm of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, lists Andreessen Horowitz among its portfolio holdings," and that the firm "appears to be very friendly with actual sovereign wealth funds, including at least one from Saudi Arabia."[^10]
|
||||
|
||||
In March 2026 the company told Bloomberg that the firm would co-lead a roughly 10 billion dollar financing for [[OpenAI]], alongside [[MGX]], [[D.E. Shaw Ventures]], [[TPG]] and T. Rowe Price.[^11]
|
||||
|
||||
Dealroom's October 2026 item on the [[Echelon (company)]] round, which names Ben Horowitz among the early backers, describes the founder, [[Khalid bin Bader Al Saud]], as an adviser to Andreessen Horowitz.[^12]
|
||||
|
||||
### Nash and Early Portfolio Ties
|
||||
|
||||
In the fall of 2021 the firm made the seed investment in [[Nash (company)]], a company founded by [[Mahmoud Ghulman]] and [[Aziz Alghunaim]]. On July 26, 2022 the firm announced that it was leading Nash's Series A. The announcement reads: "We first partnered with Nash for their seed round in the fall of 2021," and "We're excited to announce that a16z is leading the Series A for Nash."[^13]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Andreessen Horowitz, firm history. https://a16z.com/
|
||||
|
|
@ -59,3 +99,9 @@ The firm led the seed round of about 2 billion dollars, at a 12 billion dollar v
|
|||
[^5]: "AI's Big Day: Startup Safe Superintelligence Raises $1B At Reported $5B Valuation." *Crunchbase News,* September 4, 2024, https://news.crunchbase.com/ai/startup-safe-superintelligence-unicorn-raise/ ; "OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever's Safe Superintelligence reportedly valued at $32B." *TechCrunch,* April 12, 2025.
|
||||
[^6]: "Sam Altman's crypto project Worldcoin raises $115M led by Blockchain Capital." *CoinDesk,* May 25, 2023; "World raises $135M." World blog, May 21, 2025.
|
||||
[^7]: Andreessen, Marc. "The Techno-Optimist Manifesto." Andreessen Horowitz, October 16, 2023. https://a16z.com/the-techno-optimist-manifesto/
|
||||
[^8]: Loizos, Connie, "Andreessen Horowitz is now openly courting capital from Saudi Arabia, despite U.S. strains," *TechCrunch*, April 1, 2023: on the 2016 Lyft share sale to "Saudi Arabia's Prince al-Waleed bin Talal and his Kingdom Holding"; "In 2017, Andreessen also joined forces with the prince's first cousin, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ('MBS'), agreeing to join the advisory board of MBS' ambitious project, Neom"; "Though the 14-year-old outfit has never made public who its limited partners are"; and the "We reached out to Andreessen Horowitz with related questions this morning and have yet to hear back." https://techcrunch.com/2023/04/01/andreessen-horowitz-is-now-openly-courting-capital-from-saudi-arabia-despite-u-s-strains/
|
||||
[^9]: Turak, Natasha, "Saudi Arabia reportedly in talks with VC firms like Andreessen Horowitz to create mammoth $40 billion AI fund," *CNBC*, March 20, 2024: "would see a partnership formed between Saudi Arabia's $925 billion Public Investment Fund and Andreessen Horowitz"; "The people stressed that talks have not yet been finalized." https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/20/saudi-arabia-in-talks-with-andreessen-horowitz-to-create-ai-fund.html
|
||||
[^10]: Loizos, Connie, "The venture firm that ate Silicon Valley," *TechCrunch*, January 9, 2026: "a little more than $15 billion" in new funding and "more than $90 billion" in assets under management; "Sanabil Investments, the venture arm of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, lists Andreessen Horowitz among its portfolio holdings"; "a16z appears to be very friendly with actual sovereign wealth funds, including at least one from Saudi Arabia." https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/09/the-venture-firm-that-ate-silicon-valley
|
||||
[^11]: Bloomberg, "OpenAI Set to Raise $10 Billion From MGX, Coatue, Thrive," March 24, 2026, as reproduced by Bloomberg Government: "Andreessen Horowitz, Abu Dhabi's MGX, D.E. Shaw Ventures, TPG and T. Rowe Price will co-lead the financing, which is set to close next week, the company told Bloomberg Tuesday." https://news.bgov.com/california-brief/openai-set-to-raise-10-billion-from-mgx-coatue-thrive-2
|
||||
[^12]: Dealroom, news item on the Echelon launch, October 8, 2026: "Its early backers include East40, RAED Ventures, Avra, and Ben Horowitz"; the item lists the founder's roles as "a venture partner at RAED Ventures and an adviser to Andreessen Horowitz." https://dealroom.co/news/160932-saudi-ai-company-echelon-launches-with-backing-from-ben-horowitz-avra-an/
|
||||
[^13]: Andreessen Horowitz, "Investing in Nash," posted July 26, 2022: "We first partnered with Nash for their seed round in the fall of 2021"; "We're excited to announce that a16z is leading the Series A for Nash"; the post welcomes "Mahmoud, Aziz, and the Nash team." https://a16z.com/announcement/investing-in-nash/
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -15,7 +15,13 @@ tags:
|
|||
summary: "Anduril Industries is a defense-technology contractor founded in 2017 by Palmer Luckey and Palantir Technologies alumni Brian Schimpf, Trae Stephens, Matt Grimm, and Joe Chen, backed by Founders Fund, that builds the Lattice autonomous-systems platform and autonomous hardware for the Pentagon and allied militaries, and was valued at 30.5 billion dollars in its 2025 Series G round."
|
||||
location: "Costa Mesa, California (headquarters)"
|
||||
created: 2026-06-17
|
||||
updated: 2026-06-17
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-13
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: partner_of
|
||||
with: "[[OpenAI]]"
|
||||
start: 2024-12-04
|
||||
role: "counter-drone partnership announced December 4, 2024"
|
||||
fn: 8
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Anduril Industries is an American defense-technology contractor founded in 2017 by [[Palmer Luckey]] and a group of [[Palantir Technologies]] alumni including [[Brian Schimpf]], [[Trae Stephens]], [[Matt Grimm]], and [[Joe Chen]]. The company builds the [[Lattice (software platform)|Lattice]] software platform for fusing sensor data from autonomous systems into a single operating picture, and a range of autonomous hardware including the [[Ghost (drone)|Ghost]] and [[Altius (drone)|Altius]] unmanned aerial systems, the [[Fury (drone)|Fury]] autonomous fighter, the [[Dive-LD]] autonomous undersea vehicle, and the [[Sentry Tower]] ground-surveillance system. The company was valued at 30.5 billion dollars in a Series G funding round led by [[Founders Fund]] in 2025.[^1][^2]
|
||||
|
|
@ -38,6 +44,12 @@ The Lattice software platform is built to fuse data from the company's own hardw
|
|||
|
||||
Traditional defense procurement separates the platform (the aircraft, the vehicle, the sensor) from the software that operates it, with the Pentagon buying each from different vendors on separate contracts. Anduril bundles the hardware, the software, and the data fusion into a single vendor, which lets the company iterate the whole stack on commercial rather than defense-cycle timelines. The Replicator initiative, the Pentagon program to field thousands of low-cost autonomous systems, has been the principal public instance of this procurement model applied to Anduril hardware.[^1][^7]
|
||||
|
||||
### OpenAI Counter-Drone Partnership (2024)
|
||||
|
||||
On December 4, 2024 Anduril announced that it would partner with [[OpenAI]] to apply OpenAI's models to counter-drone systems. Anduril said that the models "will help protect U.S. and allied military personnel and ensure mission success." The companies described the goal as reducing the burden on human operators and improving situational awareness.[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
The same article reports a separate award: the [[Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office]] had awarded Anduril a 100 million dollar contract to increase production of its Lattice Mesh networking capability.[^9]
|
||||
|
||||
### Pentagon and Allied Contracts
|
||||
|
||||
Anduril's public contract record includes the [[Special Operations Command]] contracts for Ghost drones, the [[Marine Corps]] and [[United Kingdom|UK]] [[Ministry of Defence]] contracts for Altius loitering munitions, and the participation in the Replicator initiative. The [[Ukraine]] war has been the largest operational test of the underlying thesis: Anduril and competitor autonomous systems have been used extensively by Ukrainian forces against Russian targets, and the company has publicly supplied systems to Ukraine outside the formal U.S. foreign-military-sales process.[^1][^7]
|
||||
|
|
@ -46,9 +58,9 @@ The Ukraine deployment fed back into the product development cycle at a pace the
|
|||
|
||||
### Customs and Border Protection and the Sentry Tower Program
|
||||
|
||||
[[U.S. Customs and Border Protection|CBP]] has deployed over 350 Sentry Towers along the U.S. southern border, covering approximately 30 percent of the southwest land border. The towers are self-powered, autonomous surveillance structures equipped with optical, thermal, and radar sensors integrated through the Lattice platform, autonomously detecting, classifying, and tracking objects of interest. CBP expanded the program under a 363 million dollar contract for 200 additional Extended Range Sentry Towers (XRST), 80-foot expeditionary structures with extended sensor range. The [[Electronic Frontier Foundation]] reported in April 2026 on opposition from a 62,000-resident California coastal community where an Anduril tower was slated for installation.[^8]
|
||||
[[U.S. Customs and Border Protection|CBP]] has deployed over 350 Sentry Towers along the U.S. southern border, covering approximately 30 percent of the southwest land border. The towers are self-powered, autonomous surveillance structures equipped with optical, thermal, and radar sensors integrated through the Lattice platform, autonomously detecting, classifying, and tracking objects of interest. CBP expanded the program under a 363 million dollar contract for 200 additional Extended Range Sentry Towers (XRST), 80-foot expeditionary structures with extended sensor range. The [[Electronic Frontier Foundation]] reported in April 2026 on opposition from a 62,000-resident California coastal community where an Anduril tower was slated for installation.[^10]
|
||||
|
||||
The Sentry Tower program is the physical-surveillance layer of the border-enforcement pipeline that the Thiel-network firms supply. Palantir Technologies provides the back-end data integration, case management, and neighborhood-targeting through FALCON, ICM, ImmigrationOS, and the ELITE app. [[Clearview AI]] provides the facial-recognition identification from the surveillance imagery. The documented combination of Anduril (detection), Palantir (case management), and Clearview (facial identification) runs across the enforcement pipeline from border crossing through detention and deportation.[^8]
|
||||
The Sentry Tower program is the physical-surveillance layer of the border-enforcement pipeline that the Thiel-network firms supply. Palantir Technologies provides the back-end data integration, case management, and neighborhood-targeting through FALCON, ICM, ImmigrationOS, and the ELITE app. [[Clearview AI]] provides the facial-recognition identification from the surveillance imagery. The documented combination of Anduril (detection), Palantir (case management), and Clearview (facial identification) runs across the enforcement pipeline from border crossing through detention and deportation.[^10]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -59,4 +71,6 @@ The Sentry Tower program is the physical-surveillance layer of the border-enforc
|
|||
[^5]: Founders Fund. "Anduril" company page. https://foundersfund.com/company/anduril/
|
||||
[^6]: "Trae Stephens." *Forbes.* https://www.forbes.com/profile/trae-stephens/
|
||||
[^7]: For the Replicator initiative, Ukraine deployments, and the Pentagon autonomous-systems procurement record, see Department of Defense announcements and contemporaneous reporting in *Defense One* and *Politico*.
|
||||
[^8]: "Anduril Wins $363M CBP Contract for XR Sentry Towers." *Tectonic Defense.* https://www.tectonic-defense.com/anduril-wins-363m-cbp-contract-for-xr-sentry-towers/ ; "Anduril Surveillance Towers." *U.S. Customs and Border Protection.* https://www.cbp.gov/document/foia-record/anduril-surveillance-towers ; "California Coastal Community Must Reject CBP's AI-Powered Surveillance Tower." *EFF,* April 2026. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/04/california-coastal-community-must-reject-cbps-ai-powered-surveillance-tower
|
||||
[^8]: *Defense News*, "Anduril, OpenAI join to boost counter-drone tech for US bases, troops," December 5, 2024: "Anduril and OpenAI will partner to improve the military's counter-drone capabilities" https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2024/12/05/anduril-openai-join-to-boost-counter-drone-tech-for-us-bases-troops/
|
||||
[^9]: Same article, *Defense News*, December 5, 2024: the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office "awarded Anduril a $100 million contract to increase production of its Lattice Mesh networking capability." https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2024/12/05/anduril-openai-join-to-boost-counter-drone-tech-for-us-bases-troops/
|
||||
[^10]: "Anduril Wins $363M CBP Contract for XR Sentry Towers." *Tectonic Defense.* https://www.tectonic-defense.com/anduril-wins-363m-cbp-contract-for-xr-sentry-towers/ ; "Anduril Surveillance Towers." *U.S. Customs and Border Protection.* https://www.cbp.gov/document/foia-record/anduril-surveillance-towers ; "California Coastal Community Must Reject CBP's AI-Powered Surveillance Tower." *EFF,* April 2026. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/04/california-coastal-community-must-reject-cbps-ai-powered-surveillance-tower
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
89
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/East40 Holding.md
Normal file
89
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/East40 Holding.md
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,89 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
aliases:
|
||||
- East40
|
||||
- East 40 Holding
|
||||
- East40 Holding
|
||||
category: "Private Organization"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Organization
|
||||
- EastForty
|
||||
- FamilyOffice
|
||||
- InvestmentFirm
|
||||
- KhalidBinBaderAlSaud
|
||||
- RaedVentures
|
||||
- Echelon
|
||||
- SaudiArabia
|
||||
summary: "Riyadh private institutional family office set up in 2025 by Khalid bin Bader Al Saud and members of his family, named as an investor in Echelon's October 2026 round."
|
||||
location: "Riyadh, Saudi Arabia"
|
||||
created: 2026-10-13
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-13
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: founded
|
||||
with: "[[Khalid bin Bader Al Saud]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "founder, alongside family members"
|
||||
start: 2025
|
||||
fn: 8
|
||||
- type: director_of
|
||||
with: "[[Khalid bin Bader Al Saud]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "managing director and vice chairman"
|
||||
start: 2025
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[Echelon (company)]]"
|
||||
role: "investor in undisclosed round"
|
||||
start: 2026-10
|
||||
fn: 9
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
East40 Holding is a [[Riyadh]] investment firm that describes itself as a private institutional family office, established in 2025. Its managing director and vice chairman is [[Khalid bin Bader Al Saud]], who is also a venture partner at [[RAED Ventures]] and the founder of [[Echelon (company)]], and the firm is named as one of the investors in Echelon's round of October 2026.[^1][^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Description
|
||||
|
||||
The company's website carries the name East40 Holding, the location "Riyadh, [[Saudi Arabia]]," and a page description that reads "Private Institutional Family Office."[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
The company's [[LinkedIn]] page gives its founding year as 2025, its headquarters as Riyadh, its industry as Investment Management and its size as 11 to 50 employees, with 619 followers. The page describes the firm as "a trusted institutional platform stewarding capital and building enduring businesses for a select private family office and its affiliated institutions." It says the firm manages and deploys capital, forges cross-border partnerships, builds multi-asset portfolios and develops long-term platforms.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
The [[Altss]] family office database lists East40 Holding as a multi-family office based in Riyadh. Its record gives assets under management as "Undisclosed."[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### Founding and title
|
||||
|
||||
The RAED Ventures team page gives Khalid's title at East40 Holding as "Managing Director and Vice Chairman" and describes the firm as "a private institutional family office established in 2025."[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
RAED's release of February 6, 2025, announcing Khalid as a venture partner, says that he "also serves as the MD & Vice Chairman of his family's private office."[^5] That release is the earliest dated source that names the office; it describes the office as "his family's private office."
|
||||
|
||||
An aggregator profile for Khalid lists "Founder, MD & Vice Chairman" of East40 Holding from 2025.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### Titles
|
||||
|
||||
Khalid is styled "H.H. Prince" in RAED's February 2025 release, and [[Security MEA]], reporting the [[Rubrik]] partnership in December 2025, styles him "H.H. Prince Khalid Bin Bader Al Saud, Executive Chairman of Echelon Digital."[^5][^7]
|
||||
|
||||
Echelon's founder's letter, published by the company in October 2026, describes the firm's origin in the first person: "Alongside a few members of my family, I founded East40 to make long-term, high-conviction bets on the sectors that will shape our country's future. AI was one of them, and we wanted to found and operate an AI business from the ground up."[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
### Investments
|
||||
|
||||
East40 is named as an investor in the October 2026 round of Echelon (company). [[Wamda]] reported on October 7, 2026 that Echelon had raised an undisclosed round from East40, RAED Ventures and [[Avra]], "alongside [[Ben Horowitz]] and other investors." [[Dealroom]] carried the same investor list on October 8, 2026 and described Khalid as the founder of East40.[^9][^10]
|
||||
|
||||
The founder's letter says Echelon was "backed early by East40, Raed Ventures and Avra, alongside Ben Horowitz and others."[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
The [[ClearGrid]] about page, where Khalid is listed as co-founder and chairman, says its funding was "co-led by [[Nuwa Capital]] and Raed Ventures," with [[BECO Capital]], [[Saudi Aramco]]'s [[Waed Ventures]] and [[Endeavor]] participating.[^11]
|
||||
|
||||
### Name collisions
|
||||
|
||||
A UK company named EAST40 SOLUTIONS LTD (company 15041539) was incorporated on August 1, 2023, with a registered office in [[Olney]], Buckinghamshire. Its one listed director is a British national born in 1970. It shares only the name with East40 Holding.[^12]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: East40 Holding, website, https://www.east40holding.com/, captured October 13, 2026 at https://web.archive.org/web/20261013220316/https://www.east40holding.com/. The homepage text reads "East40 Holding," "Riyadh, Saudi Arabia," and carries the page description "Private Institutional Family Office."
|
||||
[^2]: RAED Ventures, team page, https://raed.vc/ (Wayback capture of October 13, 2026, https://web.archive.org/web/20261013212530/https://raed.vc/). Khalid's entry gives the titles "Managing Director and Vice Chairman" of East40 Holding, "a private institutional family office established in 2025," and "co-founder and chairman" of ClearGrid.
|
||||
[^3]: East40 Holding, LinkedIn company page, https://www.linkedin.com/company/east40-holding, viewed October 13, 2026. Fields as printed: Founded 2025; Headquarters Riyadh; Industry Investment Management; company size 11-50 employees; 619 followers.
|
||||
[^4]: Altss, "East40 Holding," multi-family office profile, https://altss.com/profile/east40-holding, record modified August 11, 2026. Fields: organization type "Multi Family Office"; headquarters Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; assets under management "Undisclosed"; website https://east40holding.com/.
|
||||
[^5]: RAED Ventures, "Raed Ventures Welcomes New Venture Partner, H.H. Prince Khalid Bin Bader Al Saud," release dated February 6, 2025, https://raed.vc/news/raed-ventures-welcomes-new-venture-partner-h-h-prince-khalid-bin-bader-al-saud/ (Wayback capture of March 23, 2025, https://web.archive.org/web/20250323020859/https://raed.vc/news/raed-ventures-welcomes-new-venture-partner-h-h-prince-khalid-bin-bader-al-saud/). The release says: "He also serves as the MD & Vice Chairman of his family's private office."
|
||||
[^6]: Happenstance, profile of Khalid bin Bader Al Saud, https://happenstance.ai/u/khalid-bin. The profile lists "Founder, MD & Vice Chairman East40 Holding 2025-" among his roles. It matches the title on the RAED team page.
|
||||
[^7]: Security MEA, "Rubrik Enters Saudi Market in Strategic Partnership with Echelon Digital," December 3, 2025, https://securitymea.com/2025/12/03/rubrik-enters-saudi-market-in-strategic-partnership-with-echelon-digital/. Names "H.H. Prince Khalid Bin Bader Al Saud, Executive Chairman of [[Echelon (company)|Echelon Digital]]."
|
||||
[^8]: Echelon, founder's letter "Introducing Echelon," Riyadh, October 2026, archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20261013213650/https://www.echelon.inc/ and published at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/introducing-echelon-khalid-bin-bader-al-saud-oycuc/. The letter describes Echelon as "backed early by East40, Raed Ventures and Avra, alongside Ben Horowitz and others."
|
||||
[^9]: Wamda, "Saudi AI startup Echelon secures backing from East40, RAED Ventures and Avra," October 7, 2026 (Arabic edition, https://www.wamda.com/ar/2026/10/saudi-ai-startup-echelon-secures-backing-east40-raed-ventures-avra; English text at https://www.wamda.com/2026/10/saudi-ai-startup-echelon-secures-backing-east40-raed-ventures-avra). The text reads "alongside Ben Horowitz and other investors."
|
||||
[^10]: Dealroom, "Saudi AI company Echelon launches with backing from Ben Horowitz, Avra and others," October 8, 2026, https://dealroom.co/news/160932-saudi-ai-company-echelon-launches-with-backing-from-ben-horowitz-avra-an/. Names East40, RAED Ventures, Avra and Ben Horowitz as backers, and Khalid as founder of East40.
|
||||
[^11]: ClearGrid, about page, https://cleargrid.co/about (the page redirects from cleargrid.ai). Names Mohammad Al Zaben as "Co-founder & CEO," Mohammad Al Khalili as "Co-founder & CGO" and Khalid as "Co-founder & Chairman of ClearGrid KSA." The funding paragraph reads "co-led by Nuwa Capital and Raed Ventures," with BECO Capital, Waed Ventures and Endeavor participating.
|
||||
[^12]: UK Companies House, EAST40 SOLUTIONS LTD (15041539), company overview and officers, https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/15041539 and https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/15041539/officers. Incorporated August 1, 2023; registered office Olney, England; one active director, born March 1970, British.
|
||||
144
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Echelon (company).md
Normal file
144
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Echelon (company).md
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,144 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
aliases:
|
||||
- Echelon
|
||||
- Echelon Digital
|
||||
- Echelon Digital Group
|
||||
- Echelon Digital Solutions Company
|
||||
- Echelon Digital Holding Group
|
||||
- Echelon Defense Industries
|
||||
- echelon.inc
|
||||
category: "Private Organization"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Organization
|
||||
- Echelon
|
||||
- ArtificialIntelligence
|
||||
- SaudiArabia
|
||||
- DefenseIndustry
|
||||
- KhalidBinBaderAlSaud
|
||||
- EastForty
|
||||
- RaedVentures
|
||||
summary: "Riyadh AI company founded in 2025 by Khalid bin Bader Al Saud, with an undisclosed October 2026 round from East40, RAED Ventures, Avra and Ben Horowitz and a Defense Industries division due in 2027."
|
||||
location: "Riyadh, Saudi Arabia"
|
||||
created: 2026-10-13
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-13
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: founded
|
||||
with: "[[Khalid bin Bader Al Saud]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "founder and managing director"
|
||||
start: 2025
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Omar Saleh]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "leads the Technologies division; chief executive of Echelon Digital Group in 2025"
|
||||
start: 2025-11
|
||||
fn: 11
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[RAED Ventures]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "investor in an undisclosed round"
|
||||
start: 2026-10
|
||||
fn: 4
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[East40 Holding]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "investor in an undisclosed round"
|
||||
start: 2026-10
|
||||
fn: 4
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[Avra]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "investor in an undisclosed round"
|
||||
start: 2026-10
|
||||
fn: 4
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[Ben Horowitz]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "investor in an undisclosed round"
|
||||
start: 2026-10
|
||||
fn: 4
|
||||
- type: partner_of
|
||||
with: "[[IFS]]"
|
||||
role: "Saudi channel partner for IFS.ai"
|
||||
start: 2026-09-30
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
- type: partner_of
|
||||
with: "[[Applied Intuition]]"
|
||||
role: "business development partnership for physical AI in Saudi Arabia"
|
||||
start: 2026-09-21
|
||||
fn: 9
|
||||
- type: partner_of
|
||||
with: "[[Elutions]]"
|
||||
role: "partnership to deploy Maestro AI, announced by Echelon Digital Group"
|
||||
start: 2025-11-03
|
||||
fn: 11
|
||||
- type: partner_of
|
||||
with: "[[Rubrik]]"
|
||||
role: "partnership for data security in Saudi Arabia, announced with Echelon Digital Group"
|
||||
start: 2025-12-02
|
||||
fn: 10
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Echelon is a [[Riyadh]]-based artificial intelligence company founded in 2025 by [[Khalid bin Bader Al Saud]]. It describes itself as "founded in Saudi Arabia" and as "the global operating group behind successful AI transformations for businesses and nations."[^1][^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Founding and leadership
|
||||
|
||||
An English release distributed on September 30, 2026 by [[IFS]], and its Arabic version on [[Zawya]] dated October 1, describe Echelon as headquartered in Riyadh and give Khalid the title Founder and Managing Director.[^1][^3] [[Wamda]] dates the founding to 2025, and the founder's letter on the company website says Echelon is "what we've been building over the last ten months."[^2][^4] Khalid is the son of [[Bader bin Saud bin Mohammed Al Saud]] and the nephew of [[Turki bin Saud bin Mohammed Al Saud]]; Al-Jazirah listed Turki and Badr among the sons of Saud bin Mohammed on January 22, 2016.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
The letter says the Technologies division "is led by [[Omar Saleh]]," who "spent the last 20 years at [[Microsoft]], successfully running its enterprise business in the Kingdom," and describes a team that has run sales, delivery and customer success "across AWS, Microsoft, Accenture and elsewhere."[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Investors
|
||||
|
||||
Wamda reported on October 7, 2026 that Echelon had raised an undisclosed round from [[East40 Holding|East40]], [[RAED Ventures]] and [[Avra]], "alongside Ben Horowitz and other investors." [[Dealroom]] published an item on October 8, 2026 titled "Saudi AI company Echelon launches with backing from Ben Horowitz, Avra and others."[^4][^6] The founder's letter says the company was "backed early by East40, Raed Ventures and Avra, alongside Ben Horowitz and others," and that Khalid founded East40 "alongside a few members of my family."[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
Dealroom lists Khalid as an adviser to [[Andreessen Horowitz]].[^6] [[Ben Horowitz]] co-founded that firm. Andreessen Horowitz led the seed round and the July 2022 Series A of Nash, where [[Abdulrahman Alfozan]], a venture partner at RAED Ventures alongside Khalid, was a founding engineer from 2022.[^7][^8]
|
||||
|
||||
### Divisions
|
||||
|
||||
The website describes four divisions. Technologies, "GTM & Strategic Partnerships," is "bringing the world's best AI into the Kingdom's enterprises and governments." Frontier, "Forward Deployed Engineering & Applied AI," places engineers "alongside our customers and partners." Institute, the "Talent Factory," is "building Saudi AI talent, for us and for the wider ecosystem." Defense Industries is listed as "Launching in 2027."[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
The founder's letter says Technologies is "our commercial engine" that brings AI companies "into the enterprises and government customers that need them," and is "focused on Energy, Industrials, Government, Telco, Defence, Aviation, Financial Services & Insurance and Healthcare." Frontier and Institute are to launch in the fourth quarter of 2026, Frontier to deploy "our partners' AI," build "applied AI applications and IP directly with customers" and partner with AI-native companies, and Institute to train Saudi engineers, its first cohort "focused on Physical AI." Echelon Defense Industries, launching in the first quarter of 2027, "is built for the scale of the defense opportunity ahead and the different requirements that come with it," and its purpose is "to help the Kingdom build sovereign defence capability." The letter adds: "More on this later."[^2] Wamda reports the same eight sectors and the Q1 2027 launch of the defense division.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### Partners
|
||||
|
||||
The website names three partners, with their dates of announcement.
|
||||
|
||||
IFS, the industrial software company, announced the partnership on September 30, 2026. IFS describes Echelon as "the Riyadh-headquartered company that delivers artificial intelligence transformations globally" and says Echelon will "position its industrial AI platform, IFS.ai, across its heavy industry customers in Saudi Arabia," covering "energy, manufacturing, oil and gas, aerospace and defence, logistics and telecoms." The Arabic version lists "الطيران والفضاء والدفاع" (aviation, space and defense). The website describes the partnership as "across defense, energy, industrial and telecommunications."[^1][^2][^3]
|
||||
|
||||
Applied Intuition announced a business development partnership on September 21, 2026, "with the goal of deploying physical AI at national scale in industries including robotaxis, ports, mining, manufacturing, agriculture, construction, and trucking." The release says Applied Intuition "has established a regional office in Riyadh" and that the two "will also work towards positioning the country as a global hub for research into autonomous driving for the logistics industry." [[Qasar Younis]], its co-founder and chief executive, is quoted. The company boilerplate describes Applied Intuition as powering physical AI "in the automotive, defense, trucking, construction, mining and agriculture industries," and the Echelon website repeats that category line. The release names no defense project.[^2][^9]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Rubrik]] announced its entry into Saudi Arabia on December 2, 2025 through a partnership with Echelon Digital Group, planning data protection, cyber recovery and compliance for "enterprises in energy, financial services, and government sectors." Its chief executive [[Bipul Sinha]] is quoted.[^10]
|
||||
|
||||
On November 3, 2025 Echelon Digital Group announced a partnership with [[Elutions]], a US artificial intelligence software company, to deploy its Maestro platform across industrial and energy enterprises in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. The release names Prince Khaled bin Badr Al Saud as chairman of Echelon Digital and Omar Saleh as chief executive of Echelon Digital Group.[^11]
|
||||
|
||||
### Government and defense customers
|
||||
|
||||
[[Scott Stedman]] wrote on X on October 13, 2026 that Echelon is an AI company serving Saudi government and defense customers.[^12] The founder's letter names "Government" and "Defence" among the sectors in which the Technologies division is "live and delivering today," and refers to "government customers"; the website says Technologies brings AI "into the Kingdom's enterprises and governments." The Rubrik release lists "government sectors," and the website describes Rubrik as providing "data security and resilience for enterprise and government."[^2][^10]
|
||||
|
||||
### Echelon Digital Group Ltd and name collisions
|
||||
|
||||
The website's terms of use name the operator as Echelon Digital Solutions Company, "a company registered in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia under commercial registration number 7051341746," with a registered address in the Al Aqeeq District of Riyadh. The same terms state that the site content is owned by Echelon Digital Holding Group Ltd, "a company registered in the Dubai International Financial Centre," and is used by Echelon Digital Solutions Company under licence.[^13]
|
||||
|
||||
The UK [[Companies House]] register lists ECHELON DIGITAL GROUP LTD, incorporated June 6, 2025 and active, with a director born December 1997 and recorded as British.[^14] The 2025 releases from Echelon Digital Group carry the same executives as the present company, the website lists the Rubrik release among its news, and its terms of use are issued in the name of Echelon Digital Solutions Company.[^2][^10][^11]
|
||||
|
||||
The name Echelon is shared with the signals intelligence program [[ECHELON]], which is a separate subject. The archived site at echelonai.com publishes ServiceNow consulting material.[^15] A UK company named ECHELON DIGITAL LIMITED, incorporated August 1, 2022, lists a secretary and a director born March 1985.[^16]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: PRNewswire, "IFS and Echelon announce strategic partnership to drive industrial AI transformation to Saudi Arabia," Riyadh, September 30, 2026, https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/ifs-and-echelon-announce-strategic-partnership-to-drive-industrial-ai-transformation-to-saudi-arabia-302894219.html, as reproduced at https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/ifs-echelon-announce-strategic-partnership-095000341.html.
|
||||
[^2]: Echelon, website, https://www.echelon.inc/ (single-page site with sections "Why We Exist," "What We Do," "Partners," "The latest news," founder's letter "Introducing Echelon" dated Riyadh, October 2026, terms of use and privacy policy version 6 of September 22, 2026), captured October 13, 2026 and archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20261013213650/https://www.echelon.inc/. The letter is also at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/introducing-echelon-khalid-bin-bader-al-saud-oycuc/.
|
||||
[^3]: Zawya, "IFS وEchelon تعلنان عن شراكة استراتيجية لدفع التحول بالذكاء الاصطناعي الصناعي في المملكة العربية السعودية," Arabic press release, October 1, 2026, https://www.zawya.com/ar/بيانا-صحفية/أخبار-الشركات/ifs-وechelon-تعلنان-عن-شراكة-استراتيجية-لدفع-التحول-بالذكاء-الاصطناعي-الصناعي-في-المملكة-العربية-السعودية-1459910. Khalid titled "مؤسس Echelon ومديرها التنفيذي."
|
||||
[^4]: Wamda, "Saudi AI startup Echelon secures backing from East40, RAED Ventures and Avra," October 2026, https://www.wamda.com/2026/10/saudi-ai-startup-echelon-secures-backing-east40-raed-ventures-avra (Arabic edition dated October 7, 2026, https://www.wamda.com/ar/2026/10/saudi-ai-startup-echelon-secures-backing-east40-raed-ventures-avra, archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20261013214422/https://www.wamda.com/2026/10/saudi-ai-startup-echelon-secures-backing-east40-raed-ventures-avra-arabic). Founded 2025 by Khalid Bin Bader Al Saud; undisclosed round; eight target sectors "energy, industrials, government, telecommunications, defence, aviation, financial services and insurance, and healthcare"; Echelon Defense Industries scheduled for the first quarter of 2027.
|
||||
[^5]: Al-Jazirah, "Saud bin Mohammed: journey and history," January 22, 2016, https://www.al-jazirah.com/2016/20160122/wa1.htm (Arabic). Gives his name as Saud bin Mohammed (al-Mutawwa) bin Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Faisal bin Turki; the sons listed include Khalid (eldest), Turki, Abdulaziz "al-Samer," Sultan, Saad, Badr, Nawaf, Mutaib and Faisal; Badr's mother is named as Al-Anoud bint Abdullah bin Abdulmohsen Al-Furm.
|
||||
[^6]: Dealroom, "Saudi AI company Echelon launches with backing from Ben Horowitz, Avra and others," October 8, 2026, https://dealroom.co/news/160932-saudi-ai-company-echelon-launches-with-backing-from-ben-horowitz-avra-an/. Names East40, RAED Ventures, Avra and Ben Horowitz; Khalid as founder of East40, co-founder of ClearGrid and adviser to Andreessen Horowitz; Omar Saleh as head of the commercial division; no amount or valuation.
|
||||
[^7]: Andreessen Horowitz, "Investing in Nash," July 26, 2022, https://a16z.com/announcement/investing-in-nash/. "a16z is leading the Series A for Nash"; the firm "first partnered with Nash for their seed round in the fall of 2021."
|
||||
[^8]: TechCrunch, "Nash raises cash to help merchants manage local deliveries," July 26, 2022, https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/26/nash-raises-cash-to-help-merchants-manage-local-deliveries/. A $20 million Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz and a $7.8 million seed round that the company's chief executive says Andreessen Horowitz also led. Alfozan's tenure as founding engineer is cited on his page to his LinkedIn profile.
|
||||
[^9]: Echelon and Applied Intuition, "Echelon and Applied Intuition Partner to Scale Physical AI Across Saudi Arabia," Business Wire, September 21, 2026, https://markets.ft.com/data/announce/detail?dockey=600-202609211134BIZWIRE_USPRX____20260921_BW461685-1; also TradeArabia, https://www.gdnonline.com/Details/1407236/Echelon,-Applied-Intuition-join-forces-to-scale-physical-AI-across-Saudi-Arabia.
|
||||
[^10]: Security MEA, "Rubrik Enters Saudi Market in Strategic Partnership with Echelon Digital," December 3, 2025, https://securitymea.com/2025/12/03/rubrik-enters-saudi-market-in-strategic-partnership-with-echelon-digital/. Names "H.H. Prince Khalid Bin Bader Al Saud, Executive Chairman of Echelon Digital" and Omar Saleh as chief executive of Echelon Digital. The Echelon website dates the release December 2, 2025.
|
||||
[^11]: IPS News, "Echelon Digital and Elutions announce strategic partnership to accelerate AI transformation in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East," November 3, 2025, https://ipsnews.net/business/2025/11/03/echelon-digital-and-elutions-announce-strategic-partnership-to-accelerate-ai-transformation-in-saudi-arabia-and-the-middle-east/.
|
||||
[^12]: Scott Stedman, post on X, October 13, 2026, https://x.com/i/web/status/2110104832178893109.
|
||||
[^13]: Echelon, "Terms of Use," version 6, last updated September 22, 2026, on the company website, https://www.echelon.inc/ (Wayback capture of October 13, 2026, https://web.archive.org/web/20261013213650/https://www.echelon.inc/).
|
||||
[^14]: UK Companies House, ECHELON DIGITAL GROUP LTD (16500930), company overview and officers, https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/16500930/officers. Incorporated June 6, 2025; status active; SIC 73110, advertising agencies; director born December 1997, British, appointed June 6, 2025.
|
||||
[^15]: Echelon AI, archived website, https://web.archive.org/web/20261013213017/https://echelonai.com/, captured October 13, 2026. Archived pages at the domain carry ServiceNow subjects in their titles.
|
||||
[^16]: UK Companies House, company search results for "Echelon Digital," https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/search/companies?q=Echelon+Digital, and officers of ECHELON DIGITAL LIMITED (14268788). Incorporated August 1, 2022; a secretary and a director born March 1985 are listed.
|
||||
|
|
@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ tags:
|
|||
summary: "Israeli spyware company founded in 2010 by Omri Lavie, Shalev Hulio, and Niv Carmi, developer of Pegasus, whose government clients selected over 50,000 potential targets, including Khashoggi's family, before the July 2021 Pegasus Project exposure."
|
||||
location: "Herzliya, Israel"
|
||||
created: 2026-06-18
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-12
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-13
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: partner_of
|
||||
with: "[[Unit 8200]]"
|
||||
|
|
@ -43,27 +43,31 @@ NSO licensed Pegasus exclusively to government clients, framing the product as a
|
|||
|
||||
The documented deployment patterns include: [[Mexico|Mexico]] (one of NSO's largest clients, where multiple administrations used Pegasus against journalists including [[Cecilio Pineda Brito|Cecilio Pineda Brito]], activists, lawyers, and even a child, per the [[Citizen Lab|Citizen Lab]] investigation); [[Catalonia|Catalonia]] (the "[[CatalanGate|CatalanGate]]" finding by Citizen Lab in 2022 documenting dozens of Catalan independence politicians and activists targeted by the Spanish state); [[El Salvador|El Salvador]] (surveillance continuing through 2022 despite NSO's reform pledges); and the [[Saudi Arabia|Saudi]] targeting of [[Jamal Khashoggi|Khashoggi]]'s associates.[^3][^8][^9][^10]
|
||||
|
||||
In January 2020 CNBC named [[Saud al-Qahtani]] among Saudi officials said to have bought Pegasus, writing that the spyware "has been widely reported as having been purchased by Saudi officials including Saud al-Qahtani, Prince Mohammed's former advisor who was implicated in the Khashoggi murder but ultimately not charged by the Saudi authorities."[^11] The sentence appears in CNBC's report on the UN statement about the analysis of [[Jeff Bezos]]'s iPhone by [[FTI Consulting]], and CNBC attributes the purchase claim to earlier press reporting.
|
||||
|
||||
### The Khashoggi Surveillance
|
||||
|
||||
Pegasus was deployed against the associates of Jamal Khashoggi before the October 2018 murder inside the Saudi consulate in [[Istanbul|Istanbul]]. [[The Guardian|The Guardian]] reported in July 2021, based on the Pegasus Project leak, that Pegasus was found on the phone of Khashoggi's wife [[Hanan Elatr|Hanan Elatr]] months before the killing. An Emirati government agency separately placed NSO spyware on the phone of a Khashoggi associate, [[Al Jazeera|Al Jazeera]] reported. Khashoggi's friend [[Omar Abdul Aziz|Omar Abdul Aziz]] sued NSO Group, claiming the spyware enabled the murder by mapping Khashoggi's network and communications. A federal judge dismissed the widow's lawsuit against NSO in October 2023.[^11]
|
||||
Pegasus was deployed against the associates of Jamal Khashoggi before the October 2018 murder inside the Saudi consulate in [[Istanbul|Istanbul]]. [[The Guardian|The Guardian]] reported in July 2021, based on the Pegasus Project leak, that Pegasus was found on the phone of Khashoggi's wife [[Hanan Elatr|Hanan Elatr]] months before the killing. An Emirati government agency separately placed NSO spyware on the phone of a Khashoggi associate, [[Al Jazeera|Al Jazeera]] reported. Khashoggi's friend [[Omar Abdul Aziz|Omar Abdul Aziz]] sued NSO Group, claiming the spyware enabled the murder by mapping Khashoggi's network and communications. A federal judge dismissed the widow's lawsuit against NSO in October 2023.[^12]
|
||||
|
||||
The Khashoggi surveillance ran through the same [[Mohammed bin Salman|MBS]]-[[WhatsApp|WhatsApp]] channel that [[Jared Kushner|Jared Kushner]] used to communicate with the Saudi crown prince, and through the broader Saudi-Emirati intelligence network that operated Pegasus against the targets. The NSO Group sits at the intersection of the documented surveillance infrastructure that enabled the Khashoggi assassination and the Kushner-MBS relationship that shaped the Trump administration's response to it.[^11]
|
||||
Citizen Lab's report "The Kingdom Came to Canada," published October 1, 2018, assessed with high confidence that the phone of Omar Abdulaziz was infected with Pegasus.[^13] The authors attributed the infection to "a Pegasus operator linked to Saudi Arabia," an operator they named KINGDOM, which they tied to the 2018 targeting of the Saudi dissident Yahya Assiri and an Amnesty International researcher.[^13] The report states that the authors were unaware of any legal authorization for the infection and monitoring of Abdulaziz in Canada by a foreign government.[^13]
|
||||
|
||||
The Khashoggi surveillance ran through the same [[Mohammed bin Salman|MBS]]-[[WhatsApp|WhatsApp]] channel that [[Jared Kushner|Jared Kushner]] used to communicate with the Saudi crown prince, and through the broader Saudi-Emirati intelligence network that operated Pegasus against the targets. The NSO Group sits at the intersection of the documented surveillance infrastructure that enabled the Khashoggi assassination and the Kushner-MBS relationship that shaped the Trump administration's response to it.[^12]
|
||||
|
||||
### Ownership and the Novalpina Deal
|
||||
|
||||
NSO was acquired by [[Francisco Partners|Francisco Partners]], a technology-focused private equity firm, in 2014. Francisco Partners's ownership period covered the initial expansion of the Pegasus client base across multiple governments, including the documented deployments in Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and the [[United Arab Emirates|United Arab Emirates]]. The Francisco Partners ownership placed a standard private-equity firm in operational control of a cyber-arms company in its portfolio.[^3][^12]
|
||||
NSO was acquired by [[Francisco Partners|Francisco Partners]], a technology-focused private equity firm, in 2014. Francisco Partners's ownership period covered the initial expansion of the Pegasus client base across multiple governments, including the documented deployments in Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and the [[United Arab Emirates|United Arab Emirates]]. The Francisco Partners ownership placed a standard private-equity firm in operational control of a cyber-arms company in its portfolio.[^3][^14]
|
||||
|
||||
In 2019, the co-founders Hulio and Lavie re-acquired NSO from Francisco Partners with funding from [[Novalpina Capital|Novalpina Capital]], a London-based private equity firm founded by [[Stephen Peel|Stephen Peel]]. The Novalpina acquisition valued NSO at approximately 1 billion dollars. The re-acquisition coincided with the period of intensifying scrutiny on NSO's government-client deployments, and the Novalpina ownership became itself a subject of controversy when Novalpina's limited partners raised concerns about the ethical implications of owning a cyber-arms company. Novalpina subsequently underwent its own internal crisis, and the ownership structure of NSO entered a period of documented instability.[^3][^12]
|
||||
In 2019, the co-founders Hulio and Lavie re-acquired NSO from Francisco Partners with funding from [[Novalpina Capital|Novalpina Capital]], a London-based private equity firm founded by [[Stephen Peel|Stephen Peel]]. The Novalpina acquisition valued NSO at approximately 1 billion dollars. The re-acquisition coincided with the period of intensifying scrutiny on NSO's government-client deployments, and the Novalpina ownership became itself a subject of controversy when Novalpina's limited partners raised concerns about the ethical implications of owning a cyber-arms company. Novalpina subsequently underwent its own internal crisis, and the ownership structure of NSO entered a period of documented instability.[^3][^14]
|
||||
|
||||
The Pegasus Project investigation (July 2021) and the subsequent regulatory and legal pressure (including [[Apple|Apple]]'s lawsuit against NSO, the U.S. Commerce Department's addition of NSO to the [[Entity List|Entity List]] in November 2021, and the WhatsApp v. NSO litigation) have constrained the company's operations. The ownership trajectory from startup to Francisco Partners portfolio company to Novalpina-controlled entity to a constrained and legally challenged operation documents the arc of a private intelligence firm that operated with limited accountability through multiple ownership regimes.[^3][^12]
|
||||
The Pegasus Project investigation (July 2021) and the subsequent regulatory and legal pressure (including [[Apple|Apple]]'s lawsuit against NSO, the U.S. Commerce Department's addition of NSO to the [[Entity List|Entity List]] in November 2021, and the WhatsApp v. NSO litigation) have constrained the company's operations. The ownership trajectory from startup to Francisco Partners portfolio company to Novalpina-controlled entity to a constrained and legally challenged operation documents the arc of a private intelligence firm that operated with limited accountability through multiple ownership regimes.[^3][^14]
|
||||
|
||||
### WhatsApp Litigation
|
||||
|
||||
WhatsApp sued NSO in October 2019 in the Northern District of California. A July 16, 2020 order described NSO as an Israeli limited liability company, described [[Q Cyber Technologies]] as an Israeli corporation and NSO's only active director and majority shareholder, and recorded the complaint's allegation that defendants sent malware through WhatsApp's system to about 1,400 mobile devices.[^13]
|
||||
WhatsApp sued NSO in October 2019 in the Northern District of California. A July 16, 2020 order described NSO as an Israeli limited liability company, described [[Q Cyber Technologies]] as an Israeli corporation and NSO's only active director and majority shareholder, and recorded the complaint's allegation that defendants sent malware through WhatsApp's system to about 1,400 mobile devices.[^15]
|
||||
|
||||
On December 20, 2024, Judge Phyllis Hamilton granted WhatsApp's motion for partial summary judgment on liability under the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and California's Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act, and denied NSO's motion for summary judgment. The order granted the sanctions motion in part, considered terminating sanctions, preferred evidentiary sanctions, and stated that a trial would proceed only on damages.[^14]
|
||||
On December 20, 2024, Judge Phyllis Hamilton granted WhatsApp's motion for partial summary judgment on liability under the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and California's Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act, and denied NSO's motion for summary judgment. The order granted the sanctions motion in part, considered terminating sanctions, preferred evidentiary sanctions, and stated that a trial would proceed only on damages.[^16]
|
||||
|
||||
On May 6, 2025 a jury returned a unanimous verdict of $444,719 in compensatory damages and $167,254,000 in punitive damages (Dkt. 736), a total of $167,698,719.[^15] On October 17, 2025 Judge Hamilton granted a permanent injunction and remitted the punitive award to $4,002,471 (a nine-to-one ratio to compensatory damages); WhatsApp accepted the remittitur on October 31, 2025; on November 12, 2025 the court entered the permanent injunction, which excludes NSO's foreign sovereign customers, and a final judgment of $4,447,190.[^15][^16] On December 19, 2025 the court denied a stay of the injunction pending appeal.[^17]
|
||||
On May 6, 2025 a jury returned a unanimous verdict of $444,719 in compensatory damages and $167,254,000 in punitive damages (Dkt. 736), a total of $167,698,719.[^17] On October 17, 2025 Judge Hamilton granted a permanent injunction and remitted the punitive award to $4,002,471 (a nine-to-one ratio to compensatory damages); WhatsApp accepted the remittitur on October 31, 2025; on November 12, 2025 the court entered the permanent injunction, which excludes NSO's foreign sovereign customers, and a final judgment of $4,447,190.[^17][^18] On December 19, 2025 the court denied a stay of the injunction pending appeal.[^19]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -77,10 +81,12 @@ On May 6, 2025 a jury returned a unanimous verdict of $444,719 in compensatory d
|
|||
[^8]: "Reckless Exploit: Mexican Journalists, Lawyers, and a Child Targeted with NSO Spyware." *Citizen Lab.* https://citizenlab.ca/research/reckless-exploit-mexico-nso/
|
||||
[^9]: For the Catalonia (CatalanGate) finding, see the Citizen Lab 2022 CatalanGate report.
|
||||
[^10]: "NSO Group's Continued Surveillance." *Rest of World,* 2022 (El Salvador). https://restofworld.org/2022/nso-pegasus-el-salvador/
|
||||
[^11]: "NSO spyware used to target family of Jamal Khashoggi, leaked data shows." *The Guardian,* July 18, 2021. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/18/nso-spyware-used-to-target-family-of-jamal-khashoggi-leaked-data-shows-saudis-pegasus
|
||||
[^12]: For the Novalpina Capital ownership deal, see the published NSO Group and Novalpina Capital documentation.
|
||||
[^13]: *WhatsApp Inc. v. NSO Group Technologies Limited*, No. 4:19-cv-07123-PJH (N.D. Cal.), Order on motions to dismiss (Dkt. 111, July 16, 2020), pp. 1-2. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-cand-4_19-cv-07123/pdf/USCOURTS-cand-4_19-cv-07123-5.pdf
|
||||
[^14]: *WhatsApp Inc. v. NSO Group Technologies Limited*, No. 4:19-cv-07123-PJH (N.D. Cal.), Order re motions for summary judgment and sanctions (Dkt. 494, December 20, 2024), at 16. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-cand-4_19-cv-07123/pdf/USCOURTS-cand-4_19-cv-07123-24.pdf
|
||||
[^15]: *WhatsApp LLC v. NSO Group Technologies Limited*, No. 4:19-cv-07123-PJH (N.D. Cal.), Final Judgment (Dkt. 810, November 12, 2025), p. 2. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-cand-4_19-cv-07123/pdf/USCOURTS-cand-4_19-cv-07123-44.pdf
|
||||
[^16]: Same case, Order re permanent injunction and remittitur (Dkt. 802, October 17, 2025), pp. 1-2 and conclusion. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-cand-4_19-cv-07123/pdf/USCOURTS-cand-4_19-cv-07123-40.pdf ; Order granting permanent injunction (Dkt. 809, November 12, 2025), p. 2. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-cand-4_19-cv-07123/pdf/USCOURTS-cand-4_19-cv-07123-43.pdf
|
||||
[^17]: Same case, Order denying motion to stay permanent injunction (Dkt. 824, December 19, 2025). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-cand-4_19-cv-07123/pdf/USCOURTS-cand-4_19-cv-07123-46.pdf
|
||||
[^11]: CNBC, "Bezos phone hacking: UN calls for immediate investigation," January 22, 2020. Copy: https://web.archive.org/web/2020id_/https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/22/bezos-phone-hacking-un-calls-for-immediate-investigation.html
|
||||
[^12]: "NSO spyware used to target family of Jamal Khashoggi, leaked data shows." *The Guardian,* July 18, 2021. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/18/nso-spyware-used-to-target-family-of-jamal-khashoggi-leaked-data-shows-saudis-pegasus
|
||||
[^13]: Citizen Lab, "The Kingdom Came to Canada: How Saudi-Linked Digital Espionage Reached Canadian Soil," October 1, 2018, https://citizenlab.ca/2018/10/the-kingdom-came-to-canada-how-saudi-linked-digital-espionage-reached-canadian-soil/. Citizen Lab Report No. 115, by Bill Marczak, John Scott-Railton, Adam Senft, Bahr Abdul Razzak and Ron Deibert. The quoted phrase and the legal-authorization sentence are verbatim from the report text.
|
||||
[^14]: For the Novalpina Capital ownership deal, see the published NSO Group and Novalpina Capital documentation.
|
||||
[^15]: *WhatsApp Inc. v. NSO Group Technologies Limited*, No. 4:19-cv-07123-PJH (N.D. Cal.), Order on motions to dismiss (Dkt. 111, July 16, 2020), pp. 1-2. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-cand-4_19-cv-07123/pdf/USCOURTS-cand-4_19-cv-07123-5.pdf
|
||||
[^16]: *WhatsApp Inc. v. NSO Group Technologies Limited*, No. 4:19-cv-07123-PJH (N.D. Cal.), Order re motions for summary judgment and sanctions (Dkt. 494, December 20, 2024), at 16. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-cand-4_19-cv-07123/pdf/USCOURTS-cand-4_19-cv-07123-24.pdf
|
||||
[^17]: *WhatsApp LLC v. NSO Group Technologies Limited*, No. 4:19-cv-07123-PJH (N.D. Cal.), Final Judgment (Dkt. 810, November 12, 2025), p. 2. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-cand-4_19-cv-07123/pdf/USCOURTS-cand-4_19-cv-07123-44.pdf
|
||||
[^18]: Same case, Order re permanent injunction and remittitur (Dkt. 802, October 17, 2025), pp. 1-2 and conclusion. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-cand-4_19-cv-07123/pdf/USCOURTS-cand-4_19-cv-07123-40.pdf ; Order granting permanent injunction (Dkt. 809, November 12, 2025), p. 2. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-cand-4_19-cv-07123/pdf/USCOURTS-cand-4_19-cv-07123-43.pdf
|
||||
[^19]: Same case, Order denying motion to stay permanent injunction (Dkt. 824, December 19, 2025). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-cand-4_19-cv-07123/pdf/USCOURTS-cand-4_19-cv-07123-46.pdf
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -11,7 +11,64 @@ tags:
|
|||
summary: "OpenAI is an artificial-intelligence company founded as a nonprofit in 2015 with a billion-dollar pledge from backers including Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Reid Hoffman, and Peter Thiel, whose 2023 firing and reinstatement of CEO Sam Altman exposed the conflict between its effective-altruism-aligned safety board and its commercial expansion."
|
||||
location: "San Francisco, California"
|
||||
created: 2026-06-19
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-22
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-13
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Abdulrahman Alfozan]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 2025-07
|
||||
role: "engineer; arrested October 9, 2026"
|
||||
fn: 10
|
||||
- type: owned
|
||||
with: "[[MGX]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 2025-10
|
||||
role: "held shares acquired in a secondary sale of about 6.6 billion dollars at a valuation of around 500 billion dollars"
|
||||
fn: 20
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[Andreessen Horowitz]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 2026-03
|
||||
role: "named co-lead, per Bloomberg, of a roughly 10 billion dollar financing said to be set to close the following week"
|
||||
fn: 21
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[MGX]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 2026-03
|
||||
role: "named co-lead, per Bloomberg, of a roughly 10 billion dollar financing said to be set to close the following week"
|
||||
fn: 21
|
||||
- type: partner_of
|
||||
with: "[[G42]]"
|
||||
start: 2025-05
|
||||
role: "Stargate UAE, 1 GW cluster in Abu Dhabi, 200 MW expected to go live in 2026"
|
||||
fn: 17
|
||||
- type: director_of
|
||||
with: "[[Paul Nakasone]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 2024-06-13
|
||||
role: "board member; also named to the board's security and safety subcommittee"
|
||||
fn: 22
|
||||
- type: partner_of
|
||||
with: "[[Anduril Industries]]"
|
||||
start: 2024-12-04
|
||||
role: "counter-drone models partnership"
|
||||
fn: 23
|
||||
- type: partner_of
|
||||
with: "[[Los Alamos]]"
|
||||
start: 2025-01-30
|
||||
role: "o-series models on the Venado supercomputer, moved to a classified network"
|
||||
fn: 24
|
||||
- type: contractor_to
|
||||
with: "[[Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office]]"
|
||||
start: 2025-06-16
|
||||
end: 2026-07
|
||||
role: "200 million dollar prototype other transaction agreement, estimated completion July 2026"
|
||||
fn: 26
|
||||
- type: contractor_to
|
||||
with: "[[General Services Administration]]"
|
||||
start: 2025-08-06
|
||||
role: "OneGov agreement, ChatGPT Enterprise at 1 dollar per agency for one year"
|
||||
fn: 27
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
OpenAI is an artificial-intelligence research company founded in [[San Francisco]] on December 11, 2015 as a nonprofit laboratory whose stated mission was to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits humanity. Its founding was announced with a one-billion-dollar funding pledge from [[Elon Musk]], [[Sam Altman]], [[Greg Brockman]], [[Reid Hoffman]], [[Jessica Livingston]], [[Peter Thiel]], [[Amazon Web Services]], and [[Infosys]], though tax filings later showed that only about 133 million dollars had actually been received by 2021. The organization grew out of the same AI-existential-risk concern that animates the [[Rationalist Community]] and [[Effective Altruism]] movements, and its 2023 governance crisis exposed the fault line between that safety-focused mission and its commercial trajectory.[^1][^2]
|
||||
|
|
@ -20,24 +77,95 @@ OpenAI is an artificial-intelligence research company founded in [[San Francisco
|
|||
|
||||
OpenAI was established as a counterweight to the concentration of AI capability in a single corporation, with Musk and Altman as co-chairs, Brockman as chief technology officer, and [[Ilya Sutskever]] as chief scientist. Musk departed the board in 2018 amid conflicts of interest with [[Tesla]]'s own AI work. In 2019 OpenAI created a "capped-profit" subsidiary beneath the nonprofit, took a one-billion-dollar investment from [[Microsoft]], and installed Altman as chief executive, restructuring a nonprofit research mission into an entity capable of raising commercial capital. The 2022 release of [[ChatGPT]] made OpenAI the central company of the generative-AI period.[^1][^3]
|
||||
|
||||
The 2019 capped-profit entity, OpenAI LP, limited early investors to a return of 100 times their money, with lower caps for later backers such as Microsoft; profit above the cap would flow to the controlling nonprofit. Microsoft expanded its commitment to a reported 13 billion dollars by January 2023, receiving a large share of OpenAI's profits up to its cap until repaid. On October 28, 2025 OpenAI completed a further restructuring that retired the capped-profit model entirely: the nonprofit, renamed the OpenAI Foundation, took a roughly 26 percent equity stake valued near 130 billion dollars in a new public-benefit corporation called OpenAI Group PBC, Microsoft took a 27 percent stake worth about 135 billion dollars, and employees and investors held the remaining 47 percent, at a 500-billion-dollar valuation. The revised Microsoft agreement moved the power to declare that artificial general intelligence had been reached from OpenAI's board to an independent expert panel jointly established by the two companies.[^7][^8]
|
||||
The 2019 capped-profit entity, OpenAI LP, limited early investors to a return of 100 times their money, with lower caps for later backers such as Microsoft; profit above the cap would flow to the controlling nonprofit. Microsoft expanded its commitment to a reported 13 billion dollars by January 2023, receiving a large share of OpenAI's profits up to its cap until repaid. On October 28, 2025 OpenAI completed a further restructuring that retired the capped-profit model entirely: the nonprofit, renamed the OpenAI Foundation, took a roughly 26 percent equity stake valued near 130 billion dollars in a new public-benefit corporation called OpenAI Group PBC, Microsoft took a 27 percent stake worth about 135 billion dollars, and employees and investors held the remaining 47 percent, at a 500-billion-dollar valuation. The revised Microsoft agreement moved the power to declare that artificial general intelligence had been reached from OpenAI's board to an independent expert panel jointly established by the two companies.[^4][^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### The November 2023 Board Crisis
|
||||
|
||||
On November 17, 2023, the nonprofit board removed Altman as chief executive, stating that he had not been "consistently candid." The voting directors were Sutskever, [[Adam D'Angelo]], the entrepreneur [[Tasha McCauley]], and [[Helen Toner]] of the Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology; McCauley and Toner had ties to the effective-altruism movement, and the board's concern centered on the pace of AI commercialization relative to safety. Brockman quit in protest, roughly 700 employees threatened to resign, and within 48 hours directors discussed merging OpenAI with [[Anthropic]], a step *Bloomberg* reported Toner had supported and that would have ended OpenAI as an independent entity. Altman was reinstated within days under a reconstituted board chaired by [[Bret Taylor]] and including [[Larry Summers]], and Sutskever, McCauley, and Toner left.[^4][^5]
|
||||
On November 17, 2023, the nonprofit board removed Altman as chief executive, stating that he had not been "consistently candid." The voting directors were Sutskever, [[Adam D'Angelo]], the entrepreneur [[Tasha McCauley]], and [[Helen Toner]] of the Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology; McCauley and Toner had ties to the effective-altruism movement, and the board's concern centered on the pace of AI commercialization relative to safety. Brockman quit in protest, roughly 700 employees threatened to resign, and within 48 hours directors discussed merging OpenAI with [[Anthropic]], a step *Bloomberg* reported Toner had supported and that would have ended OpenAI as an independent entity. Altman was reinstated within days under a reconstituted board chaired by [[Bret Taylor]] and including [[Larry Summers]], and Sutskever, McCauley, and Toner left.[^6][^7]
|
||||
|
||||
The crisis was widely read as a defeat for the effective-altruism and AI-safety wing of the company by the commercial and accelerationist wing aligned with Altman and Microsoft. Sutskever left OpenAI in 2024, and Musk sued the company and Altman the same year, alleging a betrayal of the original nonprofit mission.[^4][^6]
|
||||
The crisis was widely read as a defeat for the effective-altruism and AI-safety wing of the company by the commercial and accelerationist wing aligned with Altman and Microsoft. Sutskever left OpenAI in 2024, and Musk sued the company and Altman the same year, alleging a betrayal of the original nonprofit mission.[^6][^8]
|
||||
|
||||
Musk's suit, filed in 2024 and later amended to name Microsoft as a defendant, alleged that OpenAI had become a "closed-source de facto subsidiary" of Microsoft and accused Altman of "rampant self-dealing." Musk amended the complaint so that any of the roughly 150 billion dollars in damages he sought would go to OpenAI's nonprofit rather than to himself, and sought to remove Altman as chief executive and director. In May 2026 a nine-member advisory jury found that Musk had filed outside the statute of limitations, and Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers dismissed the case.[^9]
|
||||
|
||||
### The 2026 Recording Device Case
|
||||
|
||||
On October 13, 2026 the United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California announced that [[Abdulrahman Alfozan]], an OpenAI engineer and a Saudi national, had been arrested on October 9 and charged with using or attempting to use a device to intercept oral communications.[^10] The Justice Department release states that the complaint alleges he concealed a recording device inside a USB port on the back of a television in an executive conference room at one of OpenAI's San Francisco buildings. OpenAI personnel found the device on September 30, 2026, concealed in toilet paper, and OpenAI determined that it had been installed on or about September 28 and that its contents were encrypted.[^10]
|
||||
|
||||
OpenAI said that it had found a "sophisticated" device, which it described as having "advanced encryption, audio monitoring capabilities, and a mechanism for transferring data designed to evade monitoring." The company said that it used its internal models to analyze the device and identified that "a specific employee had planted it a few days earlier," and that it had referred the matter to the FBI.[^11] On X the company said that "at this time, we have no indications of this individual inappropriately accessing or exfiltrating model weights, source code, or customer data."[^11] OpenAI said it fired the employee on October 9, the day of his arrest, after coordinating the timing with the FBI, and that it had restricted his access to systems and spaces beginning September 30.[^12]
|
||||
|
||||
OpenAI's spokesperson said the employee started with the company in July 2025 and worked on the product team.[^11] A LinkedIn profile under his name gives September 2025 as the start of the OpenAI role.[^13] The company's own GitHub organization lists six pull requests from an account under his handle to the openai-agents-python repository, opened between April 15 and May 7, 2026.[^14]
|
||||
|
||||
[[RAED Ventures]], a Riyadh venture firm whose investors include the Saudi Venture Capital Company, Riyadh Valley Company and [[Jada Fund of Funds]] (owned by the [[Public Investment Fund]]), announced Alfozan as a venture partner on February 8, 2025, when he was a founding engineer at [[Nash (company)]]. The firm's team page captured on January 23, 2026 describes him as "Engineering Lead at OpenAI, with a focus on AI Agents and the data platform," and the page live on October 13, 2026 carries the same text and an MIT degree; the San Francisco Standard reported that his LinkedIn profile lists a master's degree in data science from the University of California, Berkeley.[^11][^15] Prince [[Khalid bin Bader Al Saud]] is listed as a venture partner of the same firm; [[Echelon (company)]], which he founded, announced a round from East40, RAED Ventures and Avra on October 7, 2026.[^15][^16]
|
||||
|
||||
### Gulf Investment and Partnerships
|
||||
|
||||
On May 22, 2025 OpenAI announced Stargate UAE, which it described as "the first international deployment of Stargate, OpenAI's AI infrastructure platform," with "a 1GW Stargate UAE cluster in Abu Dhabi with 200MW expected to go live in 2026." The announcement names G42, Oracle, NVIDIA, Cisco and SoftBank as partners in an agreement that it says "was developed in close coordination with the U.S. government."[^17] The project brings together [[G42]], OpenAI, [[Oracle]], [[NVIDIA]], [[Cisco]] and [[SoftBank]] under the name [[Stargate (AI infrastructure)]] in [[Abu Dhabi]].[^18] In October 2025 a G42 spokesperson said that "work is progressing rapidly on the first 200 megawatts of capacity, which is expected to be completed by 2026."[^18]
|
||||
|
||||
On May 13, 2025 Sam Altman attended the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum in [[Riyadh]] during the visit of President [[Donald Trump]] to [[Saudi Arabia]].[^19] A Reuters photograph of the forum carries the caption "OpenAI CEO Sam Altman looks on as he visits Riyadh with U.S. President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk (both not pictured), in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 13, 2025."[^19]
|
||||
|
||||
In October 2025 [[MGX]], an Abu Dhabi investment firm, took part in a secondary sale of about 6.6 billion dollars in OpenAI shares, a transaction that set the company's valuation at around 500 billion dollars. The sale allowed employees and early investors to sell part of their holdings. Other participants named in Reuters reporting were [[Thrive Capital]], SoftBank, [[Dragoneer Investment Group]] and [[T. Rowe Price]].[^20]
|
||||
|
||||
In March 2026 Bloomberg reported that the company had said [[Andreessen Horowitz]], MGX, [[D.E. Shaw Ventures]], [[TPG]] and T. Rowe Price "will co-lead the financing, which is set to close next week." Coatue Management, Thrive Capital and Altimeter Capital were also named as set to participate in the roughly 10 billion dollar financing.[^21]
|
||||
|
||||
### Government and National Security Engagements
|
||||
|
||||
On June 13, 2024 OpenAI added [[Paul Nakasone]] to its board. TechCrunch reported that the former National Security Agency head "will also sit on the board's 'security and safety' subcommittee."[^22]
|
||||
|
||||
On December 4, 2024 [[Anduril Industries]] announced a partnership with OpenAI to apply OpenAI models to counter-drone systems. Anduril said the models "will help protect U.S. and allied military personnel and ensure mission success."[^23]
|
||||
|
||||
On January 30, 2025 [[Los Alamos]] announced that it had entered a partnership with OpenAI to install its o-series reasoning models on the Venado supercomputer, which was to be moved to a secure, classified network as a shared resource for Los Alamos, [[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]] and [[Sandia National Laboratories]].[^24] On August 28, 2025 the laboratory reported that Venado was running OpenAI's o3 reasoning model.[^25]
|
||||
|
||||
On June 16, 2025 the [[Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office]] of the [[Department of Defense]] made an award of 200 million dollars, a prototype other transaction agreement, to OpenAI Public Sector, with an estimated completion date of July 2026. The Department of Defense contracts announcement described the work as meant to "develop prototype frontier AI capabilities to address critical national security challenges in both warfighting and enterprise domains." OpenAI's own description of the work centered on administrative operations, with the aim to "identify and prototype how frontier AI can transform its administrative operations."[^26]
|
||||
|
||||
On August 6, 2025 the [[General Services Administration]] announced a OneGov partnership with OpenAI under which federal agencies could purchase ChatGPT Enterprise at "$1 per agency pricing" for one year.[^27]
|
||||
|
||||
The Justice Department release of October 13, 2026 states that the complaint describes meetings in the executive conference room as involving "nonpublic information about Open AI's technical progress and strategic decisions, capabilities, priorities, government engagements, and commercial relationships," and that the prosecution is in support of [[NSPM-11]], "designed to support American superiority in super intelligence technology."[^28]
|
||||
|
||||
### Personnel Security and Insider Threat
|
||||
|
||||
The New York Times reported on July 4, 2024, citing two people familiar with the incident, that a hacker had accessed an online forum where OpenAI employees discussed the company's latest technologies. Executives told employees and the board at an all-hands meeting in April 2023, and did not inform federal law enforcement agencies, because they "didn't consider the incident a national security threat" and believed the hacker was a private individual with no known connection to a foreign government.[^29] TechCrunch wrote that unnamed company sources told the Times the hacker "only got access to an employee discussion forum."[^30]
|
||||
|
||||
In a June 4, 2024 podcast interview, [[Leopold Aschenbrenner]] said that he had written an internal memo on OpenAI's security which he thought was "egregiously insufficient to protect against the theft of model weights or key algorithmic secrets from foreign actors." He said that "a major security incident occurred" a few weeks after he circulated it, that he then shared the memo with board members, and that he received "an official HR warning for sharing the memo with the board." He said that a human resources representative "told me it was racist to worry about CCP espionage and that it was unconstructive." A footnote on the transcript at the words "major security incident" reads: "The previous linked item here was not the major security incident Leopold was referring to."[^31] TechCrunch reported that Aschenbrenner had hinted at the forum incident in the podcast, calling it a "major security incident."[^30]
|
||||
|
||||
On August 4, 2026 the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division announced a combined 3.2 million dollar settlement with OpenAI OpCo LLC and its subsidiary Statsig Inc. over allegations that the companies violated the Immigration and Nationality Act by discriminating against U.S. workers in favor of workers with temporary employment visas during recruiting under the Permanent Labor Certification (PERM) process. The department's investigation found that OpenAI did not advertise PERM positions on its external job website, required paper applications by mail for those positions, and advertised positions on the radio late at night. There were fewer than ten PERM positions at issue. OpenAI agreed to pay 1.2 million dollars in civil penalties and to establish a 2 million dollar back-pay fund, to post PERM positions on its public career website, accept electronic applications, train its personnel, revise its employment policies, and be subject to departmental monitoring and reporting requirements. Reuters reported that the company denied wrongdoing in the settlement agreement.[^32]
|
||||
|
||||
In October 2025 OpenAI reported that it had banned accounts apparently tied to Chinese government entities that sought assistance designing social media monitoring tools and profiling dissidents. The same report describes alleged China-linked groups that crafted phishing content and debugged malware targeting Taiwan's semiconductor sector.[^33]
|
||||
|
||||
In November 2025 Anthropic reported that a threat actor it assessed with high confidence was "a Chinese state-sponsored group" had manipulated its Claude Code tool into attempting infiltration of "roughly thirty global targets," with success in a small number of cases.[^34]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: "OpenAI launches as a nonprofit with a billion-dollar pledge," December 11, 2015; founding donors including Musk, Altman, Brockman, Reid Hoffman, Jessica Livingston, Peter Thiel, AWS, and Infosys. See IEEE Spectrum, December 2015. https://spectrum.ieee.org/billiondollar-nonprofit-ai-research-lab-to-open-in-san-francisco
|
||||
[^2]: "OpenAI says Musk only ever contributed $45 million," *TechCrunch,* March 5, 2024, on actual versus pledged funding. https://techcrunch.com/2024/03/05/openai-response-elon-musk-lawsuit/
|
||||
[^3]: "The messy, secretive reality behind OpenAI's bid to save the world," *MIT Technology Review,* February 17, 2020. https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/02/17/844721/ai-openai-moonshot-elon-musk-sam-altman-greg-brockman-messy-secretive-reality/
|
||||
[^4]: "Effective Altruism's Role in the OpenAI Chaos, Explained," *Bloomberg,* November 22, 2023. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-22/effective-altruism-s-role-in-the-openai-chaos-explained
|
||||
[^5]: "Inside the Deposition That Showed How OpenAI Nearly Destroyed Itself," *Decrypt,* on the Sutskever deposition and the discussed Anthropic merger. https://decrypt.co/347349/inside-deposition-showed-openai-nearly-destroyed-itself
|
||||
[^6]: "OpenAI, Sam Altman and Failed Governance," AKF Partners, postmortem of the November 2023 board crisis. https://akfpartners.com/growth-blog/openai-sam-altman-and-failed-governance-a-postmortem-of-the-openai-governance-soap-opera
|
||||
[^7]: "Microsoft's $13 billion bet on OpenAI carries huge potential along with plenty of uncertainty," *CNBC,* April 8, 2023, on the 100x return cap and Microsoft's expanded investment. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/08/microsofts-complex-bet-on-openai-brings-potential-and-uncertainty.html
|
||||
[^8]: "OpenAI completes restructure, solidifying Microsoft as a major shareholder," *CNBC,* October 28, 2025, on the OpenAI Foundation, OpenAI Group PBC, the 27 percent Microsoft stake, and the AGI declaration panel. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/28/open-ai-for-profit-microsoft.html
|
||||
[^4]: "Microsoft's $13 billion bet on OpenAI carries huge potential along with plenty of uncertainty," *CNBC,* April 8, 2023, on the 100x return cap and Microsoft's expanded investment. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/08/microsofts-complex-bet-on-openai-brings-potential-and-uncertainty.html
|
||||
[^5]: "OpenAI completes restructure, solidifying Microsoft as a major shareholder," *CNBC,* October 28, 2025, on the OpenAI Foundation, OpenAI Group PBC, the 27 percent Microsoft stake, and the AGI declaration panel. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/28/open-ai-for-profit-microsoft.html
|
||||
[^6]: "Effective Altruism's Role in the OpenAI Chaos, Explained," *Bloomberg,* November 22, 2023. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-22/effective-altruism-s-role-in-the-openai-chaos-explained
|
||||
[^7]: "Inside the Deposition That Showed How OpenAI Nearly Destroyed Itself," *Decrypt,* on the Sutskever deposition and the discussed Anthropic merger. https://decrypt.co/347349/inside-deposition-showed-openai-nearly-destroyed-itself
|
||||
[^8]: "OpenAI, Sam Altman and Failed Governance," AKF Partners, postmortem of the November 2023 board crisis. https://akfpartners.com/growth-blog/openai-sam-altman-and-failed-governance-a-postmortem-of-the-openai-governance-soap-opera
|
||||
[^9]: "Jury dismisses all claims in Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman," *NPR,* May 18, 2026; "Musk's amended lawsuit against OpenAI names Microsoft as defendant," *TechCrunch,* November 14, 2024. https://www.npr.org/2026/05/18/nx-s1-5822366/musk-altman-openai-jury-verdict-claims-dismissed
|
||||
[^10]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, "Saudi National Arrested for Installing Surreptitious Audio Recording Device at OpenAI," October 13, 2026, press release 26-1173. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/saudi-national-arrested-installing-surreptitious-audio-recording-device-openai
|
||||
[^11]: TechCrunch, "FBI arrests OpenAI employee accused of planting hidden recording device in conference room," October 13, 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/13/fbi-arrests-openai-employee-accused-of-planting-hidden-recording-device-in-conference-room/
|
||||
[^12]: "OpenAI engineer arrested in bugging of executive conference room," *San Francisco Standard,* October 13, 2026. https://sfstandard.com/2026/10/13/openai-engineer-arrested-alleged-bugging-executive-conference-room/
|
||||
[^13]: LinkedIn, public profile of Abdulrahman Alfozan. https://www.linkedin.com/in/alfozan
|
||||
[^14]: GitHub, pull requests by the author alfozan in openai/openai-agents-python, queried October 13, 2026. https://api.github.com/search/issues?q=repo:openai/openai-agents-python+author:alfozan
|
||||
[^15]: RAED Ventures, "About," English about page, Wayback capture of January 23, 2026 (https://web.archive.org/web/20260123220439/https://raed.vc/about/) and live on October 13, 2026 (https://raed.vc/about/); announcement dated February 8, 2025 (https://raed.vc/news/raed-ventures-welcomes-new-venture-partner-abdulrahman-alfozan/). Listing as venture partner first appears in the homepage capture of August 21, 2025 (https://web.archive.org/web/20250821032650/https://raed.vc/).
|
||||
[^16]: "Saudi AI startup Echelon secures backing from East40, RAED Ventures and Avra," Wamda, October 7, 2026. https://www.wamda.com/ar/2026/10/saudi-ai-startup-echelon-secures-backing-east40-raed-ventures-avra
|
||||
[^17]: OpenAI, "Introducing Stargate UAE," May 22, 2025 (Wayback capture of May 22, 2025: https://web.archive.org/web/20250522id_/https://openai.com/index/introducing-stargate-uae/). https://openai.com/index/introducing-stargate-uae/
|
||||
[^18]: "New update on Stargate UAE: First phase of 200MW to complete by 2026," *Gulf News*, October 16, 2025. The article states: "Announced in May 2025, the project brings together G42, OpenAI, Oracle, NVIDIA, Cisco, and SoftBank," and quotes a G42 spokesperson: "work is progressing rapidly on the first 200 megawatts of capacity, which is expected to be completed by 2026." https://gulfnews.com/business/markets/stargate-uae-first-phase-of-200mw-to-complete-by-2026-1.500310364
|
||||
[^19]: "Photos: Tech CEOs mingle with Trump and Saudi crown prince at investment forum in Riyadh," *NBC* (NBC San Diego), May 13, 2025. The article names "OpenAI CEO Sam Altman" among the executives present; the Reuters photograph caption reads "OpenAI CEO Sam Altman looks on as he visits Riyadh with U.S. President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk (both not pictured), in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 13, 2025." https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/business/money-report/photos-tech-ceos-mingle-with-trump-and-saudi-crown-prince-at-investment-forum-in-riyadh/3824637
|
||||
[^20]: Reuters report on the secondary sale, as reproduced by *Wamda*, October 8, 2025: "MGX has participated in a $6.6 billion secondary share sale in OpenAI," at a valuation of "around $500 billion." Named participants: Thrive Capital, SoftBank, Dragoneer, T. Rowe Price and MGX. https://www.wamda.com/en/2025/10/mgx-joins-6-6-billion-openai-share-sale-valuing-chatgpt-maker-500-billion
|
||||
[^21]: Bloomberg, "OpenAI Set to Raise $10 Billion From MGX, Coatue, Thrive," March 24, 2026, as reproduced by Bloomberg Government: "Andreessen Horowitz, Abu Dhabi's MGX, D.E. Shaw Ventures, TPG and T. Rowe Price will co-lead the financing, which is set to close next week, the company told Bloomberg Tuesday. Coatue Management, Thrive Capital and Altimeter Capital are also set to participate." https://news.bgov.com/california-brief/openai-set-to-raise-10-billion-from-mgx-coatue-thrive-2
|
||||
[^22]: Coldewey, Devin, "Former NSA head joins OpenAI board and safety committee," *TechCrunch*, June 13, 2024: "Former head of the National Security Agency, retired Gen. Paul Nakasone, will join OpenAI's board of directors, the AI company announced Thursday afternoon. He will also sit on the board's 'security and safety' subcommittee." https://techcrunch.com/2024/06/13/former-nsa-head-joins-openai-board-and-safety-committee
|
||||
[^23]: *Defense News*, "Anduril, OpenAI join to boost counter-drone tech for US bases, troops," December 5, 2024: "Anduril and OpenAI will partner to improve the military's counter-drone capabilities." https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2024/12/05/anduril-openai-join-to-boost-counter-drone-tech-for-us-bases-troops/
|
||||
[^24]: Los Alamos National Laboratory, "Los Alamos Lab partners with OpenAI to boost national security," January 30, 2025: the Venado machine "will be moved to a secure, classified network where it will be a shared resource for researchers from Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore, and Sandia national labs." https://www.lanl.gov/media/news/0130-open-ai
|
||||
[^25]: Los Alamos National Laboratory, "Lab launches frontier AI models on the Venado supercomputer," August 28, 2025: "the Venado supercomputer at Los Alamos National Laboratory is now running OpenAI's latest o3 reasoning model to accelerate national security research." https://www.lanl.gov/media/news/0828-venado-ai-models
|
||||
[^26]: *DefenseScoop*, June 17, 2025: the Department of Defense contracts list announced on June 16, 2025 that the CDAO "had awarded a $200 million prototype other transaction agreement to OpenAI Public Sector" to "develop prototype frontier AI capabilities to address critical national security challenges in both warfighting and enterprise domains"; "The estimated completion date for the work is July 2026"; OpenAI's phrase "identify and prototype how frontier AI can transform its administrative operations." https://defensescoop.com/2025/06/17/pentagon-openai-frontier-ai-projects-cdao/
|
||||
[^27]: General Services Administration, "GSA Announces New Partnership with OpenAI, Delivering Deep Discount to ChatGPT Gov-Wide Through MAS," August 6, 2025: "$1 per agency pricing for ChatGPT." https://www.gsa.gov/about-us/newsroom/news-releases/gsa-announces-new-partnership-with-openai-delivering-deep-discount-to-chatgpt-08062025
|
||||
[^28]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, "Saudi National Arrested for Installing Surreptitious Audio Recording Device at OpenAI," press release 26-1173, October 13, 2026. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/saudi-national-arrested-installing-surreptitious-audio-recording-device-openai
|
||||
[^29]: "Hacker accessed OpenAI's internal AI details in 2023 breach: report," *Fox Business,* July 7, 2024, summarizing the *New York Times* report of July 4, 2024: "OpenAI executives told employees and the company's board about the breach at an all-hands meeting in April 2023." https://www-ak-ms.foxbusiness.com/technology/hacker-accessed-openais-internal-ai-details-2023-breach-report
|
||||
[^30]: Coldewey, Devin, "OpenAI breach is a reminder that AI companies are treasure troves for hackers," *TechCrunch,* July 5, 2024: "The New York Times reported the hack in more detail after former OpenAI employee Leopold Aschenbrenner hinted at it recently in a podcast." https://techcrunch.com/2024/07/05/openai-breach-is-a-reminder-that-ai-companies-are-treasure-troves-for-hackers/
|
||||
[^31]: Aschenbrenner, Leopold, interview with Dwarkesh Patel, June 4, 2024, transcript at approximately 02:33: "egregiously insufficient to protect against the theft of model weights or key algorithmic secrets from foreign actors"; "A few weeks later, a major security incident occurred"; "I got an official HR warning for sharing the memo with the board"; "The HR person told me it was racist to worry about CCP espionage and that it was unconstructive." https://www.dwarkesh.com/p/leopold-aschenbrenner
|
||||
[^32]: U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, press release of August 4, 2026 (https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/civil-rights-division-secures-settlement-openai-discriminating-against-us-workers); Reuters report datelined August 4, 2026, carried by *The Star* (Malaysia): "The company denied wrongdoing in the settlement agreement." https://www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech-news/2026/08/05/openai-pays-32-million-in-us-probe-over-hiring-foreign-workers
|
||||
[^33]: *SiliconANGLE*, "OpenAI details expanding efforts to disrupt malicious use of AI in new report," October 7, 2025 (summarizing the OpenAI threat report): alleged China-linked groups "were found to be crafting phishing content and debugging malware targeting Taiwan's semiconductor sector, U.S. academia and political groups"; users "sought assistance designing social media monitoring tools, profiling dissidents and generating propaganda proposals." https://siliconangle.com/2025/10/07/openai-details-expanding-efforts-disrupt-malicious-use-ai-new-report/
|
||||
[^34]: Anthropic, threat intelligence report published November 13, 2025, stating that the threat actor was "a Chinese state-sponsored group" that targeted "roughly thirty global targets." https://www.anthropic.com/news/disrupting-AI-espionage
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
274
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/RAED Ventures.md
Normal file
274
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/RAED Ventures.md
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,274 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
aliases:
|
||||
- RAED Ventures
|
||||
- Raed Ventures
|
||||
- RAED Ventures Company
|
||||
- Raed Ventures Company
|
||||
- Raed VC
|
||||
- RAED VC
|
||||
- رائد فنتشرز
|
||||
category: "Private Organization"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Organization
|
||||
- RaedVentures
|
||||
- VentureCapital
|
||||
- SaudiArabia
|
||||
- Almajdouie
|
||||
- AbdulrahmanAlfozan
|
||||
- KhalidBinBaderAlSaud
|
||||
- SaudiVentureCapitalCompany
|
||||
- JadaFundOfFunds
|
||||
- PublicInvestmentFund
|
||||
- RiyadhValleyCompany
|
||||
- Mozn
|
||||
- ClearGrid
|
||||
- EchelonCompany
|
||||
- OpenAI
|
||||
- ArtificialIntelligence
|
||||
summary: "Riyadh venture firm launched by Omar Almajdouie around 2015, backed by Jada, the Saudi Venture Capital Company and Riyadh Valley Company, with Abdulrahman Alfozan and Prince Khalid as venture partners."
|
||||
location: "Riyadh, Saudi Arabia"
|
||||
created: 2026-10-13
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-13
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: founded
|
||||
with: "[[Omar Almajdouie]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 2015-12
|
||||
role: "founding partner; began establishing the firm at the end of 2015"
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
- type: founded
|
||||
with: "[[Saed Nashef]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "founding partner"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: founded
|
||||
with: "[[Talal Alasmari]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "founding partner"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: founded
|
||||
with: "[[Almajdouie Holding]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 2015
|
||||
role: "establishing entity, per the Jada listing"
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[Jada Fund of Funds]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 2020
|
||||
role: "invested in RAED II LP in 2020; Jada owned by the Public Investment Fund"
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[Riyadh Valley Company]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 2024-09-03
|
||||
role: "investor in RAED III LP; investment arm of King Saud University"
|
||||
fn: 7
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[Saudi Venture Capital Company]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 2024-12
|
||||
role: "investor in Raed III L.P., amount undisclosed"
|
||||
fn: 8
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[Mubadala]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "listed by Omar Almajdouie's speaker biography among the firm's backers"
|
||||
fn: 4
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[Mozn]]"
|
||||
start: 2022-02-03
|
||||
role: "led $10 million Series A"
|
||||
fn: 31
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[Crowd Analyzer]]"
|
||||
start: 2018-08
|
||||
role: "participant in $1.1 million pre-Series A led by Wamda Capital"
|
||||
fn: 35
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[Lamaa]]"
|
||||
start: 2021-12
|
||||
role: "co-led $5.5 million round with Saudi Aramco"
|
||||
fn: 11
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[ClearGrid]]"
|
||||
start: 2025-03-19
|
||||
role: "investor"
|
||||
fn: 22
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[Echelon (company)]]"
|
||||
start: 2026-10-07
|
||||
role: "investor in undisclosed round alongside East40 and Avra"
|
||||
fn: 23
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[Signit]]"
|
||||
start: 2026-04
|
||||
role: "lead investor in $15 million Series A"
|
||||
fn: 30
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Wael Nafee]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 2021-11-08
|
||||
role: "partner, later general partner"
|
||||
fn: 17
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Khalid bin Bader Al Saud]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 2025-02-06
|
||||
role: "venture partner"
|
||||
fn: 18
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Abdulrahman Alfozan]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 2025-02-08
|
||||
role: "venture partner"
|
||||
fn: 19
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Kushal Shah]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 2025-10-09
|
||||
role: "growth venture partner (announcement title); venture partner (team page title)"
|
||||
fn: 21
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
RAED Ventures (رائد فنتشرز) is an early-stage venture capital firm headquartered in [[Riyadh]] that invests in technology companies in the [[Middle East and North Africa]] and describes its focus as [[Saudi Arabia]] and the wider GCC.[^1] [[Omar Almajdouie]], [[Saed Nashef]] and [[Talal Alasmari]] are its founding partners. The team page live on October 13, 2026 lists [[Wael Nafee]] as general partner, and [[Kushal Shah]], [[Khalid bin Bader Al Saud]] and [[Abdulrahman Alfozan]] as venture partners.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Founding and founders
|
||||
|
||||
Raed's Arabic team page, captured in May 2023, says Omar Almajdouie began establishing and launching the firm at the end of 2015.[^2] A listing for the firm on the [[Jada Fund of Funds]] portfolio page names the management team as Omar Almajdouie, Talal Alasmari and Saed Nashef and says the firm was established by [[Almajdouie Holding]] in 2015.[^3] Almajdouie's speaker biography for the RLC Global Forum says he founded the firm in 2016 as part of Almajdouie Holding's diversification strategy, that its assets under management exceed SAR 500 million, that it is backed by "PIF's Jada, SVC, Mubadala, Almajdouie Holding and many more," and that it has funded more than 40 startups. The same biography lists him as vice chairman of the Saudi Venture Capital and Private Equity Association.[^4] A profile in [[Entrepreneur Middle East]] dated February 23, 2026 says the firm was founded in 2016 as one of the Kingdom's first privately owned venture capital funds and has three funds and more than 60 portfolio companies.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
The live team page describes the three founding partners as follows. Almajdouie has two decades of senior leadership experience and over a decade in venture investing, was chief executive of [[Almajdouie Manufacturing]] before establishing Raed, and sits on the boards of [[Majd Investments]], [[Lean Technologies]], [[Mozn]] and the [[Middle East Venture Capital Association]]. Nashef co-founded [[Sadara Ventures]], described as one of the region's first venture capital firms and the first to launch a fund established in Palestine in 2011, whose investors the page lists as Cisco, the [[European Investment Bank]], Soros and [[Google.org]]; he began as a software engineer at [[Microsoft]] in 1994 and in 2011 became the first Kauffman Fellow in the Arab Middle East. Alasmari co-founded Tarmeez, Lamma and Modha, the last of which the page says was acquired by a Saudi family office in 2014, and represents Raed on the boards and committees of [[Wafeq]] and [[Rabbit]].[^1] A DealStreetAsia item of May 25, 2023 carries a photograph captioned "Saed Nashef, founding partner, Raed Ventures."[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### Funds and vintages
|
||||
|
||||
The firm's vehicles appear in investor records as RAED II LP and RAED III LP.
|
||||
|
||||
- Fund I: the firm began at the end of 2015 or in 2016 (see above), and the Entrepreneur Middle East profile counts three funds in all.[^2][^5]
|
||||
- RAED II LP: the Jada listing gives a vintage year of 2020 and a fund size of 562.5, with no currency or unit stated beside the figure, and states "Jada invested in RAED II LP in 2020." The header of the same Jada page gives Jada's own totals as 36 funds invested and SAR 3.1 billion committed capital.[^3]
|
||||
- RAED III LP: [[DealStreetAsia]] reported on May 25, 2023 that the firm had kicked off fundraising for a third vehicle; the report states "The $150-million fund will invest in early-stage startups in the MENA region."[^6] [[Riyadh Valley Company]], the investment arm of [[King Saud University]], announced on September 3, 2024 that it had invested in RAED III LP. The release describes the firm as focusing on Saudi Arabia, the [[United Arab Emirates]] and [[Egypt]], in fintech, transportation services and retail, with an emphasis on software-as-a-service models. Its chief executive, Dr. [[Khalid Al-Saleh]], said the investment fell within the company's specialization and contributed to the development of the local knowledge economy.[^7] The [[Saudi Venture Capital Company]] (SVC) announced in December 2024 that it had invested, for an undisclosed amount, in Raed III L.P., described as an early-stage fund for tech-enabled startups, particularly in fintech, enterprise software and B2B SaaS, with a focus on Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Its chief executive and board member, [[Nabeel Koshak]], said the investment aligns with the company's strategy of backing private funds.[^8] The Arabic financial daily [[Al Iqtisadiah]] reported the same investment on December 19, 2024 and described SVC as founded in 2018 and as a subsidiary of [[Bank Al-Mensha'at]], the small and medium enterprise bank, which belongs to the National Development Fund.[^9]
|
||||
|
||||
### Saudi government-linked investors
|
||||
|
||||
Jada was established by a decision of the [[Council of Ministers]] in 2016 with a starting capital of SAR 4 billion, and it is owned by the [[Public Investment Fund]]. Its mandate is to invest in private equity and venture capital funds that support small and medium enterprises.[^10] Its investment in RAED II LP dates from 2020.[^3] SVC invested in Raed III from December 2024 and sits under the SME bank, which Al Iqtisadiah places within the National Development Fund.[^8][^9] Riyadh Valley Company, an investor in Raed III from September 3, 2024, describes itself as the investment arm of King Saud University, a public university.[^7] Almajdouie's biography adds [[Mubadala]] of [[Abu Dhabi]] to the list of backers.[^4] The firm's own founding sponsor is the Almajdouie group, which the Jada listing names as the entity that established the firm.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Saudi Aramco]] co-led the $5.5 million investment in [[Lamaa]] with Raed Ventures, which the firm's news page lists under December 1, 2021.[^11]
|
||||
|
||||
### Jada and SVC Governance
|
||||
|
||||
The chairman of Jada Fund of Funds is listed on the company's own leadership page as [[Omar Al-Madhi]], who is described there as "the Co-head of MENA Direct Investments at the Public Investment Fund." The vice chairman is [[Eyas Al-Dossari]]. The same page lists [[Hani Enaya]] as a board member and describes him as "Chief Investment Officer at Sanabil Investments, Vice Chairman of the Saudi Venture Capital Company, and a founding member of the Saudi Venture Capital and Private Equity Association."[^12] The page lists [[Bandr Alhomaly]] as presiding chief executive officer.[^12] The company's own history page states that Jada was "established by the Public Investment Fund (PIF)."[^13]
|
||||
|
||||
On June 3, 2026, the board of Saudi Venture Capital Company issued a decision appointing [[Nora Al-Sarhan]] as chief executive, effective July 1, 2026. The article states that Nabeel Koshak will remain a member of the board.[^14]
|
||||
|
||||
The SuperReturn Saudi Arabia speaker profile gives Al-Madhi as "Chairman of the Board and Chairman of the Remuneration & Nominations Committee of Jada the Fund of Funds."[^15] Jada's history page lists the appointment of "Jada's Chairman Mr. Mazen Aljubeir" in a timeline running from 2018, and an Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington analysis of February 24, 2020 names Mazen al-Jubeir, managing director of Jawaris Limited and a board member of the Public Pension Agency, as chairman.[^13][^16]
|
||||
|
||||
### Partners and team
|
||||
|
||||
The team page live on October 13, 2026 lists these roles.[^1] Omar Almajdouie, Saed Nashef and Talal Alasmari are founding partners. Wael Nafee is general partner, formerly vice president of product at [[Careem]], and a founder of a startup that the page describes as the first MENA startup to join the [[Y Combinator]] accelerator. The firm announced his appointment as partner on November 8, 2021.[^17]
|
||||
|
||||
Venture partners, with the dates on the firm's own announcements:
|
||||
|
||||
- Prince Khalid bin Bader Al Saud: announced February 6, 2025 (English and Arabic releases).[^18]
|
||||
- Abdulrahman Alfozan: announced February 8, 2025 in the English release and February 10, 2025 in the Arabic release.[^19][^20]
|
||||
- Kushal Shah: announced October 9, 2025 under the title "Growth Venture Partner." The announcement says he spearheaded the growth investment team of e& Capital, was a senior partner at Roland Berger advising governments and Fortune 500 companies, and is the founder of Dubai Angel Investors. The team page says he is an economist educated at the [[University of Cambridge]] and a chartered accountant, spent more than 20 years as a partner at strategy consulting firms, led the corporate venture fund of [[e&]] and deployed USD 180 million there between 2022 and 2025, joined Raed in 2025, and runs a small private equity fund focused on pet care.[^1][^21]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Husain Fekri]] is head of investor relations; his biography on the page lists prior work at GIB Asset Management in London, a bachelor's degree from the University of Leeds and a master's from the London School of Economics. The team also lists [[Yomna Abousamra]], senior associate; [[Uday Singh]], [[Waleed Abdelshafy]] and [[Abdulrahman Alhashim]], investment associates; [[Arsalan Yousuf]], head of finance and operations; [[Aashish Dhaawan]], head of compliance and risk; and [[Tausif Qureshi]], senior operations associate. [[Seth Levine]], [[Abdulla Elyas]] and [[Tino Waked]] are listed as advisors.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Khalid bin Bader Al Saud
|
||||
|
||||
The team page describes Khalid bin Bader Al Saud as a venture partner with "extensive experience and a world class network in investment and startup financing." The same page says he is co-founder and chairman of [[ClearGrid]], an AI-powered collections infrastructure startup, and managing director and vice chairman of [[East40 Holding]], which the page describes as a private institutional family office established in 2025.[^1] The firm's English release of February 6, 2025 described him as "MD & Vice Chairman of his family's private office." The Arabic release of the same date gives the same title and describes him as an investment partner.[^18]
|
||||
|
||||
ClearGrid, a [[Dubai]]-based company founded in May 2023, announced $10 million in March 2025, made up of $3.5 million in pre-seed and $6.5 million in seed funding. [[TechCrunch]] reported that Khalid bin Bader Al Saud co-founded ClearGrid with chief executive [[Mohammad Al Zaben]] and [[Mohammad Al-Khalili]], and that Raed Ventures is among its investors.[^22]
|
||||
|
||||
On October 7, 2026, [[Echelon (company)]], a Saudi AI deployment firm founded in Riyadh by Khalid bin Bader Al Saud, raised an undisclosed round from East40, RAED Ventures and [[Avra]], with [[Ben Horowitz]] and other investors participating. The article says Echelon serves enterprises and government entities and plans an engineering arm and an institute in the fourth quarter of 2026 and a defense division, Echelon Defense Industries, in the first quarter of 2027.[^23]
|
||||
|
||||
### Abdulrahman Alfozan
|
||||
|
||||
The firm announced Abdulrahman Alfozan as a venture partner on February 8, 2025 in its English release, and on February 10, 2025 in the Arabic release.[^19][^20] The English release described him as then a founding engineer at [[Nash (company)]], a five-year senior engineer at [[Meta Platforms]] focused on machine learning and data platforms, and a person with roles at Microsoft and [[SAP]] who studied computer science and engineering at [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]. The release quotes Omar Almajdouie, identified as founding partner, welcoming him.[^19]
|
||||
|
||||
The version of the team page captured on January 23, 2026 gives his current role as "Engineering Lead at [[OpenAI]], with a focus on AI Agents and the data platform," retains the Nash, Meta, Microsoft and SAP history, and states: "Abdulrahman holds a degree in Computer Science and Engineering from MIT." The page live on October 13, 2026 carries the same text.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Two other records give different degree information. The [[San Francisco Standard]] reported on October 13, 2026 that his LinkedIn profile lists a master's degree in data science from the [[University of California, Berkeley]].[^24] The LinkedIn profile also lists MIT projects from 2012 and 2013, among them MAS.863, a digital fabrication course, and Lounge, a web-based housing platform that placed second in the MIT 2013 iCampus competition.[^25] The DOJ release gives his OpenAI start as July 2025; the LinkedIn entry gives September 2025.[^25][^26]
|
||||
|
||||
### Team page history
|
||||
|
||||
The firm's roster across archived versions of its site:
|
||||
|
||||
- The about pages captured on September 19, 2024, March 22, 2025, May 21, 2025 and August 21, 2025 list Omar Almajdouie, Saed Nashef and Talal Alasmari as founding partners and Wael Nafee as "Partner."[^27]
|
||||
- The homepage captured on May 19, 2025 lists the founding partners and Wael Nafee as "Partner." The homepage captured on August 21, 2025 adds Khalid bin Bader Al Saud and Abdulrahman Alfozan as "Venture partner" and lists Wael Nafee as "General Partner."[^28]
|
||||
- The about page captured on January 23, 2026 lists both men as "Venture Partner" and carries the OpenAI wording in Alfozan's biography. The homepage captured the same day adds Kushal Shah and carries the same wording.[^27][^28]
|
||||
- The Arabic team page captured on May 29, 2023 lists the founders, [[Iyad Alharbi]] as senior associate, Yomna Abousamra, [[Omar Shargawi]] and Arsalan Yousuf.[^2]
|
||||
- The about page and homepage live on October 13, 2026 list Kushal Shah, Khalid bin Bader Al Saud and Abdulrahman Alfozan as venture partners, and add Tausif Qureshi as senior operations associate.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
The firm's news page, captured on October 13, 2026, lists these items in descending order of date: Think (July 15, 2026), Signit (April 20, 2026), Aya (April 16, 2026), the Kushal Shah appointment (October 9, 2025), ClearGrid (March 20, 2025), Aya (March 10, 2025, two items), the Alfozan appointment (February 8, 2025), the Khalid bin Bader Al Saud appointment (February 6, 2025) and Rize (January 19, 2025).[^11]
|
||||
|
||||
### Portfolio
|
||||
|
||||
The firm's portfolio page, as captured in March 2025, lists 46 companies: 23 classed as Saudi Arabia, 10 as Egypt, 9 as UAE, and one each as USA, Jordan, Bahrain and Pakistan.[^29] Deals the firm announced or [[Wamda]] reported include the following.[^30]
|
||||
|
||||
- [[Signit]], an AI contract management company, closed a $15 million Series A led by Raed Ventures in 2026.
|
||||
- [[Think (company)]], a Saudi AI infrastructure startup, closed an $8 million pre-seed round in July 2026. Wamda lists Raed Ventures as co-lead, with [[Wa'ed Ventures]] also tagged.
|
||||
- [[XSquare]] raised a pre-seed round in August 2026 with Raed Ventures participating.
|
||||
- [[Rize]] closed a $35 million Series A led by Raed Ventures in 2025.
|
||||
- [[Halo AI]] closed a $6 million seed round led by Raed Ventures with [[Shorooq]] in 2025.
|
||||
- [[SiFi]] closed a $10 million seed round led by [[Sanabil Investments]] and Raed Ventures in 2024.
|
||||
- [[Dawul]], a social trading platform, closed a $5 million seed round led by Raed Ventures in 2022.
|
||||
- Mozn closed a $10 million Series A in 2022 (see below).
|
||||
|
||||
### Portfolio companies with government or security work
|
||||
|
||||
Mozn. Wamda reported on February 4, 2022 that Mozn, a Riyadh company founded in 2017 by Mohammed Alhussein, Khalid Al-Ghonaim, Abdullah Alsaeed and Malik Alyousef, had raised $10 million in a Series A led by Raed Ventures with Shorooq Partners, VentureSouq, Sukna Ventures and others. The release says Mozn had recently launched its Focal AML suite, which "aims to be the one-stop shop for AML compliance and to help financial institutions and governments fight complex financial crimes."[^31] Omar Almajdouie is listed on the firm's team page as a board member of Mozn.[^1] Mozn's own industry pages describe a public sector offering for "the work government cannot get wrong," "already proven in the region's top government entities," covering central government and public finance, tax, customs and revenue, regulators, and justice and judiciary, with products for hidden-relationship and network fraud detection and an agentic investigation workbench. A defense page describes an enterprise AI platform for "organizations that are responsible for national security," deployed on-premise or fully air-gapped, covering headquarters and command support, military logistics, the defense industrial base, and "internal security, borders and civil protection."[^32] The financial-crime product FOCAL was taken to Google Cloud customers in an agreement signed at LEAP in March 2024, and bank customers announced in 2025 include STC Bank and Al Rajhi Bank.[^33] On August 4, 2026 [[HUMAIN]], a technology company backed by the Public Investment Fund, announced a strategic investment in Mozn, described as its first investment in a Saudi company, and a partnership whose initial use cases are financial crime prevention, knowledge intelligence and governance, risk and compliance for financial institutions and public sector organizations.[^34]
|
||||
|
||||
Crowd Analyzer. The firm's portfolio lists Crowd Analyzer, an Egypt-classed Arabic social media monitoring tool, as an investment of 2016 with the status "Acquired."[^29] Startup Bahrain reported on August 5, 2018 that the Dubai-based company completed a $1.1 million pre-Series A round led by Wamda Capital with Faith Capital, Raed VC and Arzan Capital.[^35] Gulf News reported on November 26, 2019 a Series A of more than $3.5 million led by TechInvest with Wamda Capital, Arzan VC, Faith Capital and Daring Capital, for an Arabic-focused platform that "analyses publicly available data from social media platforms and news websites," with funds directed to expansion in Saudi Arabia and Egypt.[^36] Wamda reported on January 30, 2020 that the company acquired the activation platform TaskSpotting.[^36]
|
||||
|
||||
Other entries on the portfolio page that bear on data, finance and government systems: [[Quant (company)]], a Saudi consultancy in data science and AI services (investment year 2022); Lean Technologies, an infrastructure developer providing access to consumer financial data (2020); Lamaa, software that manages bank and tax processes for small and medium enterprises (2021), whose $5.5 million round was co-led by Saudi Aramco; and [[Vectara]], an enterprise semantic search platform that the listing places in the USA with a 2020 investment year.[^11][^29]
|
||||
|
||||
### United States connections
|
||||
|
||||
The English and Arabic sites give an address on Anas Ibn Malik Road, Almalqa, Riyadh.[^1] The portfolio page marks one entry as USA, Vectara.[^29] Wael Nafee's biography says he founded startups in the United States and in MENA.[^1] The DOJ release places the executive conference room at issue in the case in one of OpenAI's [[San Francisco]] buildings, and Alfozan's venture partner listing on the firm's site runs from 2025.[^19][^26]
|
||||
|
||||
### Abdulrahman Alfozan and the October 2026 arrest
|
||||
|
||||
On October 13, 2026 the [[United States Department of Justice]] announced that Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, a Saudi national, was arrested on October 9 and charged with using or attempting to use a device to intercept oral communications. The release states that he had been employed as an engineer at OpenAI since July 2025, and names Assistant United States Attorney [[Nicolas Parker]] for the [[Northern District of California]] as the prosecutor.[^26]
|
||||
|
||||
The San Francisco Standard reported the same day that the offense carries up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on conviction, and that a detention hearing before Magistrate Judge [[Alex G. Tse]] is set for October 19. It gives his prior employers as Nash, from 2022 to August 2025, and Meta Platforms, from 2017 to 2022.[^24]
|
||||
|
||||
The firm's English about page and homepage, live on October 13, 2026, list him as a venture partner, and his biography gives his OpenAI role and an MIT degree.[^1][^28]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: RAED Ventures, "About," English about page, live on October 13, 2026 (https://raed.vc/about/); Wayback capture of January 23, 2026 (https://web.archive.org/web/20260123220439/https://raed.vc/about/). Team roster, the Kushal Shah, Khalid bin Bader Al Saud, Abdulrahman Alfozan, Omar Almajdouie, Saed Nashef, Talal Alasmari, Wael Nafee and Husain Fekri biographies, and the Alfozan OpenAI wording (January 2026 capture).
|
||||
[^2]: RAED Ventures, Arabic team page, Wayback capture of May 29, 2023 (https://web.archive.org/web/20230529114145/https://raed.vc/ar/team/). Arabic: "شرع عمر في تأسيس وإطلاق شركة رائد فنتشرز في أواخر عام 2015." English gloss: Omar began founding and launching RAED Ventures at the end of 2015. The same page lists the 2023 roster.
|
||||
[^3]: Jada Fund of Funds, "Raed Ventures," portfolio listing, Wayback capture of January 1, 2026 (https://web.archive.org/web/20260101/https://jada.com.sa/en/portfolio/portfolio-raed). The listing gives "Vintage Year 2020," "Fund Size 562.5," "Management team Omar Almajdouie, Talal AlAsmar, Saed Nashef," and "Established by Almajdouie Holding in 2015." The page header gives "36 Number of Funds Invested" and "3.1 Committed Capital (SAR Billion)."
|
||||
[^4]: Omar Almajdouie, speaker biography, RLC Global Forum (https://rlcglobalforum.com/speaker/omar-almajdouie/). Quoted: "Raed's AUM exceeds SAR 500m and backed by top investors in the region including PIF's Jada, SVC, Mubadala, Almajdouie Holding and many more"; "Omar founded Raed Ventures in 2016 as part of Almajdouie Holding diversification strategy, which has funded more than 40 innovative startups to-date"; "Vice Chairman of the Saudi Venture Capital and Private Equity Association."
|
||||
[^5]: "Raed Ventures Is Betting Big on Tech and AI to Power Saudi Startups," Entrepreneur Middle East, February 23, 2026 (https://mena.entrepreneur.com/business-news/raed-ventures-is-betting-big-on-tech-and-ai-to-power-saudi-startups). Quoted: "Founded in 2016 as one of the Kingdom's first privately owned VC funds" and "With three funds under its belt, Raed Ventures has invested in over 60 portfolio companies."
|
||||
[^6]: "Saudi Arabia's Raed Ventures kicks off fundraising for third vehicle," DealStreetAsia, May 25, 2023, by Kristie Neo (https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/raed-ventures-fund-iii-344810). Quoted: "The $150-million fund will invest in early-stage startups in the MENA region"; photograph caption "Saed Nashef, founding partner, Raed Ventures."
|
||||
[^7]: "3 September 2024: Riyadh Valley Company Announces Investment in Raed Ventures Third Fund," Riyadh Valley Company, Wayback capture of 2024 (https://web.archive.org/web/2024/https://rvc.com.sa/en/riyadh-valley-company-announces-investment-in-raed-ventures-iii-fund/). Quoted: "Riyadh Valley Company, the investment arm of King Saud University, announces its investment in Raed Ventures' third fund (RAED III LP)." The chief executive's statement is quoted in the release.
|
||||
[^8]: "SVC boosts Saudi startup ecosystem with investments in MEVP and Raed III," Sharikat Mubasher, December 22, 2024 (https://en.sharikatmubasher.com/media-hub/news/21458110/svc-boosts-saudi-startup-ecosystem-with-investments-in-mevp-and-raed-iii?lang=en). Quoted: "In addition, SVC has also invested in Raed III L.P., an early-stage venture capital fund managed by Raed Ventures." CEO quotation attributed to Nabeel Koshak, CEO and Board Member, SVC.
|
||||
[^9]: Al Iqtisadiah, December 19, 2024, Arabic report on SVC's investment in Raed III (https://www.aleqt.com/2024/12/19/article_2754446.html). English gloss of the chief executive's statement: the investment in the fund managed by Raed Ventures is a continuation of SVC's strategy of supporting private investment funds focused on Saudi startups at their various stages of growth. The founding year (2018) and the Bank Al-Mensha'at ownership are from the same article.
|
||||
[^10]: "Fund of Funds Company (Jada)," Saudipedia (https://saudipedia.com/en/article/976/economy-and-business/companies/fund-of-funds-company-jada). States that the company was established by a decision of the Council of Ministers in 2016 with capital of SAR 4 billion, that it is owned by the Public Investment Fund, and that it invests in private equity and venture capital funds supporting small and medium enterprises.
|
||||
[^11]: RAED Ventures news page, Wayback capture of October 13, 2026 (https://web.archive.org/web/20261013212946/https://raed.vc/news/). Items include "Lamaa steals the spotlight with $5.5m investment co-led by Saudi Aramco and Raed Ventures" (1 Dec 2021).
|
||||
[^12]: Jada Fund of Funds, "Jada Leadership," https://www.jada.com.sa/our-leadership. Page text: "Chairman of the Board, Omar Al-Madhi"; "Vice Chairman of the Board, Eyas Al-Dossari"; "Member, Dr. Hani Enaya."
|
||||
[^13]: Jada Fund of Funds, "Our History," https://jada.com.sa/our-history. Timeline entry: "Jada Fund of Funds established by the Public Investment Fund (PIF)"; the timeline's year columns run 2018 to 2025.
|
||||
[^14]: Al-Madina, "نورة السرحان رئيسا تنفيذيا لمجلس إدارة الشركة السعودية للاستثمار الجريء" (Nora Al-Sarhan as chief executive of the board of the Saudi Venture Capital Company), June 3, 2026, https://www.al-madina.com/article/991960. Arabic: "أصدر مجلس إدارة الشركة السعودية للاستثمار الجريء (SVC) اليوم، قرارًا بتعيين نورة بنت محمد السرحان"; "ابتداءً من 1 يوليو 2026م"; "أن الدكتور كوشك سيواصل إسهامه ودعمه لمسيرة الشركة من خلال استمرار عضويته في مجلس الإدارة." English gloss: the board issued a decision today appointing Nora bint Mohammed Al-Sarhan, effective July 1, 2026; Dr. Koshak remains a board member.
|
||||
[^15]: SuperReturn Saudi Arabia, speaker profile of Omar Al-Madhi, https://informaconnect.com/superreturn-saudi-arabia/speakers/omar-al-madhi/.
|
||||
[^16]: Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, "Saudi Fund of Funds Bets $1.07 Billion on Small, Local Firms," February 24, 2020, https://agsi.org/analysis/saudi-fund-of-funds-bets-1-07-billion-on-small-local-firms/. "Jada's chairman of the board is Mazen al-Jubeir."
|
||||
[^17]: RAED Ventures, "Raed Ventures Welcomes New Partner Wael Nafee," news page dated November 8, 2021, Wayback capture of November 8, 2021 (https://web.archive.org/web/20211108182929/https://raed.vc/news/raed-ventures-welcomes-new-partner-wael-nafee/). Text: "Wael Nafee has been named Partner for Raed Ventures."
|
||||
[^18]: RAED Ventures, news release Raed Ventures Welcomes New Venture Partner, H.H. Prince Khalid Bin Bader Al Saud, dated February 6, 2025 (https://raed.vc/news/raed-ventures-welcomes-new-venture-partner-h-h-prince-khalid-bin-bader-al-saud/); Wayback capture of March 23, 2025 (https://web.archive.org/web/20250323020859/https://raed.vc/news/raed-ventures-welcomes-new-venture-partner-h-h-prince-khalid-bin-bader-al-saud/). Quoted: "He also serves as the MD & Vice Chairman of his family's private office." Arabic release, "رائد فنتشرز ترحب بانضمام صاحب السمو الأمير خالد بن بدر آل سعود كشريك للاستثمار," dated February 6, 2025, Wayback capture of March 23, 2025 (https://web.archive.org/web/20250323014854/https://raed.vc/ar/news/%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A6%D8%AF-%D9%81%D9%86%D8%AA%D8%B4%D8%B1%D8%B2-%D8%AA%D8%B1%D8%AD%D8%A8-%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%B6%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%85-%D8%B5%D8%A7%D8%AD%D8%A8-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%85%D9%88-%D8%A7%D9%84/). English gloss of the Arabic title: "Raed Ventures welcomes His Highness Prince Khalid bin Bader Al Saud as an investment partner."
|
||||
[^19]: RAED Ventures, news release Raed Ventures Welcomes New Venture Partner, Abdulrahman Alfozan, dated February 8, 2025 (https://raed.vc/news/raed-ventures-welcomes-new-venture-partner-abdulrahman-alfozan/); Wayback capture of March 23, 2025 (https://web.archive.org/web/20250323022105/https://raed.vc/news/raed-ventures-welcomes-new-venture-partner-abdulrahman-alfozan/). Quoted: "Currently, he is a Founding Engineer at Nash and previously spent five years at Meta (Facebook) as a Senior Engineer."
|
||||
[^20]: RAED Ventures, Arabic release "رائد فنتشرز ترحب بانضمام المهندس/ عبدالرحمن الفوزان كشريك للاستثمار" ("Raed Ventures welcomes Eng. Abdulrahman Alfozan as an investment partner"), dated February 10, 2025, Wayback capture of March 23, 2025 (https://web.archive.org/web/20250323011525/https://raed.vc/ar/news/%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A6%D8%AF-%D9%81%D9%86%D8%AA%D8%B4%D8%B1%D8%B2-%D8%AA%D8%B1%D8%AD%D8%A8-%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%B6%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%87%D9%86%D8%AF%D8%B3-%D8%B9%D8%A8%D8%AF%D8%A7/). The Arabic text describes him as a founding engineer at Nash and repeats the career history of the English release.
|
||||
[^21]: RAED Ventures, "Raed Ventures Welcomes New Growth Venture Partner - Kushal Shah," news page, publication metadata 2025-10-09 (https://raed.vc/news/raed-ventures-welcomes-new-growth-venture-partner-kushal-shah/). Quoted: "Raed Ventures is pleased to welcome Kushal Shah as Growth Venture Partner."
|
||||
[^22]: "ClearGrid, armed with a fresh $10M, is developing AI to improve debt collection in MENA," RAED Ventures news page, Wayback capture of January 23, 2026 (https://web.archive.org/web/20260123/https://raed.vc/news/cleargrid-armed-with-a-fresh-10m-is-developing-ai-to-improve-debt-collection-in-mena/). Original: "ClearGrid, armed with $10M, uses AI to fix debt collection in MENA," TechCrunch, March 19, 2025 (https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/19/cleargrid-armed-with-10m-uses-ai-to-fix-debt-collection-in-mena). Quoted from TechCrunch: "ClearGrid's investors include Middle East and North Africa-focused VCs Beco Capital, Nuwa Capital, and Raed Ventures." Co-founder names from the TechCrunch text: "Al Zaben and his co-founders, Khalid Bin Bader Al Saud and Mohammad Al-Khalili." The firm's repost spells the second co-founder Mohammed AlKhalili.
|
||||
[^23]: "Saudi AI startup Echelon secures backing from East40, RAED Ventures and Avra," Wamda, October 7, 2026 (https://www.wamda.com/ar/2026/10/saudi-ai-startup-echelon-secures-backing-east40-raed-ventures-avra). Quoted: "backed by East40, RAED Ventures and Avra, alongside Ben Horowitz and other investors." Founding year 2025; planned Frontier and Institute launches in Q4 2026 and Echelon Defense Industries in Q1 2027.
|
||||
[^24]: "OpenAI engineer arrested for alleged bugging of executive conference room," The San Francisco Standard, October 13, 2026 (https://sfstandard.com/2026/10/13/openai-engineer-arrested-alleged-bugging-executive-conference-room/). Quoted: "He has a master's degree in data science from UC Berkeley, the LinkedIn profile says." Detention hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Alex G. Tse set for Oct. 19. Penalty: up to five years and a $250,000 fine on conviction. Prior employers: Nash, 2022 to August 2025; Meta, 2017 to 2022.
|
||||
[^25]: LinkedIn, public profile of Abdulrahman Alfozan, logged-out view captured October 13, 2026 (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alfozan), as transcribed on the Abdulrahman Alfozan page: MIT projects 2012 and 2013 (MAS.863; Lounge, MIT 2013 iCampus second place); OpenAI role start September 2025.
|
||||
[^26]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, "Saudi national arrested for installing surreptitious audio recording device at OpenAI," October 13, 2026 (https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/saudi-national-arrested-installing-surreptitious-audio-recording-device-openai). Quoted: "Alfozan had been employed as an engineer by OpenAI since July 2025." The release describes the arrest as taking place on Oct. 9 and states that "Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicolas Parker for the Northern District of California is prosecuting the case."
|
||||
[^27]: RAED Ventures about page, Wayback captures of September 19, 2024 (https://web.archive.org/web/20240919082239/https://raed.vc/about/), March 22, 2025 (https://web.archive.org/web/20250322045647/https://raed.vc/about/), May 21, 2025 (https://web.archive.org/web/20250521184605/https://raed.vc/about/), August 21, 2025 (https://web.archive.org/web/20250821040828/https://raed.vc/about/), and January 23, 2026 (https://web.archive.org/web/20260123220439/https://raed.vc/about/).
|
||||
[^28]: RAED Ventures homepage, Wayback captures of May 19, 2025 (https://web.archive.org/web/20250519075219/https://raed.vc/), August 21, 2025 (https://web.archive.org/web/20250821032650/https://raed.vc/), January 23, 2026 (https://web.archive.org/web/20260123220000/https://raed.vc/), and March 4, 2026 (https://web.archive.org/web/20260304112930/https://raed.vc/); live page on October 13, 2026 (https://raed.vc/).
|
||||
[^29]: RAED Ventures portfolio page, Wayback capture of March 23, 2025 (https://web.archive.org/web/20250323002247/https://raed.vc/portfolio/). Counts as printed on the page: "All (46)," "Saudi Arabia (23)," "Egypt (10)," "UAE (9)," "USA (1)," "Jordan (1)," "Bahrain (1)," "Pakistan (1)." Entries quoted or paraphrased: Vectara, Crowd Analyzer, Mozn, Quant, Lean, Lamaa, ClearGrid.
|
||||
[^30]: Wamda, "Raed Ventures" tag page (https://www.wamda.com/en/tag/Raed%20Ventures), accessed October 13, 2026. Headlines and dates as listed: "Signit raises $15 million Series A led by Raed Ventures" (2026); "Think gears up for GCC expansion with $8 million pre-seed funding" (July 2026); "XSquare raises pre-Seed round to expand into Saudi Arabia" (August 2026); "Rize closes $35 million Series A led by Raed Ventures" (2025); "Halo AI closes $6 million Seed led by Raed Ventures, Shorooq" (2025); "SiFi closes $10 million Seed led by Sanabil Investments, RAED Ventures" (2024); "Saudi AI startup Mozn raises $10 million Series A funding" (2022); "Dawul raises $5 million in Seed round led by RAED Ventures" (2022). Lead and co-lead roles are as the tag listing records them.
|
||||
[^31]: "Saudi AI startup Mozn raises $10 million Series A funding," Wamda, February 4, 2022 (https://www.wamda.com/en/2022/02/saudi-ai-startup-mozn-raises-10-million-series-funding). Quoted: "The funding round is led by Raed Ventures with participation from Shorooq Partners, VentureSouq, Sukna Ventures and other investors"; "Focal aims to be the one-stop shop for AML compliance and to help financial institutions and governments fight complex financial crimes." RAED's news listing prints the item as 3 Feb 2022.
|
||||
[^32]: MOZN, "Public Sector" (https://www.mozn.sa/industries/public-sector) and "Defense" (https://www.mozn.sa/industries/defense), pages retrieved October 13, 2026. Quoted: "Enterprise AI platform for the work government cannot get wrong"; "already proven in the region's top government entities"; "Enterprise AI platform for ensuring the highest standards of efficiency and effectiveness for organizations that are responsible for national security. Deployed on-premise or fully air-gapped"; landscape headings "Headquarters & Command Support," "Military Logistics & Sustainment," "Defense Industrial Base & Localization," "Internal Security, Borders & Civil Protection."
|
||||
[^33]: "Saudi Arabia's Mozn partners with Google Cloud to combat financial crime," Arab News, March 6, 2024 (https://www.arabnews.com/node/2471571/business-economy); "STC Bank partners with Mozn to strengthen financial crime prevention with FOCAL platform," Saudi Gazette, October 2025 (https://saudigazette.com.sa/article/655488/BUSINESS/STC-Bank-partners-with-Mozn-to-strengthen-financial-crime-prevention-through-FOCAL-platform); "AlRajhi Bank partners with Mozn to harness AI in the fight against fraud," Mozn, October 2025 (https://www.mozn.sa/blog/alrajhi-bank-partners-with-mozn-to-harness-ai-in-the-fight-against-fraud).
|
||||
[^34]: "Saudi AI firm MOZN secures strategic investment from HUMAIN," Wamda, August 2026 (https://www.wamda.com/en/2026/08/saudi-ai-firm-mozn-secures-strategic-investment-humain); BV Swagath, "HUMAIN invests in and partners with MOZN," Verdict, August 4, 2026 (https://www.verdict.co.uk/humain-mozn-enterprise-ai-partnership/): "HUMAIN, a technology company backed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), has announced a strategic investment in MOZN." HUMAIN chief executive Tareq Amin is quoted in the release: "Our first investment in a Saudi company with MOZN."
|
||||
[^35]: "Social media monitoring platform Crowd Analyzer scores $1.1 milion in latest funding by Wamda," Startup Bahrain, August 5, 2018 (https://startupbahrain.com/blog/social-media-monitoring-platform-crowd-analyzer-scores-1-1-milion-in-latest-funding-by-wamda). The pre-Series A "also saw contributions from regional venture capital firms such as Faith Capital, Raed VC, and Arzan Capital."
|
||||
[^36]: "Start-up Crowd Analyzer gets $3.5m from Mideast investors," Gulf News, November 26, 2019 (https://gulfnews.com/business/start-up-crowd-analyzer-gets-35m-from-mideast-investors-1.68096345); "Crowd Analyzer acquires brand activation platform TaskSpotting," Wamda, January 30, 2020 (https://wamda.com/2020/01/crowd-analyzer-acquires-brand-activation-platform-taskspotting).
|
||||
Loading…
Add table
Add a link
Reference in a new issue