Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Investment Co. sees significant opportunities in renewable energy in Saudi Arabia, given the Kingdom’s demand for power at an attractive cost, CEO Khaldoon Al Mubarak told CNBC in an interview.
Saudi Arabia has a huge demand…when it comes to power. And solar is becoming so efficient and so attractive from a cost base perspective; you're looking at cost per kilowatt south of two cents a kilowatt,” Mubarak said.
“If you look at the cost base today that you have in Saudi Arabia for the existing utilities, there's no doubt that the opportunity is going to be there for large scale solar power plants across Saudi Arabia. So that's one area, as an example, that I think is going to be extremely attractive for both Saudi Arabia and the investors coming in,” he added.
Mubadala Investment was formed in a $125 billion merger earlier this year between Mubadala Development Co. and International Petroleum Investment Co. (Ipic).
The company is organized across four investment platforms: petroleum and petrochemicals; technology, manufacturing and mining; aerospace, information and communications technology, and renewables; and alternative investments and infrastructure.
Mubadala is among several companies backing SoftBank’s Vision Fund, launched last year by Japan’s SoftBank and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF). The Abu Dhabi company plans to invest $15 billion in the venture, which raised $93 billion in capital this May.
“Since the fund's inception, we've done, I would say, more than 20 transactions since we've entered into this partnership, all of which I think we're very excited about,” Mubarak said.
Mubadala is interested in opportunities in domains like artificial intelligence, ride-sharing, virtual reality, and e-commerce.
“We want to find the right platforms to invest in, and I think we've done that through this partnership,” Mubarak added.
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