Background: Since its release in 2016, Pokemon Go has raked in over $5.84 billion USD in revenue — that’s basically the GDP of a small country like Malta! And it’s not all nostalgia — the game still has over 115 million active users every month (despite being less than half the number of players it had during its peak).

What happened: Now, Pokemon Go's owner, Niantic has decided to sell their gaming division (including Pokemon Go) to Scopely for $3.5 billion USD to focus more on their Augmented Reality (AR) mapping technology.

What else: Scopely is an American video game developer owned by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund. And this deal between Niantic and Scopely is Saudi Arabia’s way of adding a power-up to their e-sports portfolio.

What's the key learning?

💡A sovereign wealth fund is bit like a giant investment account — for a country. Instead of letting extra money just sit around, governments invest it into different assets.

💡While many countries have sovereign wealth funds, it's particularly valuable for countries that rely on natural resources to generate an income. Saudi Arabia is the largest oil exporter in the world, but oil is a limited resource so Saudi Arabia need a plan B in case it runs out one day.

💡Australia also have a sovereign wealth fund called Future Fund that was established in 2006 which is worth a lazy $225 billion. Nothing to sneeze at, but quite tiny compared the Saudi fund which is worth $930 billion USD.