How Saudi Arabia shaped Silicon Valley
3/26/202650 min
Elon Musk. Donald Trump. Bill Gates. Sam Altman. Larry Ellison. Alex Karp. Jared Kushner. Mr. Beast. Jeffrey Epstein… Those are just a few of the people who have been friendly with, and often done business with, Saudi Arabia over the last decade. Today on the show: how one of the world’s most authoritarian regimes became one of Silicon Valley’s biggest investors – and what that’s meant for the rest of us.
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
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Rund Abdelfatah· Host0:19
November 4th, 2017. [somber music] The phone rings at around 4:00 in the morning. A Saudi prince named Alwaleed bin Talal answers.
Bradley Hope· Guest0:31
"Come right away," A voice commands.
Rund Abdelfatah· Host0:34
Alwaleed bin Talal is a billionaire, a business partner of Bill Gates, a stakeholder in Apple and Twitter, a guy not used to taking orders, but his uncle is the king of Saudi Arabia, and he's told he wants to see him right away. So he gets in his car and drives to the royal court where another car pulls up. Prince Alwaleed is told to get in. [car door shutting] His driver, his guards, and his assistant are put in a different car. There's no time to grab his phone, and Prince Alwaleed finds himself completely alone.
Bradley Hope· Guest1:10
It's a long drive up almost like an official kind of road, heavy security on the outside, and walls around it.
Rund Abdelfatah· Host1:18
Perfectly manicured palm trees line the road. As the sun begins to rise, Prince Alwaleed sees an extravagant mansion with towering columns and rows of countless windows in the distance.