Japanese financial giant SBI Holdings and Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil company of Saudi Arabia, are exploring a partnership in digital asset investment and semiconductor production. They have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that includes plans to establish SBI Middle East in Riyadh, serving as a hub for their regional operations.
Under the MoU, signed on December 7, SBI Holdings and Saudi Aramco are considering joint ventures in digital assets, including co-investments in digital asset portfolios. They are looking to identify Japanese digital asset startups interested in expanding into Saudi Arabia and to initiate semiconductor production projects in both countries. The MoU also leaves room for expanding the scope of their alliance upon mutual agreement.
Saudi Aramco, the world’s second-largest company by revenue after Walmart, is looking at investments that complement its supply chain. While cryptocurrency is not legally recognized in Saudi Arabia, the government has shown significant interest in Web3 technologies. The partnership between SBI Holdings and Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing was also noted in this context.
This move marks another significant step by SBI Holdings to strengthen its presence in the Middle East. In November, SBI entered a joint venture with SC Ventures, the fintech investment arm of British bank Standard Chartered, to establish an investment company in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This company aims to invest in various areas, including market infrastructure, risk management, compliance tools, decentralized finance (DeFi), tokenization, consumer payments, and the metaverse.
In September, SBI Holdings partnered with UAE-based TradeFinex for a joint venture in Japan to adapt TradeFinex’s XDC Network enterprise blockchain for the Japanese market.
SBI Holdings, as the largest external shareholder of Ripple, has maintained a partnership with the company since 2018. In late November, SBI Holdings announced another MoU with Circle, aimed at increasing the circulation of USD Coin (USDC) and expanding Web3 services in Japan, pending regulatory approval.
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