Kingdom Holding Company has acquired a stake in Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV), the clean energy investment platform founded by Bill Gates, from its chairman Prince Alwaleed bin Talal for SAR 255 million ($68 million).
The deal, executed through a share purchase agreement signed on 1 April and funded from internal resources, values the stake at roughly 30% below its most recent audited fair value of approximately $98 million.
The transaction transfers an investment that Prince Alwaleed originally made personally into Kingdom Holding's corporate portfolio. In December 2016, Alwaleed Philanthropies committed $50 million to BEV after Prince Alwaleed joined the Breakthrough Energy Coalition in November 2015, a group of high-profile investors who collectively pledged more than $1 billion toward emerging energy technologies.
The stake's valuation has been relatively stable, recorded at $96.6 million in 2022, $91.4 million in 2023 and $98 million in the latest reporting period, placing Kingdom Holding's entry below all three marks.
The deal is a related-party transaction given Prince Alwaleed's dual role as seller and chairman, and he remains Kingdom Holding's largest shareholder with over 78% of the company. PIF acquired a 16.87% stake in Kingdom Holding from the prince in 2022.
Kingdom Holding has previously acquired other assets from Prince Alwaleed's personal portfolio, including a $450 million Citigroup stake transfer that lifted the company's holding in the US bank to 2.2%.
The relationship between Prince Alwaleed and Gates stretches back decades. The two were co-owners of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts from 1997, each holding 47.5% through their respective vehicles (Kingdom Holding and Gates' Cascade Investment), with founder Isadore Sharp retaining 5%. In 2021, Cascade paid $2.2 billion to acquire a further 23.75 % from Kingdom Holding, taking its stake to 71.25 % at a $10 billion enterprise value. Beyond hotels, the pair collaborated through the Breakthrough Energy Coalition and the Gates Foundation's global health initiatives, with Alwaleed Philanthropies providing a $30 million grant to the Foundation's Polio Eradication Fund.
BEV, headquartered in Washington, was launched in 2016 with more than $1 billion from Gates and other high-profile investors to fund emerging clean energy research over longer time horizons than traditional venture capital. The fund invests across agriculture, electricity, transportation, manufacturing and buildings, backing companies developing technologies from low-carbon cement and green steel to long-duration energy storage and industrial decarbonisation.
The fund's portfolio includes a regional connection. BEV is an investor in 44.01, the Oman-based climate tech startup founded by Talal Hasan that eliminates CO2 by accelerating the natural process of carbon mineralisation in peridotite rock. BEV first backed 44.01 in an early round alongside Sam Altman's Apollo Projects, and recommitted in the company's $37 million Series A in July 2024, which was led by Equinor Ventures and Shorooq Partners. The company's technology, which can sequester 50 to 60 tonnes of CO2 per day in current testing, targets 100 tonnes daily per borehole at commercial scale.
Kingdom Holding said the acquisition aligns with its strategy of providing shareholders access to investment opportunities not broadly available in public markets, particularly in emerging and transformative sectors. The deal is not expected to materially alter the company's operational structure.
