Qatar Investment Authority to open Silicon Valley office

Qatar’s Sovereign Wealth Fund said today that it would open a San Francisco office to expand its extend its US footprint, according to Reuters.

It is apparently also still considering investing in a technology fund formed by SoftBank Group Corp.

The news comes as Associated Press announced that former FC Barcelona sponsor the Qatar Foundation is considering cutting hundreds of jobs.

“Soon we will be opening an office in the Silicon Valley in San Francisco,” the fund’s CEO, Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Saud al-Thani, told reporters at an investment conference in London.

“What we plan is to open the office hopefully by the end of this year, if not by end of this year then it will be first quarter of next year, he said. “It will be linked very commercially to our office in New York and we will take it from there.”

The Qatar Investment Authority, one of the most active in the world, has interests across industries including real estate and luxury goods. Its interests have traditionally been focused in Europe, but it has said it is looking to diversify into Asia and the United States.

Qatar was considering investing in a $100 billion global technology fund formed by SoftBank Group Corp, the Japanese telecommunications and internet company, and Saudi Arabia, Bloomberg reported in October.

In 2015, Qatar said it would spend $35 billion in the United States over the next five years after opening an office in New York. In December, the fund said it would invest $10 billion in infrastructure projects inside the United States.

The QIA has about $334 billion of assets, according to industry tracker Sovereign Wealth Center.

Meanwhile, on home soil, Qatar Foundation is reportedly set to cut hundreds of jobs.

Qatar has now become the latest GCC country to acknowledge that it is being affected by low global energy prices, despite its status as 2022 FIFA World Cup host, and as the world’s largest producer of liquefied natural gas.

The foundation said in a Sunday statement that it was “examining our existing operational costs,” when asked if it was cutting jobs.

News of the cuts was first reported by the website Doha News, which suggested the layoffs could affect hundreds of workers.

The Foundation was previously shirt sponsor for world-famous Spanish football club FC Barcelona, and is chaired by Sheikha Moza bint Nasser al-Missned, the most high-profile wife of former ruler Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani.