Saudi Arabia plans to build a city in Neom dubbed The Line.

Saudi Arabia’s NEOM will invest $50M in Animoca Brands

Saudi Arabia’s ambitious NEOM Company threw its support behind Web3 in a big way today with a $50 million investment into Animoca Brands.

The initiative for NEOM and the investment in Animoca Brands, a game publisher with hundreds of investment in Web3 games, is aligned with the Saudi Vision 2030 plan to modernize the country. Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, is serious about diversifying the economy beyond oil and steel. It’s part of a $37 billion plan to invest heavily in gaming.

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Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.