<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The author was recently interviewed by Doug Henwood on his book--</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span lang="EN">Silicon
Valley’s Saudi Arabia ProblemSilicon Valley’s Saudi Arabia Problem</span></b></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN">Technology
companies can no longer turn a blind eye to the human rights abuses of one of
their largest investors. </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span lang="EN">By <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/anand-giridharadas" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">Anand Giridharadas</a></span></b></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN">Mr. Giridharadas
is the author of “Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World.”</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">Somewhere in the
United States, someone is getting into an Uber en route to a WeWork co-working
space. Their dog is with a walker whom they hired through the app Wag. They
will eat a lunch delivered by DoorDash, while participating in several chat
conversations on Slack. And, for all of it, they have an unlikely benefactor to
thank: the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.</span><br></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN">Long before the
dissident Saudi journalist <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/09/world/middleeast/jamal-khashoggi-timeline.html?module=inline" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">Jamal
Khashoggi vanished</a>, the kingdom has sought influence in the West — perhaps
intended, in part, to make us forget what it is. A medieval theocracy that
still <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/26/saudi-arabia-criticised-over-executions-for-drug-offences" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">beheads by sword</a>, doubling as a modern nation with malls
(including a <a href="https://www.thenational.ae/business/maf-to-build-saudi-arabia-s-first-ski-slope-in-its-riyadh-malls-projects-1.207714" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">planned mall offering indoor skiing</a>), Saudi Arabia has been
called “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/21/opinion/saudi-arabia-an-isis-that-has-made-it.html?module=inline" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">an
ISIS that made it.</a>” Remarkably, the country has avoided pariah status in
the United States thanks to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/30/us/trump-oil-saudi-arabia.html?module=inline" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">our
thirst for oil</a>, Riyadh’s carefully cultivated <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/18/world/middleeast/jared-kushner-saudi-arabia-arms-deal-lockheed.html?module=inline" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">ties
with Washington</a>, its <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/22/us/politics/us-arms-sales-saudi-arabia-.html?module=inline" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">big
arms purchases</a>, and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/26/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-islam.html?module=inline" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">the
two countries’ shared interest in counterterrorism</a>. But lately the Saudis
have been growing their circle of American enablers, pouring billions into
Silicon Valley technology companies. </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN">While an earlier
generation of Saudi leaders, like <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-arrests-alwaleed-newsmaker/saudi-prince-alwaleed-has-invested-billions-in-companies-around-globe-idUSKBN1D50FO" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal</a>, invested billions of
dollars in blue-chip companies in the United States, the kingdom’s new crown
prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has shifted Saudi Arabia’s investment attention
from Wall Street to Silicon Valley. Saudi Arabia’s <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-08/what-now-for-saudi-arabia-s-planned-2-trillion-fund-quicktake" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">Public Investment Fund</a> has become one of Silicon Valley’s
biggest swinging checkbooks, working mostly through a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/10/technology/masayoshi-son-softbank-vision-fund.html?module=inline" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">$100
billion fund</a> raised by SoftBank (a Japanese company), which has
swashbuckled its way through the technology industry, often taking
multibillion-dollar stakes in promising companies. The Public Investment Fund <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/14/softbank-and-saudi-arabias-pif-planning-100bn-tech-fund/" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">put $45 billion</a> into SoftBank’s first Vision Fund, and
Bloomberg <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-05/saudi-arabia-doubles-down-on-softbank-bet-with-extra-45-billion" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">recently reported</a> that the Saudi fund would invest another
$45 billion into SoftBank’s second Vision Fund. </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN">SoftBank, with
the help of that Saudi money, is now said to be the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-softbank-tender/softbank-is-now-ubers-largest-shareholder-as-deal-closes-idUSKBN1F72WL" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">largest shareholder in Uber</a>. It has also put significant
money into a <a href="https://www.recode.net/2018/2/5/16974032/this-is-where-chart-softbank-vision-fund-masayoshi-son-venture-capital" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">long list of start-ups</a> that includes <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/30/on-demand-dog-walking-app-wag-raises-300-million-from-softbank-vision-fund/" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">Wag</a>, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-01/softbank-leads-535-million-investment-in-doordash-delivery-app" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">DoorDash</a>, <a href="https://www.recode.net/2018/10/9/17957916/softbank-wework-vision-fund-talks" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">WeWork</a>, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-19/softbank-s-vision-fund-leads-200-million-bet-on-indoor-farming" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">Plenty</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/31/business/dealbook/gm-softbank-cruise.html?module=inline" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">Cruise</a>,
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/24/business/dealbook/katerra-softbank-vision-fund.html?module=inline" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">Katerra</a>,
<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/07/softbank-nvidia-vision-fund/" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">Nvidia</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-slack-fundraising/slack-valued-at-5-1-billion-after-new-funding-led-by-softbank-idUSKCN1BT0KO" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">Slack</a>. As the world fills up car tanks with gas and climate
change worsens, Saudi Arabia reaps enormous profits — and some of that money
shows up in the bank accounts of fast-growing companies that love to talk about
“making the world a better place.” </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN">Advertisement</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN">Mohammed bin
Salman has carefully crafted a public image of himself as a <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-model-for-a-saudi-reformer-1531868178" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">reformer</a>, distancing himself from Saudi leaders of the
past. During a <a href="https://www.recode.net/2018/4/6/17206358/saudi-crown-prince-visit-tech-silicon-valley" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">recent visit to Silicon Valley</a>, <a href="http://fortune.com/2018/04/08/tim-cook-and-sergey-brin-met-with-the-saudi-crown-prince-in-silicon-valley/" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">reportedly</a> to discuss “potential cooperation between
American tech companies and Saudi Arabia,” the Saudi ruler did away with his
traditional white robes as he met with executives and investors. On his tour,
he was seen <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/07/heres-a-look-at-who.html" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">walking around with Sergey Brin of Google</a>, <a href="http://english.alarabiya.net/en/business/technology/2016/06/22/Saudi-s-Deputy-Crown-Prince-meets-Facebook-founder-Mark-Zuckerberg.html" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">exchanging smiles with Mark Zuckerberg while exploring Facebook</a>,
and <a href="http://www.arabnews.com/node/1276676/saudi-arabia" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">sitting
down with Jeff Bezos of Amazon</a>, who owns The Washington Post, for which Mr.
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2018/10/06/read-jamal-khashoggis-columns-for-the-washington-post/?utm_term=.b845287a644b" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">Khashoggi wrote</a> until he vanished. </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN">The crown
prince’s visit to Silicon Valley appears to have paid off for all involved.
Silicon Valley celebrated one of its largest investors, the crown prince
cemented his public image as a progressive start-up investor, and several of
the executives he met have since <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tech-execs-named-saudi-board-controversy-jamal-khashoggi-disappearance-2018-10" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">joined the advisory board</a> of <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/10/saudis-500-billion-mega-city-neom-is-attracting-overwhelming-interest-from-investors.html" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">Neom</a>, his $500 billion megacity project. A former United
States energy secretary, Ernest Moniz, suspended his involvement in Neom
earlier this week, <a href="https://www.axios.com/obama-energy-secretary-suspends-role-saudi-project-a2c0c3c4-2a71-487f-8aab-6580da5dc1e0.html" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">telling Axios </a>that he has concerns “about the disappearance
and possible assassination of Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in
Istanbul.” Y Combinator’s president, Sam Altman, also suspended his involvement
in the megacity project, saying that he doesn’t “plan to comment on the case
until the investigation is finished.” Many other Neom advisory board members —
including Marc Andreessen of the famed Silicon Valley investment firm
Andreessen Horowitz; the former Uber C.E.O. Travis Kalanick; and the Boston
Dynamics C.E.O., Marc Raibert — <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/silicon-valley-leaders-disassociate-saudi-arabia-board-neom" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">remain on the board</a> as of now. </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN">You have 4 free
articles remaining.</span></p>

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN">The bond between
Saudi Arabia and Silicon Valley will be further strengthened later this month,
at the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh — also known as “<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-11/saudi-davos-prep-overshadowed-by-outcry-over-writer-s-fate" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">Davos in the Desert</a>.” Speakers listed on the <a href="http://futureinvestmentinitiative.com/en/2018/speakers" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">conference
website</a> as of this writing include the Lucid Motors C.T.O., Peter
Rawlinson; the Google Cloud C.E.O., Diane Greene; the Magic Leap chief product
officer, Omar Khan; and Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures. They will be joined by
hundreds of other investors, executives, and government officials, including
the president of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, and the United States Treasury
secretary, Steve Mnuchin. According to <a href="http://futureinvestmentinitiative.com/en/home" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">its
website</a>, the event is “powered by the Public Investment Fund.” Several
speakers <a href="https://www.axios.com/companies-saudi-arabia-conference-khashoggi-disappearance-153deaec-1282-4723-91f2-2ea8998d5fe2.html" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">have dropped out</a>, including the Uber C.E.O., Dara
Khosrowshahi, who stated that he was “very troubled by the reports to date
about Jamal Khashoggi.” </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN">The kingdom’s
influence in the United States government has long bought a certain amount of
silence, which was evidenced most famously in the so-called “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/07/15/us/document-september-11-28-pages.html?module=inline" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">28
pages</a>”: a classified portion of Congress’s investigation of the Sept. 11,
2001, attacks that disclosed Saudi linkages to the hijackers that were
suggestive, if hardly conclusive, of official support — <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/282378-9-11-families-plead-with-white-house-to-release-secret-28-pages" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">pages that victims’ families long struggled to get declassified</a>.
But the push into Silicon Valley — into companies whose technology is used by
millions — represents a potentially dangerous new front of Saudi
influence-peddling: Riyadh underwriting ever more of our daily conveniences,
making us complicit in the regime’s deeds.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN">The facts of the
journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance remain a mystery. But if he was, as
Turkish officials <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/09/world/europe/jamal-khashoggi-turkey-saudi-arabia.html?module=inline" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">have
suggested</a>, murdered at the behest of the Saudi kingdom, it wouldn’t be out
of character. Despite image-burnishing attempts like the crown prince’s Silicon
Valley tour, Saudi Arabia remains a paragon of human rights abuse. It continues
to use punishments outlawed elsewhere, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/26/saudi-arabia-criticised-over-executions-for-drug-offences" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">carrying out 48 beheadings in the first four months of 2018</a>.
In August, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/saudi-arabia-seeks-unprecedented-death-penalty-woman-activist-n902771" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">it was reported</a> that Saudi prosecutors were seeking
unprecedented authority to behead a female activist for nonviolent offenses,
which included protesting against the government. </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN"> </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN">Saudi Arabia’s
laws treat women as second-class citizens, only <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/04/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-drivers-licenses-women.html?module=inline" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">recently
granting</a> them the power to drive — and only once it had become clear that
this freedom would be short-lived, thanks to Silicon Valley’s driverless car
technology, in which the Saudi fund has invested. The Saudis have fueled a
civil war in Yemen that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/28/world/middleeast/un-yemen-war-crimes.html?module=inline" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">is
reported</a> to have cost at least 16,000 lives; <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23479&LangID=E" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">a report</a> from the United Nations Human Rights Council
suggests that Saudi Arabia may be guilty of war crimes for its involvement in
the civil war of its southern neighbor. And, thanks to the world’s need for its
oil, the kingdom has enjoyed a stunning immunity from justice for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/26/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-islam.html?module=inline" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">its
role in financing Islamist extremism around the world</a>.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN">As Saudi Arabia
establishes its new role as one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent investors,
the risk grows that its investments will purchase silence. Companies that pride
themselves on openness and freedom may find themselves unable to speak ill of
one of their largest investors. </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN">Fearing that this
would be so, I reached out to several of the technology companies that have
received significant cash from Saudi Arabia’s <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-08/what-now-for-saudi-arabia-s-planned-2-trillion-fund-quicktake" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">Public Investment Fund</a>. I asked Uber, Wag, DoorDash,
Katerra, WeWork, Slack and Plenty if there was any aspect of Saudi Arabia’s
conduct in Mr. Khashoggi’s apparent murder that the company disavowed. “Or,” I
asked, “does the investment from PIF come with an expectation of remaining
silent about Saudi conduct?” All of the companies either declined to respond at
all, or responded with a refusal to comment on the record about the Saudi
kingdom’s behavior.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN">Silicon Valley
has enough issues already: Tech companies are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/cambridge-analytica-facebook-influence-us-election" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">compromising our elections</a>, <a href="https://nypost.com/2018/02/03/big-techs-monopolistic-rule-is-hiding-in-plain-sight/" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">upholding monopolies</a>, and profiteering from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/10/tech-companies-data-online-transactions-friction" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">the abuse of privacy</a>. There is no need to add to that list
by becoming a reputation-laundering machine for one of the least admirable
regimes on earth — a regime that would seem to violate all the values that
Silicon Valley is proud of trumpeting.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN">Arvind Ganesan,
director of the business and human rights program of Human Rights Watch, told
me in an email that the Riyadh conference “will be a litmus test for
businesses’ willingness to go along with a Saudi narrative that is increasingly
disconnected from reality.” Foreign businesses “risk more than reputational
harm,” he added. “They’re enabling part of his narrative.”</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN">If the Valley is
sincere that it will “change the world” and “<a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/40572751/ubers-new-mantra-is-do-the-right-thing-employment-lawyers-are-still-waiting" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">do the right thing, period</a>,” then the Saudi government’s
billions of dollars in investment capital should be returned, and Silicon
Valley companies should refuse any further investments. Every business leader
and news organization of conscience should pull out from the Public Investment
Fund-powered conference and suspend any involvement with Saudi-funded projects
like Neom — at the very least, until the disappearance and potential murder of
Mr. Khashoggi have been suitably investigated, but perhaps beyond that, given
the regime’s broader human rights record. (I became aware during the writing of
this piece that <a href="https://twitter.com/grynbaum/status/1050157874662531072" target="_blank" style="color:black;text-decoration-line:none">The
New York Times had been listed among the conference’s sponsors but has since
withdrawn</a>.)</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN">Mr. Khashoggi
couldn’t be intimidated by his country. He might have given his life for his
bravery. Silicon Valley must choose where it stands on the questions of lies
and truth, cowardice and courage that defined his work. Turning a blind eye to
the human rights abuses of Saudi Arabia is no way of “changing the world.”</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN">Anand
Giridharadas is the author of, most recently, “Winners Take All: The Elite
Charade of Changing the World.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%"><span lang="EN"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14.6667px"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/12/opinion/silicon-valley-saudi-arabia.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage">https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/12/opinion/silicon-valley-saudi-arabia.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage</a></span></font><br></span></p></div></div>