Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) has a 4.69 percent stake in the US-based electric vehicles (EV) battery manufacturer, QuantumScape Corp, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing by the company.
QIA was an early investor of QuantumScape before its IPO and had 6.5 percent of share as of November last year, based on a previous filing. The new filing does not show any change in the number of shares it owns, but a dilution in its stake due to a rise in the number of shares outstanding.
According to Refinitiv Eikon’s data, QIA’s stake in QuantumScape is worth around $446 million at the company’s current market value of $9.5 billion. QuantumScape was listed last year after a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). Shares of the EV battery maker were down over 70 percent year-to-date. Last day, it was trading at $23.27, up 1 percent, erasing early losses.
QuantumScape is a 2010 spin-out from Stanford University whose early investors included Bill Gates-backed venture funds. It formed a joint venture with Volkswagen (VW) to produce solid-state battery cells for its EVs starting in 2024 and eventually for other carmakers. VW is the company’s biggest shareholder with a 26 percent stake.
In the past year, the gulf sovereign funds have increased their investments in electric cars, new technologies and renewables, as they are looking to diversify their investments away from fossil fuel.
The sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, Public Investment Fund (PIF) recently made huge gains through the listing of American EV manufacturer, Lucid Group after it initially invested in the company in 2018.
