By Yousef Saba
DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's sovereign Public Investment Fund held $30.9 billion worth of U.S. stocks at the end of 2022, down from $36.8 billion at the end of September, dragged down by a $6.8 billion decrease in value of electric carmaker Lucid (LCID.O), it said in a regulatory filing.
PIF, which already owned more than 60% of Lucid, bought more than 93.75 million shares in the carmaker in the third quarter, according to Reuters calculations based on the U.S. filing.
That was equivalent to roughly 5.6% of Lucid shares, according to calculations based on Refinitiv data.
PIF's stake in Lucid, despite increasing, nearly halved in value to $7.57 billion at the end of December from $14.18 billion three months earlier, the filing showed.
Shares of Lucid, which plans to build its first overseas factory in Saudi Arabia, were down 51% in the fourth quarter.
PIF, at the centre of Saudi Arabia's ambitious plans to diversify the economy away from oil, invested over $1 billion in Lucid in 2018.
Building electric vehicles is part of the kingdom's push to create new industries and jobs.
Last year Saudi Arabia signed a deal with Lucid to buy up to 100,000 of its cars over the following decade.
PIF cut its holding in online luxury shopping retailer Farfetch (NYSE:FTCH) shares by 36.5% and the value of its holding decreased by about $14.7 million in the fourth quarter, the filing showed.
It also bought more than 39,000 additional shares in "Call of Duty" maker Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI) and the value of its stake rose nearly $86.7 million.
The value of PIF's stake in Uber (NYSE:UBER) fell by nearly $129 million, the filing showed.