By Saeed Azhar
DUBAI -Sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) holds a 4.69% stake in Quantumscape Corp, which is developing batteries for electric cars, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing by the company showed.
QIA was an early investor in the company before its IPO and had a stake of 6.5% as of November last year, based on a previous filing.
However the new filing does not show any change in the number of shares it owns, but a dilution in its stake due to an increase in the number of shares outstanding.
QIA's stake in Quantumscape is worth around $446 million at the company's current market value of $9.5 billion, according to Refinitiv Eikon data on Monday.
Quantumscape was listed last year after a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
Shares of Quantumscape are down over 70% year-to-date. On Monday, it was trading at $23.27 at 1915 GMT, up 1%, erasing early losses.
Volkswagen AG is the company's biggest shareholder with a 26% stake.
San Jose-based Quantumscape is a 2010 spin-out from Stanford University whose early investors included Bill Gates-backed venture funds. It formed a joint venture with VW to produce solid-state battery cells, starting in 2024, for VW’s electric vehicles, and eventually for other carmakers.
Gulf sovereign funds have stepped up investments in electric cars, new technologies and renewables, as they diversify their investments away from fossil fuel.
The Public Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund of neighbouring Saudi Arabia, recently made huge gains through the listing of Lucid Group after it initially invested in the company in 2018. PIF owns 62.7% of Lucid.
