One of the United Arab Emirates’ largest sovereign wealth funds is establishing a base in California, with the intention of helping the Middle Eastern nation grow some of its oil profits into new technology-driven riches.

That fund is the Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Investment Co., and it has close ties to Japanese technology giant SoftBank Group Corp., which has already plowed millions of dollars into U.S. tech firms via its enormous $100 billion Vision Fund.

Not to be left behind, Mubadala said it’s setting up offices in San Francisco, from where it plans to fund early-stage startups to the tune of $400 million of its own. The fund will also commit an additional $50 million to $70 million toward a “fund of funds” that plans to invest in a number of venture capital companies.

Oil-dependent Middle Eastern nations such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar are all trying to diversify away from their most profitable industry and see the highly lucrative technology sector as one of their best bets to succeed, Recode noted. With that in mind, Mubadala is also being tasked with overseeing an additional $15 billion that the Abu Dhabi government has committed toward SoftBank’s Vision Fund, making it one of the fund’s largest backers.

Mubadala said that it intends to fund founder-led startups in Series A or later-stage deals. It ultimately plans to create a portfolio of about 25 tech firms based in North America and Europe.

“Mubadala’s venture capital business intends to become an active member of the ventures community, leveraging Mubadala’s global scale and power,” said Ibrahim Ajami, head of the ventures unit. “Our differentiators include a long-term partnership mindset, access to Mubadala’s portfolio of global assets across 13 sectors, and our strategic partnership with SoftBank.”

Mubadala already knows its way around the tech landscape, having previously funded companies such as Soft Machines Inc., a semiconductor firm reportedly acquired by Intel Corp. last year. It also invested in an Ethernet company called Aquantia Corp., which filed for its initial public offering just last week with the intention of raising $86 million.

Mubadala’s most notable foray into the tech world however is its investment in U.K.-based microprocessor designer ARM Holdings Plc. The fund became an investor in ARM after largest shareholder SoftBank sold an $8 billion stake in the company to its Vision Fund.

Image: neildodhia/pixabay