How are we supposed to think about Saudi money in biotech?

As the biggest wheels of global finance grapple with how to deal with Saudi Arabia’s alleged involvement in the murder of a journalist, a slew of private companies face an awkward question: What do you do when the nation’s sovereign wealth fund is an investor?

“Saudi Backlash Threatens U.S. Startups,” says this headline, while this one explores “Silicon Valley’s Saudi Arabia Problem.” What complicates the whole narrative is that most of Saudi Arabia’s startup exposure — including all of its investments in biotech — comes through the SoftBank Vision Fund, a $92 billion investment empire that makes its own decisions but owes about half of its assets to the Saudis.

So if you’re Roivant Sciences, Guardant Health, or Vir Biotechnology — all of whom have received SoftBank money and either declined to comment or didn’t respond to a question from STAT — what should you do? The thing about global capitalism is that it's global, and so while you might not solicit Saudi money, you don’t control who funds your funders — and thus who benefits from your success.