UAE 'spy sheikh' invested in Trump-linked firm days before US president's inauguration: Report
According to documents from the company, just four days before Donald Trump's inauguration last year, associates of a royal family in Abu Dhabi covertly agreed to invest half a billion dollars in exchange for a 49% ownership in the Trump family's nascent cryptocurrency project.
The deal with World Liberty Financial, which hasn’t previously been reported, was signed by Eric Trump, the president’s son. At least $31 million was also slated to flow to entities affiliated with the family of Steve Witkoff, a World Liberty co-founder who weeks earlier had been appointed as US envoy to the Middle East, the documents said.
The investment was backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, an Abu Dhabi royal who has been demanding access from the US to protected artificial intelligence chips, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
Tahnoon, who is sometimes referred to as the “spy sheikh”, is the brother of the president of the United Arab Emirates and serves as the UAE government’s national security adviser as well as the head of the country’s largest wealth fund.
Furthermore, he is responsible for overseeing a more than $1.3 trillion empire that is funded by his personal wealth and government funds. Tahnoon is one of the most powerful single investors in the world.
What is worth noting about the deal is that it marked something unprecedented in American politics: a foreign government official taking a major ownership stake in an incoming US president’s venture.
Trump’s election opened the door for Tahnoon to get the AI hardware that he was not able to under the Biden administration over fears that the sensitive technology could be diverted to China.
In the months that followed, Tahnoon met multiple times with Trump, Witkoff, and other US officials.
During a March visit to the White House, the sheikh told officials he was eager to work with the US on AI and other issues, according to people familiar with the matter.
Two months after the meeting, the administration agreed to give the Persian Gulf state access to around 500,000 of the most advanced AI chips each year. This amount would be enough to build one of the world’s largest AI data center networks.
Under the framework agreement, roughly one-fifth of the chips were set to go to Tahnoon’s own company, the AI firm G42, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.
The firm had caused alarm among intelligence officials and lawmakers over its close ties to the sanctioned tech giant Huawei and other Chinese firms. The company asserted it severed ties with China in late 2023, but concerns remained.
Of the first $250 million payment from the Tahnoon-backed company, Aryam Investment 1, $187 million went to Trump family-linked companies DT Marks DEFI LLC and DT Marks SC LLC, according to the documents.
In addition to the payout to Witkoff family entities, another $31 million was directed to an entity tied to co-founders Zak Folkman and Chase Herro.
The agreement would make Aryam the largest shareholder in World Liberty and its only known investor outside the founders.
The deal placed two Aryam executives, who also held top positions at Tahnoon’s G42, on World Liberty’s five-person board. At the time, the board included Eric Trump and Zach Witkoff, the son of Steve Witkoff, the documents said.
On January 16, 2025, representatives of Aryam signed the $500 million agreement with Trump and Witkoff’s company, World Liberty.
On Trump’s first full day in office, five days after Aryam completed its deal with World Liberty, the president announced plans at the White House for a $500 billion, AI-focused data center project involving OpenAI and SoftBank. Tahnoon’s MGX was one of two additional investors named.
On May 8, the Treasury Department announced it was launching a fast-track pilot program for foreign investors. This was the quicker review process that the UAE had been lobbying for.
During Trump’s visit to Abu Dhabi later that month, he announced that the two countries had reached a “very big contract” for the UAE to purchase US-made AI chips.
Months later, after additional negotiations, the Trump administration approved the sale of 35,000 chips to G42, which was fewer than the UAE had hoped.
A person familiar with Tahnoon’s investment said the sheikh and his team reviewed World Liberty’s plans for “a number of months” before he and “a few co-investors” completed an investment in the company. The person said the funding did not come from G42.
“At no time during that due diligence or thereafter was the investment discussed with President Trump,” the person said. Tahnoon is a “significant investor” in crypto businesses, the person noted.
“President Trump only acts in the best interests of the American public,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said. She added that Trump’s assets are held in a trust managed by his children and said there are “no conflicts of interest”. Kelly also said Witkoff is working to “advance President Trump’s goals of peace around the world”.
A Trump Organization spokesperson said the company “takes its ethical obligations extremely seriously and is deeply committed to preventing conflicts of interest,” and abides by all applicable laws.
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