Sheikh Tahnoon’s Covert 49% Stake in Trump’s World Liberty Financial Reveals New Power Play

Abu Dhabi's shadow capital just made a quiet, seismic move—and traditional finance didn't see it coming.

The Strategic Silence

No press release. No regulatory fanfare. Just a discreet 49% acquisition by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan—a royal whose investment arm operates with the silence of sovereign wealth and the agility of a fintech startup. The Trump family's World Liberty Financial now carries Abu Dhabi's imprint, a stake taken not through Wall Street's noisy auctions but through channels that bypass the usual theater.

Why This Isn't Just Another Deal

This isn't about branding or political spectacle. It's about positioning. The sheikh—also chairman of ADQ, one of Abu Dhabi's largest holding companies—commands a portfolio that spans AI, logistics, and biotech. Adding a major US financial entity to that mix signals a pivot: sovereign capital is building its own bridges, directly into Western financial infrastructure.

The New Playbook: Quiet Capital, Loud Impact

Forget hostile takeovers and public bids. The modern power move is executed in whispers. A 49% stake grants influence without triggering full takeover scrutiny—a masterclass in strategic ambiguity. It's the investment equivalent of a silent majority stake, letting the capital work while the structure stays off the front page.

What the Market Missed

While analysts tracked earnings calls and Fed meetings, a royal investor rewired a transatlantic financial link. The play exposes a gap in traditional market surveillance: the most consequential deals now happen in the opacity between regulatory filings, far from the spotlight. It's a reminder that in high finance, the headline is often just the echo—the real transaction happened weeks earlier, in a room no journalist entered.

One cynical take? Perhaps it's the ultimate hedge—because when you can't predict elections, you buy a piece of the financial apparatus around them. The sheikh didn't bet on a name; he bet on the system behind it. And in an age of volatility, that might be the only sure thing left.

Did Trump secretly sell off nearly 50% of WLFI?

An investigation by The Wall Street Journal has revealed that the TRUMP family entered into a secret $500 million agreement with a senior United Arab Emirates (UAE) royal just days before Donald Trump’s second inauguration last year.

The deal involved the sale of a nearly 50% stake in the family’s cryptocurrency business, World Liberty Financial (WLFI).

Under the terms of the contract, an Abu Dhabi-based investment vehicle called Aryam Investment 1 agreed to pay $500 million for a 49% stake in the company.

The buyers agreed to pay half of the total amount, $250 million, upfront. Of that initial payment, approximately $187 million was sent directly to Trump-linked DT Marks DEFI LLC and DT Marks SC LLC.

An additional $31 million was directed to entities connected to the family of Steve Witkoff, a real estate mogul who co-founded the project and was later appointed as the U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East. Another $31 million was paid to the project’s other co-founders, Zak Folkman and Chase Herro.

The investor behind the deal, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, is often referred to as the “spy sheikh” due to his role as the UAE’s national security adviser. He also supervises a massive financial empire that includes the AI firm G42 and the investment fund MGX.

As part of the investment, two executives from Aryam Investment, who also hold senior roles at G42, were made part of World Liberty Financial’s five-member board, joining Eric Trump and Zach Witkoff.

World Liberty Financial recently applied for a national trust bank charter to formalize its operations under federal supervision. The Trump family has also launched “American Bitcoin,” a crypto mining company, and continues to benefit from $Trump meme coins and other digital assets.

Was the UAE deal linked to U.S. policy changes regarding AI technology?

Under Joe Biden’s administration, American-made artificial intelligence (AI) chips were highly restricted due to national security concerns that the technology could eventually reach China.

However, after the secret deal was signed in May 2025, during a presidential visit to Abu Dhabi, it was announced that the U.S. and UAE had reached an agreement that granted the Gulf state access to roughly 500,000 of the most advanced AI chips every year.

Experts say this quantity is enough to build one of the largest AI data center networks in the world. Notably, about 20% of these chips were allocated to G42, the firm led by Sheikh Tahnoon.

Senator Elizabeth Warren and other lawmakers have called for formal investigations due to the timing of the UAE investment and the approval of AI chip exports.

Ethics experts and lawmakers argue that the $500 million investment creates a massive conflict of interest, as the president’s personal wealth is now directly tied to the financial interests of a foreign government official.

In a recent report titled “Professionalized Corruption,” Democrats on the House Oversight Committee alleged that the Trump family is using digital currencies to accept “backdoor bribery” from foreign interests.

The report claims that since the payments for the UAE deal were sent through private crypto entities, there is very little visibility into who paid the Trump family or what they are receiving in return.

In March 2025, the UAE-backed firm MGX announced it WOULD use World Liberty Financial’s dollar-pegged stablecoin, USD1, to complete a $2 billion investment into Binance. Shortly after this partnership was established, President Trump issued a pardon for Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who had been serving a prison sentence for money laundering compliance failures.

The Trump Organization has firmly denied any wrongdoing. A spokesperson stated that the company “takes its ethical obligations extremely seriously” and is “deeply committed to preventing conflicts of interest.”The organization maintains that it follows all applicable laws and that the investment was a standard business transaction.

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