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A crypto venture linked to Donald Trump accepted a half-billion dollar investment backed by the Abu Dhabi royal just days before the US president’s inauguration.
The Trump family’s World Liberty Financial (WLF) signed a deal in January with a group of investors backed by Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the UAE’s national security adviser, who also oversees a vast business empire. According to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the deal, the deal was worth $500 million for a roughly 49 percent equity stake in the company.
WLF spokesman David Wachsman said the company agreed to the investment “because we strongly believe it was best for our company as we continue to grow”.
He denied that the investment had anything to do with an agreement reached at the end of the year to give the UAE access to US artificial intelligence chips, but declined to provide details of the deal.
“Any claims that this deal has anything to do with the administration’s crackdown on chips are 100 percent false. The left-wing media is dishonestly pushing baseless stories in an effort to deceive the public and discredit our company,” Wachsman said.
During a visit to the Gulf last May, Trump and his UAE counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan unveiled plans to build the largest cluster of artificial intelligence data centers outside the US.
A planned 10 square mile UAE-US AI campus in Abu Dhabi is expected to have 5GW of data center power – the equivalent of more than 2 million of AI chip maker Nvidia’s latest generation GB200 chips.
The investment raises more questions about the fusion of politics and business during Trump’s second term.
WLF was founded in late 2024 by Trump’s three sons and Steve Witkoff’s sons Zach and Alex. WLF’s website lists Donald Trump as co-founder emeritus of the company, along with Steve Witkoff, the president’s Middle East envoy.
The WLF statement said that neither President Trump nor Steve Witkoff “had any involvement in this transaction and have had no involvement with World Liberty Financial since taking office”.
The White House said the president “acts only in the best interests of the American public”, adding that his assets were in a trust managed by his children.
White House counsel David Warrington said, “The President has no involvement in business deals that would impact his constitutional responsibilities.”
A person close to Steve Witkoff said that his children run WLF and he has “nothing to do with it”.
“Steve was not involved in conversations related to the (Emirati AI company) G42. He was only briefed about these discussions, which is completely appropriate,” the person said.
Sheikh Tahnoun has led Abu Dhabi’s push in AI and has been an integral part of its discussions with the US to secure Nvidia chips. He is the chairman of G42 and MGX, state-backed funds focused on AI.
Like other oil-rich Gulf countries, the United Arab Emirates, a traditional US ally, has actively welcomed Trump since his return to the White House, and has pledged hundreds of billions of dollars in investment into the US.
During Trump’s visit to the Gulf last year, the US and UAE announced plans to build a massive data center complex in Abu Dhabi, boosting its ambitions to become a global AI hub as it sought secure access to Nvidia’s chips.
Investment funds in the UAE’s wealthy capital Abu Dhabi have also struck deals with Trump’s family network.
Before Trump’s re-election last year, his son-in-law Jared Kushner’s private equity fund, Affinity Partners, raised $1.5 billion from Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund and an Abu Dhabi fund linked to Sheikh Tahnoun.
In another business connection between Trump’s network and the UAE, Zack Witkoff announced last year that Abu Dhabi investment vehicle MGX had decided to use WLF’s USD1 stablecoin to close its $2 billion investment in crypto exchange Binance.
