On March 18, 2025, Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE National Security Adviser, met with US President Donald Trump at the White House.
By: Donald J. Trump | via Truth Social
The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that UAE government officials and top royals bought a $500 million stake in the Trump family’s cryptocurrency venture last year, months before the Trump administration gave the go-ahead to sell advanced AI chips to the UAE.
Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan, also known as the “Spy Sheikh,” is the Gulf state’s national security adviser and manager of the country’s largest wealth fund. Ariam Investments, a company backed by Tahnoun, has acquired a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial, the paper said. The deal will make Mr. Alliam World Liberty’s largest shareholder and the company’s only known investor other than its founder, the newspaper reported.
World Liberty backs the stablecoin USD1, which is pegged to the US dollar and backed by short-term US government bonds, US dollar deposits, and other cash equivalents.
The company counts President Donald Trump and his envoy Steve Witkoff as honorary co-founders and is run by members of the Trump and Witkoff families.
The deal was signed by Eric Trump just days before his father’s second inauguration, the paper said. The move comes as Tahnoun sought access to advanced artificial intelligence chips from the United States, which were blocked by the Biden administration over concerns that the chips would end up in China.
The deal netted Trump family entities about $187 million and Witkoff’s family $31 million, according to the paper.
In May, months after the Tahnoon-World Liberty agreement, the United States agreed to allow the UAE to purchase hundreds of thousands of advanced artificial intelligence chips from American chipmakers. Nvidia. The agreement called for one-fifth of the chips to be donated to Tahnoun’s own AI company, G42.
The Journal’s reporting has led to renewed scrutiny of the Trump administration’s ties to the UAE and Tahnoun, with some in Congress warning of potential conflicts of interest and corruption.
“This is corruption, plain and simple,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee. “The Trump Administration must reverse its decision to sell sensitive AI chips to the United Arab Emirates.”
Warren called on Witkoff, White House AI and cryptocurrency czar David Sachs, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to “testify before Congress about the mounting evidence that they sold out America’s national security to benefit the president’s cryptocurrency companies, and whether any officials enriched their own pockets in the process.”
White House press secretary Anna Kelly told the Journal that “there is no conflict of interest.” She added that Witkoff is working to “advance President Trump’s goal of peace around the world.”
The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche also defended the president on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.
“I love when these newspapers talk about things that are unprecedented and that would never have happened before, as if the Biden family and the Biden administration didn’t do exactly the same thing and they just took office,” Branch said.
Republicans and President Trump have long accused former President Joe Biden’s family of corruption over their overseas business dealings. An impeachment inquiry was launched in the House over the issue, but evidence of Biden’s wrongdoing never materialized.
“President Trump doesn’t comment on any family members traveling for work reasons other than being completely transparent,” Blanche said. “The idea that something untoward or unprecedented is happening is just a repeating story that is not true.”
Read the full Wall Street Journal article here.
