A top UAE intelligence official just purchased a $500 million stake in the Trump family's cryptocurrency company, months before the White House greenlit the sale of advanced AI chips to the Gulf nation. Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan - the UAE's national security adviser known as the 'spy sheikh' - now holds a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial through his Aryam Investment vehicle, making him the largest shareholder in the Trump family's stablecoin venture, according to a Wall Street Journal report that's igniting corruption allegations on Capitol Hill.
The Trump family's cryptocurrency empire just got a very well-connected investor - one who happens to control billions in sovereign wealth and sits atop the UAE's intelligence apparatus. Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Gulf nation's national security adviser and manager of its largest wealth fund, purchased a $500 million stake in World Liberty Financial through his Aryam Investment vehicle, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The timing is raising eyebrows across Washington. Tahnoon's 49% stake makes him the largest shareholder in World Liberty Financial, the venture behind the USD1 stablecoin that's backed by U.S. Treasury securities and pegged to the dollar. President Donald Trump and special envoy Steve Witkoff are listed as co-founders emeritus, while their family members run day-to-day operations. Eric Trump signed the agreement in the days before his father's second inauguration, the Journal reports.
Just months later, the Trump administration reversed course on a Biden-era restriction and approved the sale of hundreds of thousands of advanced AI chips from Nvidia to the UAE. The Biden administration had previously blocked the sale over concerns the chips could end up in China. Under the new agreement, a fifth of those chips flow directly to Tahnoon's own AI company, G42.
