AI chips in exchange for crypto shares? WSJ reveals the behind-the-scenes of Trump's deal with the sheikh

Just before the inauguration of President Donald Trump's second term, Emirati Sheikh Tahnun bin Zayed bought 49 percent. shares in the Trumps' cryptocurrency company. He later obtained approval from the White House to import advanced chips despite safety concerns, the Wall Street Journal revealed on Sunday.

According to the daily, Tahnun – the national security adviser of the United Arab Emirates, head of the Emirati wealth fund and the G42 company dealing with AI – invested $500 million in the Trump company World Liberty Financial four days before Trump's inauguration. He thus became the largest shareholder of the company issuing Trump's cryptocurrency. Part of the first tranche of money – PLN 187 million – was to go to Trump's companies, and PLN 31 million to the family members of his envoy and friend Steve Witkoff, who are partners of the Trumps in the company. Witkoff's son, Zach, is a director of the company, and the agreement was signed by Eric Trump, the president's son, who, along with his brother Donald Jr. sits on its board.

According to the newspaper, in the following months Tahnun – referred to as the “sheikh of the spy” – repeatedly met with Trump and Witkoff, including in March at the White House, when he allegedly said that he was willing to cooperate with the US in the field of AI. Tahnun has long lobbied for U.S. approval for the purchase of advanced AI chips by his company G42 and other Emirati companies. Tahnun's company aroused suspicion in Washington because of its ties to China. The Joe Biden administration and some Republican politicians suspected that giving the G42 access to the chips would enable China to obtain them. Despite this, in May last year The White House has concluded an agreement on the export of 500,000 processors for the UAE, including the G42.

The daily notes that the purchase of shares in World Liberty Financial (WFLI) did not give Tahnun the right to future sales of Trump's company issued by cryptocurrencies, which was the company's only product at that time. However, according to WSJ, the deal was “hugely profitable” for Trump and Witkoff.

However, this was not Tahnun's only contribution to the development of Trump's cryptocurrency business. Two weeks before the announcement of the chip deal with the UAE, the state investment fund MGX, headed by him, bought $2 billion of the USD1 cryptocurrency to use it to invest in the Binance cryptocurrency exchange. The transaction injected $2 billion into Trump's company accounts and made the previously little-used USD1 one of the leading digital currencies. The founder of Binance Changpeng Zhao, serving a sentence, among others, for money laundering and enabling the evasion of sanctions, he was later pardoned by Trump.

Although some of the money from the January transaction was supposed to go to the accounts of companies personally controlled by the president, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said his assets were managed by his children, saying there was “no conflict of interest.” White House lawyer David Warrington said that “the president is not involved in business arrangements that would involve his constitutional responsibilities.” World Liberty spokesman David Wachsman also denied the president's involvement.

Trump himself has repeatedly said he is not involved in his sons' business decisions. However, in an interview for the New York Times, he admitted that he allowed them to conduct business with foreign entities because – as he claimed – the law did not prohibit it.

“I banned them from doing business in my first term and got absolutely no credit for it,” he said. – I didn't have to do that. And it's really unfair to them. It turned out that no one cared, and I had the right to do so, he added.

According to the New Yorker, since the beginning of his second term, the president and his family have enriched themselves by $4 billion through agreements taking advantage of Trump's position as president of the United States.

From Washington Oskar Górzyński (PAP)

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