 "US President Donald Trump and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan attend a business forum at Qasr Al Watan during the final stop of his Gulf visit, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, May 16, 2025. File Photo/Reuters")
The uber-rich royal family of Abu Dhabi is set to own a stake in TikTok’s US business under a deal brokered by American President Donald Trump. MGX, a fund chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, will take a 15 per cent stake and get a board seat, as per reports.
The entry of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) royals as a major shareholder in TikTok’s US deal could be controversial. For now, uncertainty remains whether China will agree to the deal.
We take a look at the possible deal and the fortunes of Abu Dhabi’s royal family.
TikTok US deal
The Abu Dhabi royal family will have a stake in TikTok US , which has been valued at $14 billion (Rs 12,4197 crore), as per The Guardian report.
On Thursday (September 25) night, US President Trump signed an executive order approving the deal, saying that TikTok “will be majority-owned and controlled by United States persons and will no longer be controlled by any foreign adversary”.
Trump gave a 120-day window to finalise the details.
He described the buyers as “very sophisticated Americans and people who love their country”.
Trump said: “We have American investors taking it over it, running it [who are] highly sophisticated, including Larry Ellison [the Oracle founder].”
Larry Ellison’s Oracle, the private equity group Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi’s MGX will collectively own roughly 45 per cent of TikTok US.
TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, will retain a 19.9 per cent stake in the US operation. The remaining portion will be for ByteDance investors and new shareholders, as per The Telegraph.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsTrump revealed that the new shareholders include personal computer pioneer Michael Dell and media mogul Rupert Murdoch .
A complete list of investors has not been disclosed so far. US Vice President JD Vance said that full details of the “blue-chip group of investors” would be declared in the coming days.
China has not publicly disclosed whether it will green-light the deal. However, Trump said that he had “had a good talk” with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, who “gave us the go-ahead”.
The TikTok deal comes more than a year after the US Congress voted to ban the social media app unless it is sold, citing privacy and national security concerns.
However, the UAE becoming a major shareholder could be a controversial move given the fund of Sheikh Tahnoon, who is also the UAE national security adviser, displaying closer ties to the US over China, as per The Telegraph.
How rich is the Abu Dhabi royal family?
The Abu Dhabi royal family is among the richest families in the world, with an estimated worth of $323.9 billion.
The Al Nahyan royal family, which rules the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, is headed by UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, also known as MBZ.
The royals, known as the House of Nahyan, own six per cent of the world’s oil reserves.
The Abu Dhabi royals also own the English football team Manchester City.
The Al Nahyan family’s wealth includes the Qaṣr Al-Waṭan, the presidential palace of the UAE, valued at $475 million (Rs 4,214 crore).
The 380,000-square-meter palace, with a facade of white granite and limestone, is triple the size of the Pentagon. It houses a 37-meter-wide dome and a chandelier made of 350,000 crystals, as per a New York Post report.
It was opened to the public in 2019 to give visitors a better understanding of the UAE’s heritage.
The royal family’s collection of properties also includes several palaces abroad, such as the Château de Baillon, north of Paris.
Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who ruled Abu Dhabi until his death, earned the moniker of the “landlord of London” for his real estate portfolio across some of England’s most expensive areas.
The Al Nahyan royal family’s car fleet is split across four museums in the UAE and Morocco.
Sheikh Hamad bin Hamdan al Nahyan’s fleet alone comprises 700 cars, according to Yahoo Finance. Sheikh Mansour’s luxury car collection includes five Bugatti Veyrons, a Ferrari 599XX, a McLaren MC12, a Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR and a Lamborghini Reventon. He also has stakes in Ferrari and Daimler AG.
The Nahyan dynasty has invested in diverse businesses, including Rihanna’s lingerie line Savage X Fenty and Elon Musk’s SpaceX, The New Yorker reported.
The royal family’s presidential fleet consists of eight aircraft, including an Airbus A320-200 and three Boeing 787-9s.
The personal collection of Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan alone boasts an $478 million Boeing 747 and $176 million Boeing 787. While details of the private jets are not in public, such aircraft often boast the luxury of several cabins, meeting rooms, entertainment rooms, bathrooms and spas, as per a report in Yahoo Finance.
Not only airplanes, but the Abu Dhabi royal family also owns the world’s largest superyacht — Azzam. The 590-foot yacht can accommodate more than 100 people and is equipped with a golf training room, mother-of-pearl inlay and a specially designed chandelier that does not clatter when the boat is in motion, as per New York Post.
They also own Blue and Topaz, now known as A+, which are among the top 10 largest yachts globally.
The family opened the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the largest art museum on the Arabian peninsula and the first and only Louvre outside France.
The museum boasts a rich collection of a sculpture of a Bactrian princess dating to 3000BC, Breton Boys Wrestling by Paul Gaugin and Leonardo da Vinci’s La Belle Ferronnièr.
With inputs from agencies