TikTok Investors Set to Pay $10 Billion Fee to Trump Administration
What Happened: Investors backing a U.S.-controlled version of TikTok agreed to pay a $10 billion fee to the U.S. Treasury as part of a deal brokered by Trump officials. The unusually large payment was required for the White House to approve a transaction involving investors, including Oracle, MGX, and Silver Lake.
Why It Matters: The deal shows Trump again inserting the government directly into private corporate transactions. Forcing companies to pay massive fees for political approval blurs the line between national security oversight and pay-to-play schemes.
Silver Lake Technology Management, L.L.C., is an American global private equity firm focused on technology and technology-enabled investments. Silver Lake is headquartered in Menlo Park and New York City, and has offices in London, Hong Kong, and Singapore Continued in Wikipedia
Abu Dhabi Fund MGX Emerges As Key Player In Two Major Trump-Era Deals
ByZach Everson,Former Staff. Zach Everson is a staff writer at Forbes covering money in politics.
Oct 15, 2025, 01:24pm EDT
Topline
MGX, a state-backed Abu Dhabi fund, has surfaced in two of the most scrutinized deals in Donald Trump’s second term—it’s reportedly set to take a stake in TikTok’s U.S. business and used a Trump-linked stablecoin for a $2 billion transaction that may have benefited the president’s family financially.
Key Facts
The Abu Dhabi government created MGX in March 2024 as a technology investment company, tasked with “accelerat[ing] the development and adoption of AI and advanced technologies” through global partnerships, according to a launch announcement.
MGX was launched by Mubadala, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, and G42, an artificial intelligence holding company, in which Microsoft has invested $1.5 billion.
The fund targets semiconductors, infrastructure, software, tech-enabled services, life sciences and automation services, with past investments in OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, Databricks, Altera and Binance.
Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan chairs MGX’s board—he’s also the deputy ruler of Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates’ National Security Adviser and chair of G42’s board as well as those of four other companies.
MGX’s CEO, Ahmed Yahia Al Idrissi, studied at MIT, worked in investment banking and previously oversaw private equity investments at Mubadala.
Asked about the TikTok talks, MGX chief communications officer Noelle Camilleri told Forbes, “On TikTok, we don’t have anything to share at this time.”
News Peg
In April 2024, President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan bill banning TikTok in the United States over privacy and data concerns, effective January 2025. The ban was never enforced, and on Sept. 25, Trump signed an executive order, “Saving TikTok While Protecting National Security,” that would allow the platform to remain available. The executive order paves the way for U.S. investors to take majority control, while the Chinese parent company ByteDance’s stake will drop to less than 20%. The new owners have not been confirmed but, citing unnamed sources, CNBC reported that MGX, Oracle and private-equity firm Silver Lake will be the main investors, owning a combined 45% of TikTok USA. Oracle and Silver Lake did not respond to inquiries. On Wednesday, MGX announced it was teaming with the Artificial Infrastructure Partnership and BlackRock to buy Aligned Data Centers in a deal that values the company, which has 50 facilities, at $40 billion.
Key Background
The TikTok deal is not the first time MGX has been tied to Trump’s administration. The day after his second inauguration, Trump announced Stargate, a $500 billion AI infrastructure initiative backed by MGX, OpenAI, Oracle and Japan’s SoftBank. And earlier in September, MGX joined Silver Lake in buying a 51% stake in Altera, Intel’s programmable-chip unit. The U.S. government owns 9.9% of Intel, after taking the extraordinary step of purchasing an $8.9 billion stake as part of the Trump administration’s semiconductor strategy.
Dubai Abu Dhabi news highlights: The Dubai Media Office said the authorities are currently responding to a fire from a drone-related incident in the vicinity of Dubai International Airport.
Wall Street Bankers Offered Lucrative Access to Join the Pentagon
What Happened: A recruiting presentation from headhunting firm Heidrick & Struggles pitched Wall Street bankers on joining a new Pentagon investment unit managing up to $200 billion in government funds. The pitch promised “unmatched access” to senior officials and suggested recruits could later leverage those relationships with sovereign wealth funds and foreign elites.
Why It Matters: The plan turns a Pentagon investment office into a pipeline for insider access, corruption, and private profit. It blurs the line between national security and Wall Street enrichment while distorting defense priorities.
Retired, living in the Scottish Borders after living most of my life in cities in England. I can now indulge my interest in all aspects of living close to nature in a wild landscape. I live on what was once the Iapetus Ocean which took millions of years to travel from the Southern Hemisphere to here in the Northern Hemisphere. That set me thinking and questioning and seeking answers.
In 1998 I co-wrote Millennium Countdown (US)/ A Business Guide to the Year 2000 (UK) see https://www.abebooks.co.uk/products/isbn/9780749427917
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