UAE spymaster buys stake in Tiktok’s Chinese owner
THE UAE’S spy chief has taken a stake in Tiktok’s Chinese parent company as Abu Dhabi’s royal family grows its influence in the technology sector.
Middle Eastern investor G42, controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al Nahyan, snapped up a $100m (£83m) stake in Bytedance. Sheikh Tahnoon is the younger brother of Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al Nahyan, the kingdom’s heir apparent, and serves as the state’s top security official.
The deal values the tech giant at $220bn, Bloomberg reported, representing a significant discount to its last $300bn valuation.
Sheikh Tahnoon has overseen the emirati state’s thawing relations with Israel and handles its security dealings with the US and Britain. The 51-year-old spymaster also has substantial private sector interests, handling investments in health technology.
G42 has led investments in cloud computing and vaccine development. Last year it launched a $10bn fund, X42, to invest in artificial intelligence.
The investment in Bytedance cuts the Beijing-headquartered company’s valuation by $80bn as it grapples with the threat of an outright ban of its flagship app in the US and a security review in Britain. Tiktok, Bytedance’s viral video sharing platform, has attracted the ire of senior politicians in the US who want to push through laws that would give President Joe Biden the authority to block the app. The US has already banned Tiktok from being installed on government devices.
US officials fear user data could be accessed from China under Beijing’s national security laws. Tiktok has said
it would refuse any Chinese state demands for sensitive information.
To allay those fears, Tiktok has been pursuing an internal effort known as Project Texas, which would result in data from American users being stored domestically and overseen by a White House-appointed board.
Britain has moved more cautiously, but the National Cyber Security Centre, part of GCHQ, has been assessing the data privacy concerns surrounding the app.
Tiktok did not respond to a request for comment.