A lucrative transaction involving the Trump family’s cryptocurrency firm and an agreement giving the Emiratis access to A.I. chips were connected in ways that have not been previously reported.
This summer, Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s Middle East envoy, paid a visit to the coast of Sardinia, a stretch of the Mediterranean Sea crowded with super yachts.
On one of those extravagant vessels, Mr. Witkoff sat down with a member of the ultrarich ruling family of the United Arab Emirates. He was meeting Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a trim figure in dark glasses who controls $1.5 trillion of the Emiratis’ sovereign wealth.
It was the latest engagement in a consequential alliance.
Over the past few months, Mr. Witkoff and Sheikh Tahnoon had become both diplomatic allies and business partners, testing the limits of ethics rules while enriching the president, his family and his inner circle, according to an investigation by The New York Times.
At the heart of their relationship are two multibillion-dollar deals. One involved a crypto company founded by the Witkoff and the Trump families that benefited both financially. The other involved a sale of valuable computer chips that benefited the Emirates economically.
While there is no evidence that one deal was explicitly offered in return for the other, the confluence of the two agreements is itself extraordinary. Taken together, they blurred the lines between personal and government business and raised questions about whether U.S. interests were served.
In May, Mr. Witkoff’s son Zach announcedthe first of the deals at a conference in Dubai. One of Sheikh Tahnoon’s investment firms would deposit $2 billion into World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency start-up founded by the Witkoffs and Trumps.
Two weeks later, the White House agreed to allow the U.A.E. access to hundreds of thousands of the world’s most advanced and scarce computer chips, a crucial tool in the high-stakes race to dominate artificial intelligence. Many of the chips would go to G42, a sprawling technology firm controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon, despite national security concerns that the chips could be shared with China.
Those negotiations involved another key White House official with ties to the tech industry and to the Middle East: David Sacks. A longtime venture capitalist, Mr. Sacks serves as the administration’s A.I. and crypto czar, a newly created position that has allowed him to shape tech policy even as he continues to work in Silicon Valley.
The Times reviewed correspondence and interviewed more than 75 people, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive matters, to reveal new details that show how the deals got done:
Steve Witkoff advocated to give the Emirates access to the chips at the same time that his and Mr. Trump’s family business was landing the crypto investment, despite an ethics ruleintended to prohibit officials from participating in matters that could benefit themselves or their relatives.
Mr. Sacks was a key figure in the chip negotiations, raising alarm from some Trump administration officials who believed that it was improper for a working venture capitalist to help broker deals that could benefit his industry and investors in his company. He received a White House ethics waiver allowing him to participate.
A senior executive based in the U.A.E. worked simultaneously for World Liberty and Sheikh Tahnoon’s G42, creating a link between the two companies as the Emiratis were pushing to gain access to A.I. chips.
Some Trump administration officials tried to limit the chips deal, but an unexpected intervention by the conservative agitator Laura Loomer changed the power dynamic within the White House in the U.A.E.’s favor.
Representatives for the White House and World Liberty both denied any connection between the two deals, with an administration spokeswoman calling the crypto transaction “totally unrelated to any government business.”
World Liberty said in May that Mr. Witkoff was fully divesting from the company. A disclosure document made public on Saturday showed that, as of August, he still had a financial interest in the firm, though it did not reveal the value. The White House spokeswoman said in a statement that Mr. Witkoff was “still in the process of divesting.”
Asked whether Mr. Witkoff violated federal ethics rules, the spokeswoman responded that Mr. Witkoff was “working with ethics officials and counsel to ensure he is in full compliance.”
The White House statement also said that Mr. Sacks had acted appropriately. “Mr. Sacks has no financial interest in the U.A.E. chip deal,” the statement said.
And a spokesman for G42 said the company was “grounded in integrity” and committed to safeguards, auditing, and coordination with the Americans to ensure that U.S. technology does not get into the wrong hands.
Already the two deals have been transformative.
The first instantly propelled World Liberty into one of the world’s most prominent crypto companies, giving it a revenue stream that could be worth tens of millions of dollars annually.
The second is still pending, with final details under discussion in the White House. But it is poised to be a monumental victory for the Emirates. The Trump administration agreed to exponentially increase the U.A.E.’s access to one of the most important inventions in modern history.
The back-to-back deals violate longstanding norms in the United States for political, diplomatic and private deal-making among senior officials and their children, according to three ethics lawyers interviewed by The Times. And they have generated alarm among some former government officials.
“If you’re the president of the United States, you want to be making national security decisions in the American interest — not the commercial interests of the people involved,” said Brad Carson, a former Army under secretary who runs a bipartisan nonprofit that advises the government on A.I.
In the middle of both deals was Mr. Trump, a president who has used his power to enrich himself in ways that have little modern precedent, at least in the United States. It is more reminiscent of business customs in the Persian Gulf, where moneymaking and governance are blended in the hands of the ruling families.
“We really need to take a page out of His Highness’s and the Emirates’ book,” Zach Witkoff said at the Dubai conference. “They are just an amazing example of how you can lead with innovation while also maintaining your family values.”
A Blurring of Lines
Sheikh Tahnoon, 56, has long had an air of mystery. Because of an eye condition, he is rarely seen without a pair of shades, even when meeting with world leaders.
For years, Sheikh Tahnoon has served as the U.A.E.’s national security adviser, surrounding himself with comrades who include a British ex-spy and the former prime minister of Lebanon. He became embroiled in a spying scandal in 2019, when it emerged that operatives hired by the Emirates were targeting human rights activists including Ahmed Mansoor, whose baby monitor they hacked to spy on his family.
By 2023, Sheikh Tahnoon had also taken on a new role, as the key orchestrator behind the royal family’s sovereign wealth. With more than $1 trillion of government money at his disposal, Sheikh Tahnoon was intent on turning his tiny oil-rich nation into a technological powerhouse.
The riches financed G42, a sprawling enterprise that Sheikh Tahnoon personally controls with an A.I. business and cutting-edge ventures in genomics and cloud computing.
But as advances in A.I. technology became a phenomenon, it was clear that G42 lacked a crucial tool: the world’s most powerful computer chips. This technology is designed primarily by U.S. companies, particularly Nvidia. The United States had export policies that limited sales to certain foreign countries to prevent the technology’s misuse.
Sheikh Tahnoon approached the Biden White House, seeking access to these chips. The outreach included a high-level meeting with Gina Raimondo, the commerce secretary for President Joseph R. Biden, on the sheikh’s luxury yacht, according to two former U.S. officials.
Nvidia was enthusiastic about selling its products in a new market. But Mr. Biden’s national security staff and some U.S. intelligence officials had serious doubts.
The Emirates had performed joint exercises with the Chinese military, and G42 had formed wide-ranging business partnerships with Chinese tech companies. U.S. officials worried that China might gain access to Emirati data centers, accelerating its efforts to build A.I.-enhanced weapons that could someday be deployed against American soldiers.
Alan Estevez, who was an under secretary of commerce in the Biden administration, recalled telling Sheikh Tahnoon that he could not share technology with both the United States and China.
“You’re going to have to make a choice,” Mr. Estevez recalled saying.
In the end, all the U.A.E. could extract from the Biden administration was a government-sanctioned deal with Microsoft that gave G42 access to a small number of the high-powered chips, with rules that limited what the Emirati firm could do with them. G42 also agreed to eliminate certain Chinese technology from its operations.
Mr. Trump’s election victory in 2024 opened new doors.
Suddenly Sheikh Tahnoon had allies in Washington who loved making deals. Among them was Steve Witkoff.
Mr. Witkoff, 68, met Mr. Trump about four decades ago as a young lawyer workingwith bigwig real estate executives in New York. They became golfing buddies and close confidants.
Two months before Election Day, they went into business together. Mr. Witkoff, Mr. Trump and their sons appeared on a social media stream to announce that they were starting World Liberty. An investor prospectus showed that the Trump and the Witkoff families would own large amounts of the company’s digital currency and receive a cut of the firm’s profits.
The election changed Mr. Witkoff’s life. He had never played any role in international diplomacy, but Mr. Trump gave him a broad portfolio including foreign wars and hostage negotiations.
He started his work while Mr. Biden was still in office. One of his first stops was the U.A.E. in December.
Immediately the division between government and family business started to blur.
First, Mr. Witkoff spoke behind closed doors at a major crypto conference in Abu Dhabi and met with Justin Sun, a Chinese-born billionaire who had recently invested$30 million in World Liberty...
