_WHAT’S HAPPENING_
Paramount Skydance is in a hostile takeover battle for Warner Bros. Discovery, going head-to-head with Netflix's $83 billion offer for the company's studio and streaming properties.
Though the Ellison family has helped contribute to more balanced news through their acquisition of Paramount and CBS, purchase of The Free Press, and installation of Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief, many of the same voices who cheered those moves are now concerned about who's bankrolling the Warner Bros. bid.
Sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi are providing $24 billion of the deal's $40.4 billion equity portion — more than double the Ellison family's own $11.8 billion commitment.
_THE FACTS_
The deal would give Gulf investors a stake in Warner Bros. studios, HBO, DC Comics (Batman, Superman), CNN, and franchises like Harry Potter and Game of Thrones.
The U.K. blocked Abu Dhabi-backed RedBird IMI — also involved in this bid — from buying The Telegraph and The Spectator in 2023 over press freedom concerns, then rewrote its laws to restrict foreign media ownership.
Qatar has spent nearly $250 million on U.S. lobbying since 2016 and its agents have met with more American political figures than those of any other country — including funding trips to bring conservative commentators and influencers to Doha.
Qatar's state-funded Al Jazeera has long been accused of advancing Islamist ideology aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood, and during the 2020 BLM protests became a major amplifier of left-wing narratives to American audiences through social media.
Some lawmakers are already expressing “serious national concerns” over the bid, and also promise to push Congress or the White House for regulatory scrutiny, which could pose significant hurdles to the deal.
Foreign powers already exert influence in Hollywood. In Paramount’s 2019 Top Gun Maverick, the trailer was adjusted to remove flags of Taiwan and Japan, because China’s PRC-linked tech giant Tencent was one of the film’s investors, and notably is also involved in the Paramount Skydance bid.
Saudi royal and Qatari sovereign wealth fund money also helped finance the 2022 acquisition of Twitter and the more recent deal to take over control of TikTok and its algorithm, alongside the Ellison family.
_INSIGHTS_
Foreign influence in the United States is accelerating across every major sector — and Americans are starting to notice. Gulf states are ramping up lobbying efforts targeting politicians and media influencers, pouring billions into American AI infrastructure, billions more into our colleges, and acquiring stakes in the country's largest social media platforms and video game companies.
The trend shows no signs of slowing down.
A Paramount Skydance acquisition of Warner Bros. would take it a step further, placing Gulf-linked capital behind CNN's newsroom, HBO's programming, and one of the world's largest film studios.
With the current administration's deep financial ties to these same investors, Republicans risk handing Democrats an easy political issue if they don't get ahead of growing public frustration over foreign money flowing into American institutions.
