According to Bloomberg, the United Arab Emirates espionage head, royal Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has invested more than $100 million investment in ByteDance Ltd., the parent firm of the popular video platform TikTok.
G42, an Abu Dhabi-based AI startup controlled by the UAE royal, reportedly acquired the $100 million-plus investment from current investors through its 42XFund in recent months.
G42 valued ByteDance at roughly $220 billion in a recent private-market investment.
Bloomberg reports that this valuation in the G42 transaction “doesn’t yet reflect potential after-effects of the Silicon Valley Bank implosion, which stunned startups from the US to China and has raised concerns about broader systemic risks”.
According to reports, the investment is “far below the high” of the $460 billion valuation at which Tiger Global Management purchased shares in 2021.
The Chinese firm’s volatile price tag could be attributed to the recent flurry of uncertainty surrounding the app in Washington and abroad. Recently, politicians in the United States accused the app of posing a national security risk. (mrbonespumpkinpatch)
As a result, the software was removed from government devices in Washington. The European Union and Canada have also blocked the app, while India has previously banned it.
Sheikh Tahnoon, dubbed the UAE’s spymaster, is said to have amassed a portfolio through G42. His portfolio includes everything from cloud computing to medicines to self-driving cars. The 42XFund, via which the new ByteDance investment was made, was established last year. The $10 billion fund invests in emerging market technology startups.
