Digging into the mysterious investor behind Binance: He loves sports and games, and is in charge of a trillion-dollar AI bet
B.news
In February, at a private event in Abu Dhabi, Binance founder CZ and OpenAI founder Sam appeared at the same time.
A magical force linked the two together, only because they had a common investment institution - Abu Dhabi sovereign fund MGX.
On March 12, Binance announced that it had received a $2 billion investment from MGX.
Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan (hereinafter referred to as Tahnoon), chairman of the board of directors of MGX, is the behind-the-scenes financier who led all this.
Tahnoon has a "title" like the mother of dragons: son of the founding father of the UAE, national security adviser of the UAE, deputy ruler of Abu Dhabi, younger brother of the president of the UAE, chairman of the sovereign wealth fund Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), chairman of Royal Group, chairman of First Abu Dhabi Bank, the largest bank in the UAE, chairman of the sovereign wealth fund Abu Dhabi Development Holding Company (ADQ), chairman of International Holding Company (IHC), and chairman of G42, the largest AI company in the Middle East.
At the age of 56, he controls the UAE's purse, with assets of up to $2 trillion.
This is not the first time that Tahnon has invested in cryptocurrency-related companies.
Previously, Tahnon's company IHC invested in Phoenix, a cryptocurrency group listed in Abu Dhabi. Its core business is Phoenix Miner, the world's largest Bitcoin mine, which has 7% of the computing power of the global Bitcoin network and operates a $650 million joint venture mine in Abu Dhabi with sovereign fund ADQ.
In addition, Phoenix also owns the exchange M2.com and the crypto investment institution Cypher Capital. It is worth noting that Bill Qian, a senior executive of Phoenix Group and chairman of Cypher Capital, is the former head of Binance Labs.
Tahnon is now not only the financier of the world's largest exchange and Bitcoin mine, but also the financier of the world's largest AI company. OpenAI, xAI and Anthropic are all in his investment layout.
A long-time businessman in the Middle East told TechFlow that it is easy to identify Tahnoun. He always wears sunglasses, whether indoors or outdoors, because he is sensitive to light.
To meet Tahnoun, you must first deal with his trusted circle of confidants or intersect with his hobbies: Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, cycling, video games, chess, and longevity (he claims to live to 150 years old).
A few lucky people can board his super yacht Maryah and play chess in the sunshine of the Persian Gulf.
Cryptocurrency may be just an appetizer. Tahnoun is currently an avid believer in AI and is betting heavily on AI, but he is deeply involved in the game of confrontation between China and the United States. Even a powerful figure like Tahnoun has to stand on the side and choose between China and the United States.
Game enthusiasts: from chess to AI
Tahnoun was born in 1968. Three years later, his father Zayed led the establishment of the UAE. Tahnoun has been favored since childhood because he is one of the six sons born to Zayed's favorite wife Fatima and is regarded as his main successor.
In the mid-1990s, Tahnoun came to Southern California, USA, and entered a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu training center in San Diego under the name "Ben". According to the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Eastern Europe website, he was relatively humble, often arrived before others, and helped to tidy up the venue. It was not until later that he revealed his true identity as a prince from Abu Dhabi.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu has also become one of his lifelong hobbies. In 1998, he co-founded the ADCC Submission Fighting World Championship with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu coach Nelson. Filmmaker Bobby Razak is making a documentary about Tahnoun, calling him "one of the founders of mixed martial arts" and "without him, this sport would not be here today."
In addition, Tahnoun is also a cycling enthusiast.
He converted a palace on the royal estate into a gym, funded the world's top cycling team, UAE Team Emirates, and cycled on an island near the presidential palace, which he transformed into a cycling paradise.
His love for ultra-light Colnago bicycles was so strong that he had a company acquire a majority stake in the Italian brand in 2020, demonstrating his money power.
But chess may be Tahnon's greatest passion.
In the mid-2000s, a small supercomputer in Abu Dhabi called Hydra was awarded the title of the world's best chess player. It is a 64-bit supercomputer with a 3.06GHz Intel Xeon processor that can perform 200 million calculations and think 40 moves per second.
Chrilly, Hydra's chief designer, called their boss the most enthusiastic computer chess enthusiast and mentioned: "This sponsor likes to play games with Hydra all day and all night."
This mysterious boss uses the pseudonym zor_champ to participate in online chess competitions, forming a human-machine combination with Hydra, and often defeats opponents with overwhelming advantages.
This mysterious boss is Tahnon.
At the end of 2017, Google's AlphaZero defeated the world's strongest chess player after only four hours of learning, far surpassing Hydra's performance, which shocked Tahnon and made him realize the potential of AI.
The following year (2018), he appointed Xiao Peng, the former chief technology officer of MicroStrategy, as CEO and founded the artificial intelligence company G42.
If you are a science fiction fan, you should understand the deep meaning of it. 42 is the answer to the ultimate question of life in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". Here is a little easter egg. If you search "the answer to life, the universe, and everything" in Google, the search result is 42.
G42 is known as the "Alibaba + Tencent in the Middle East" and is a leader in the field of AI in the UAE and even the Middle East. G42 currently has artificial intelligence companies Core42, AIQ, Presight, healthcare companies M42, Hayat Biotech, data center service provider Khazna, geospatial intelligence company Bayanat and other companies.
G42's management has many Chinese figures, such as G42 CEO Xiao Peng, and its biopharmaceutical company Hayat Biotech CEO Cong Hongbin. The G42 Expansion Fund (referred to as 42X Fund) established by it has an office in Shanghai and recruited Hu Ningfeng, former vice president of JD Group and head of the strategic investment department, to join the 42X Fund in 2023 as the head of the China region.
Power struggle and transaction
Although Tahnoun, who won the uterus lottery, is a life winner envied by countless people around the world, he still faced challenges in his life.
The UAE's founding father, Sheikh Zayed, had about twenty sons, of whom Tahnoon and his brother Mohamed belonged to the "Bani Fatima" group - the six sons born to Zayed's favorite wife, Fatima.
After Zayed's death in 2004, Tahnoon's brother Khalifa became the president of the UAE, and Mohamed, the eldest of the Bani Fatima brothers, was appointed crown prince.
In 2014, President Khalifa suffered a severe stroke, and Mohamed took over state affairs, and the competition for the next crown prince began.
Tahnoon insisted that tradition should be maintained, that is, Zayed's sons should continue to inherit power as long as they are healthy and mentally sharp, so he is the most competitive potential candidate.
Mohamed insisted that his son Khalid should be appointed crown prince.
In response, Tahnoon even presented evidence that Mohamed's strategy went against their father's wishes for the successor. This can't help but remind people of many stories of uncles and nephews seizing power in Chinese history.
In the end, the struggle ended with negotiations and compromises, and the brothers reached an agreement: Tahnoun gave up becoming the crown prince in exchange for significant control over the country's economic assets.
In 2023, Tahnoun was appointed chairman of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the country's largest sovereign wealth fund. A few weeks later, Khalid was appointed crown prince.
So far, Tahnoun has become the "CFO" of the UAE, in charge of the two largest sovereign wealth funds, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and the Abu Dhabi Development Holding Company (ADQ), the largest bank in the UAE, First Abu Dhabi Bank, plus his huge business empire, covering real estate, agriculture, healthcare, energy, industry, shipping, catering and retail industries.
According to the latest data from Global SWF, Tahnoun controls more than $2 trillion in assets.
However, according to US media reports, people who have had contact with Abu Dhabi in recent years have consistently reported that Tahnoun's power has expanded significantly beyond the financial field. He is responsible for diplomatic contacts with Iran, Qatar and Israel, and has established connections with people in Trump's circle.
MGX participated in the $6 billion financing of Musk's xAI, and its asset management company Lunate added $1.5 billion to Affinity managed by Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Tahnoun's power is not only reflected in wealth control, but also extends to the fields of intelligence and technology. As national security adviser, he is in charge of the UAE's intelligence agency and used it to establish G42 to deeply involve in artificial intelligence and biotechnology.
After ending the power dispute, Tahnoun encountered a new problem on the road to AI, geopolitical conflict.
AI and geopolitics
Before 2023, G42 maintained close cooperation with Chinese technology giant Huawei, and a large number of Chinese senior executives participated in the company's operations, which also made American hawks very dissatisfied.
"You have to choose a side," said former U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, who made it clear when they met in Washington in 2023: Investment is welcome, but you can't have your feet on both sides of the river.
In August 2023, the United States imposed major restrictions on the export of Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) to the Middle East, and any company using Huawei technology was banned from receiving these exports.
Tahnoun had to make a choice.
In early 2024, G42 announced that it would cut ties with China and remove all Chinese-made technology, even the Huawei routers in G42's office were removed, and G42 also sold its shares in ByteDance.
In April 2024, Microsoft announced that it would invest $1.5 billion in G42 for a minority stake, and Microsoft President Brad Smith joined the G42 board of directors.
In the summer of 2024, Tahnoun embarked on a diplomatic trip to the United States, meeting with tech giants such as Musk, Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Satya Nadella (Microsoft CEO) and Bezos (Amazon founder), and also held discussions with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, and even President Biden at the White House.
On the other hand, in March 2024, Tahnoun led the establishment of the investment institution MGX, working with BlackRock, Microsoft and others to invest in the AI industry, or more precisely, in American AI.
MGX CEO Ahmed Yahia said the company plans to invest 70% to 80% of its funds in the United States. MGX has invested heavily in OpenAI, Musk's xAI, and Amazon-backed Anthropic, and is one of the few supporters of the "Stargate" project initiated by SoftBank.
These efforts soon paid off. The United States has authorized Nvidia to sell GPUs to G42, and some of these processors are already in use in Abu Dhabi, including a large number of Nvidia H100s.
In this wave of global AI competition, Tahnon's strategic shift is not only a business decision, but also a major bet on the fate of the country.
When we look at this Sino-US technological competition, it is not difficult to find that whether it is technology giants or national leaders, or even royal family members who control trillions of assets, they are just participants in the torrent of history, each placing their own chips on an uncertain future.
