Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan

Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan or Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan is an Emirati politician and the national security advisor of United Arab Emirates (UAE) since 2016. At the same time he manages a $1.3 trillion business portfolio, which supports national security interests, and the UAE's opaque corporate sector.

He is part of the ruling family in Abu Dhabi, brother of UAE president Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Tahnoun has been involved in numerous controversies, from violating EU sanctions against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, spying on political opponents in Project Raven, deals to re-sell Russia's Sputnik vaccine to poor countries at substantial mark-ups, orchestrating the Qatargate bribery case, and a smear campaign against Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood, as revealed 2023 in the Abu Dhabi Secrets.

In 2025, Tahnoon's businesses bought 49% share in the Donald Trump family's cryptocurrency firm World Liberty Financial (WLF) for half a billion dollars and bought $2 billion worth of USD1 stablecoins from WLF.

Early life and education Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan was born to Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan He has five brothers: Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE President and Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed, Sheikh Hazza bin Zayed, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed and Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE's foreign minister.

Career In 1992, he founded First Gulf Bank. From 2009 to 2013, he was Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Presidential Aviation Authority. In March 2013 President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan appointed him as a deputy national security advisor.

In February 2016, he was appointed as national security advisor. On 18 August 2020 Sheikh Tahnoun received Yossi Cohen, the Head of Israeli Intelligence Agency, Mossad after the UAE–Israel peace accord.

As of 2021, Tahnoun was chairman of Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding Company (ADQ), a state holding company worth $110 billion, First Abu Dhabi Bank, the UAE's largest lender, Royal Group (a conglomerate) and International Holding Company. He became "one of the leaders in deploying the UAE’s massive bank of oil money". Tahnoun's IHC established an investment unit, Lunate, which took over the management of G42's China-focused fund, 42X Fund. Lunate formed a small team of more than 160 people, and was overseen by Tahnoon. However, the fund became questionable due to G42's assurance to the US that it will divest from China.

In 2024, a Tahnouun-backed company and the Qatar government put $1.5 billion into an investment company owned by Jared Kushner.

Multiple ex-CIA officials told Reuters that the agency does not gather "human intelligence" from the UAE informant because it shares common enemies with the United States. Retired CIA official "Norman Roule" defended the US for not spying on the Emirates, stating that the actions committed by Abu Dhabi have "contributed to the war on terror, particularly against al-Queda [Qaeda] in Yemen." Violation of EU sanctions against Assad, 2020 In August 2020, The Wall Street Journal reported about the Donald Trump administration of imposing sanctions against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, targeting financial-support networks aiding the President from outside the country, to coerce Damascus into peace talks. According to financial records reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, Sheikh Tahnoun deposited about $200,000 into the bank accounts held by the niece of Syrian President Assad, Aniseh Shawkat, over a period of several years as her sponsor. The UK authorities seized several of these bank accounts in 2019, claiming that hundreds of thousands of dollars deposited into her accounts helped circumvent European Union’s sanctions against the Syrian government funds. Sheikh Tahnoun, Aniseh Shawkat and her attorney Zubair Ahmad did not respond when reached out for comment.

Re-selling COVID-19 vaccines, 2021 Sheik Tahnoun runs the Royal Group, which is a UAE conglomerate. In 2021, the company was involved in controversial deals to re-sell Russia's Sputnik vaccine to poor countries at substantial mark-ups.

Qatargate scandal, 2022 In December 2022, Qatar denied its involvement in the Qatargate bribery case and accused the UAE of orchestrating the scandal. According to European Union correspondent Jack Parrock Qatari government officials believe that the scandal against Qatar has been planned by the UAE. The Italian news site Dagospia alleged that it was Tahnoun who executed the scandal against Qatar and provided tips to Belgium, which opened the investigation.

Abu Dhabi Secrets, 2023 In 2023, an investigation, termed Abu Dhabi Secrets, was released. The investigation revealed that Mario Brero provided the UAE with a list of over 1,000 individuals and 400 organizations in Europe, including over 200 individuals and 120 organizations in France, who were linked to radical Islam. According to The New Yorker, Sheikh Tahnoun Bin Zayed was involved in the smear campaign against Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood as well.

Dealings with gold smugglers, 2024 A unit of Sheikh Tahnoun's IHC, International Resources Holding (IRH) acquired Zambia's Mopani copper mine under its chief global strategist, Sibtein Alibhai. Following that deal, IRH started looking for mining deals in Africa and other places aggressively. The United Nations investigators alleged that Alibhai and IRH approached and had meetings with several gold smugglers from Democratic Republic of Congo. The Congo government said most of the smuggled gold ends up in the UAE.

AI chips for crypto investment under Trump administration, 2025 Under the Joe Biden administration, Tahnoon was unable to acquire highly advanced AI chips due to concerns that the technology would be diverted from UAE to China. and acquiring AI chips. In May 2025, Zach Witkoff announced that Tahnoon committed to putting $2 billion into World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency start-up founded by the Witkoffs and Trumps. Shortly thereafter, the Trump administration agreed to transfer the world’s most advanced and scarce computer chips to the UAE, with many expected to go to Group 42. Multiple National Security Council officials, including David Feith, raised national security concerns that the chips would end up in China. In April 2025, Trump fired 6 security council officials, paving way for David Sacks to take over the chip negotiations. By mid-May, Sacks, Witkoff, and Sheikh Tahnoon had successfully negotiated the increased chip exports to the UAE, despite opposition from top American officials.

Personal life Tahnoun is married to Khawla Ahmed Khalifa Alsuwaidi, a poet and master calligrapher. Like her husband she uses shell companies to own real estate in affluent parts of London. He has two children, Sheikha Fatima and Sheikh Zayed.

Tahnoun is a practitioner and patron of martial arts, especially Brazilian jiu-jitsu. In 1998, he created the ADCC Submission Fighting World Championship alongside his BJJ instructor Nelson Monteiro.

TIME features Tahnoon in the TIME100 AI 2025 list.