Gulf sovereign wealth funds are undertaking a sweeping review of American investments, driven by a combination of commercial necessity and political recalibration driven by the Iran war, according to sources familiar with deliberations around the high-level financing deals.<\/p>\n In particular, the planned merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Brothers Discovery, made possible as a result of Gulf financing, is getting a new look. A postponed meeting of the board of the Qatar Investment Authority will reconvene within the next week as the fund recalibrates its investment approach, a source with knowledge of the deliberations said. \u201cEven from a purely, purely numbers perspective, you have to look at this again,\u201d said the industry source, asking for anonymity to speak freely about investment matters rarely discussed publicly.<\/p>\n No announcement from the meeting is expected, the source said, as the Qataris are unwilling to unilaterally back out of the deal without Saudi Arabia also doing so. Withdrawing from the deal would be seen as a political shot against both Israel and the United States, which Qatar feels it can not undertake alone under the current circumstances.<\/p>\n The merger between the two media conglomerates was announced on February 27, 2026. The next day, the U.S. and Israel launched a surprise attack on Iran, which responded, as promised, by attacking Gulf countries hosting U.S. bases. Those same Gulf countries are the primary financial backers of the merger, according to documents on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Wealth funds connected to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates pledged $24 billion to back the deal<\/a>, which cost nearly $111 billion.<\/p>\n Under the current scenario, the Paramount deal remains likely to go through, but that could change if the war goes on for another month or longer and Gulf oil and gas assets come under even greater attack. Trump has turned his attention to Iran\u2019s oil infrastructure, and Iran has pledged to retaliate by targeting Gulf oil and gas assets in response. Yet even the current circumstances are forcing a deeper look at the entire suite of deals in the sovereign wealth funds\u2019 portfolios. A Paramount spokesperson declined to comment. Spokespersons for the Public Investment Fund (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), L\u2019imad Holding Company PJSC (UAE), and Qatar Investment Authority (Qatar) did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n At risk is the heart of the U.S. economy, which is currently fueled<\/a> by the growth of AI companies and the data centers that power them. Harvard economist Jason Furman calculated that more than 90% of GDP growth in the first half of 2025 <\/a>was driven by AI and related investments. Much of the data center buildout is powered by Gulf financing, while U.S. companies<\/a> are also building out heavily in the Gulf.<\/p>\n All of that is now uncertain. \u201cThe story is not just deals specifically, but if you look at all the AI data centers and all that growth that\u2019s coming in the next few years, where\u2019s most of that capital coming from?\u201d he said. \u201cA lot of it is coming from the Gulf. And if the Gulf\u2014not politically, but even just from a financial perspective\u2014cannot commit that, what\u2019s the knock on effects on those companies and the U.S. economy? I don\u2019t think anyone has done that math, but there is something there absolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHyperscalers\u201d\u2014referring to major companies like OpenAI\u2014\u201care fine, those guys are huge, they can afford it, but what about the next level?\u201d he said, referring to a sweeping class of companies that could go under without Gulf support.<\/p>\n A second source with close relationships to key Gulf leaders said that Gulf countries are looking closely at all of the deals that have struck, given the new financial realities at play.<\/p>\n In early March, the Financial Times reported <\/a>that Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, and Kuwait were collectively reviewing investments with an eye toward canceling some, citing a Gulf official. \u201cA number of Gulf countries have begun an internal review to determine whether force majeure clauses can be invoked in current contracts, while also reviewing current and future investment commitments in order to alleviate some of the anticipated economic strain from the current war,\u201d the official told the FT. \u201cEspecially if the war and related expenses continue at the same pace.\u201d<\/p>\n The war and related expenses have not merely continued but accelerated. The industry source said that divestment would likely happen quietly, but it was an inevitability. \u201cJust mathematically, it will have to happen,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think it will be obvious, I don\u2019t think it will be messaged that way. But I think it will just happen. And then as things build up again, then people are gonna wonder, if it\u2019s the same people that are involved now or later, you\u2019re gonna question, are they gonna do the same thing again? Are they gonna think about diversifying? That\u2019s the question.\u201d<\/p>\n Gulf investors, he said, \u201cjust won\u2019t be able to do the scale they were committed to.\u201d<\/p>\n Paramount is run by David Ellison, the son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison, one of the world\u2019s wealthiest men and the largest donor to the nonprofit Friends of the IDF. Larry Ellison put up billions to cover his son\u2019s merger with Warner Brothers. The Ellisons bought Bari Weiss\u2019s The Free Press and handed her the reins to CBS News, driven by David Ellison\u2019s admiration for her support for Israel. Weiss has cheerled the war, disturbing journalists in her newsroom,<\/a> even as it threatens her patron\u2019s media empire. The acquisition of Warner Brothers will also give Ellison control of CNN.<\/p>\n Ultimately, even if QIA\u2019s preference in the end is to exit the deal, the fund will stay in unless Saudi also departs.\u201cIt\u2019s not a Qatar decision. It\u2019s not a Saudi-UAE decision. It\u2019s a Saudi decision, because all three countries have to commit for the deal to make sense, unless you can find other investors from Asia,\u201d the industry source said. Chinese wealth fund Tencent had previously been involved, but dropped out so that the transaction <\/a>would not have to undergo U.S. federal scrutiny on national security grounds.<\/p>\n The most likely outcome of the upcoming meeting, the industry insider said, will be for the fund to continue a wait-and-see approach, knowing the political and economic situations are rapidly evolving. \u201cIf Saudi goes in, Qatar will follow. If Saudi doesn\u2019t go in, Qatar won\u2019t follow, they\u2019ll just delay, delay, delay, and see what happens. Everyone can still say, \u2018No, no, we\u2019re committed, we\u2019re committed.\u2019 And there\u2019s a million ways, if this continues another month, you could force majeure, you could do whatever.\u201d <\/p>\n A Qatari source with insight into the process also said that the deal was still heavily likely to go through.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s decision to humiliate MBS publicly has thrown a wrench into the relationship with Saudi Arabia. At a Saudi-backed investment conference, Trump riffed on his relationship with the crown prince. \u201cA short time ago we were together and he looked at me and he said, \u2018You know, one year ago you were a dead country. Now, you\u2019re the hottest country anywhere in the world,\u201d Trump said. \u201cHe didn\u2019t think this was going to happen. He didn\u2019t think he\u2019d be kissing my ass, he really didn\u2019t. He thought it\u2019d be just another American president that was a loser with a country that was going downhill, but now he has to be nice to me. You tell him he better be nice to me, he\u2019s gotta be.\u201d<\/p>\n At the same conference, Saudi\u2019s wealth fund announced a 15% cut in capital investment.<\/a><\/p>\n Trump ally Steve Bannon piled on. \u201cMaybe we can get a couple or three of those princes in uniform,\u201d he said on his podcast, The War Room. \u201cGot any kids in special forces? Let\u2019s line up those royal families and see how big they\u2019re talking.\u201d<\/p>\n The insult has contributed to the air of uncertainty surrounding the Paramount financing, the industry source said. \u201cLook, that thing that happened a couple days ago is not a small thing. I mean, we know MBS. That was a pretty insulting move. I don\u2019t know if the word\u2019s \u2018petty,\u2019 but he\u2019d be willing to move drastically based on emotions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He said that most in the industry were still stuck in a fog-of-war scenario and hadn\u2019t gamed out longterm scenarios. Trump, he said, didn\u2019t seem to have thought things through either, particularly as it related to the president\u2019s promise to supply Europe energy. \u201cThe knock on effects are tremendous, because who will supply the LNG and the gas to Europe the next few years? It\u2019s the U.S. But who also needs that gas to grow the data centers? It\u2019s the U.S. So something has to give.\u201d Access to helium, an essential component for the AI industry, <\/a>is also at risk as a result of the war.<\/p>\n The major players\u2014China, Russia, and even Saudi Arabia\u2014are all incentivized to keep it going, he said.<\/p>\n Saudi Arabia is \u201cnot as affected by this war as people may think, their spot prices went up, they, logistically, they\u2019re the hub for everything now,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s making up the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf you think about who\u2019s really incentivized to deescalate right now, not many. Iran\u2019s happy for this to continue. Israel\u2019s happy for it to continue. U.S. doesn\u2019t seem to care. It doesn\u2019t affect them. And you have China, China maybe doesn\u2019t want it but Russia is benefitting like more than anybody. So it\u2019s really Qatar that needs to just deescalate for their own security. Kuwait\u2019s fucked. Bahrain\u2019s fucked, but they\u2019re not really players.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/a68e9e75-c385-4b39-af29-647f1b7c3577_2684.jpeg\")
<\/a>The Dubai skyline with the landmark Burj Khalifa skyscraper a smoke plume rises from an ongoing fire near Dubai International Airport on March 16, 2026, as Iran kept up its Gulf attacks. Photo by AFP via Getty Images.<\/p>\n