Electronic Arts has confirmed it has entered into an agreement to be acquired for $55 billion by an investment consortium comprised of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners.
But who are the companies involved, and why has the acquisition ruffled more than a few feathers?
Let’s start with PIF, the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia.
Founded in 1971, PIF is among the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world, with assets estimated to be worth $925 billion, and is controlled by Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.
PIF already has an established presence in the games and esports space, but its investments in the game industry have caused controversy owing to the country’s poor record on human rights, including discrimination against women and the fact that homosexuality is illegal in the country.
Bin Salman was found by the US government to have directly approved the assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. This is part of the reason why Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot received backlash from employees for meeting him last year as part of a French delegation that reportedly resulted in a deal for a new free DLC for Assassin’s Creed Mirage.
The fund’s video game and esports investment arm, Savvy Games Group, was founded in 2021 and currently owns ESL FACEIT Group and Niantic’s new (as of June) owner, Scopely, but also has an 8.1% share of Embracer Group (worth $1 billion), the parent company of Plaion, THQ Nordic, and Coffee Stain, among others.
Savvy Games Group-owned Scopely bought Pokémon Go developer Niantic earlier this year | Image credit: Niantic
In 2022, PIF acquired a 5% stake in Capcom and Nexon Gaming for $1 billion, followed by a 5% stake in Nintendo, which increased to 8.26% in February 2023 before dropping in 2024 to 7.54%. PIF also has a 6.19% stake in Take-Two Interactive as of June 2025.
PIF already owned sizable shares in EA prior to this acquisition and even reportedly increased the number of shares it owns in the company by 55% (to 24.81 million) in 2023.
The acquisition will see the investment consortium acquiring 100% of EA, with PIF rolling over its existing stake in the firm.
Next, we have Silver Lake, ranked the 12th largest private equity firm in the world. Based in the US and headed up by Egon Durban and Greg Mondre, Silver Lake specialises in technological investments.
The firm currently has a large portfolio of investments in companies such as Airtable, Dell, Klarna, Noom, Stripe, and Unity Technologies.
Silver Lake is also a majority shareholder in City Football Group (CFG), the parent company of Manchester City football club, and owns stakes in a multitude of football clubs across the world.
In the press release revealing the acquisition, Durban said:
“EA is a special company: a global leader in interactive entertainment, anchored by its premier sports franchise, with accelerating revenue growth and strong and scaling free cash flow.”
If you consider EA’s successful sports franchises, including EA FC, and Silver Lake’s links with numerous football clubs, this investment makes sense.
Silver Lake owns stakes in football clubs across the world | Image credit: EA
Finally, we have Affinity Partners, an independent US investment firm headed up by Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US president Donald Trump, and the former director of the Office of American Innovation.
During Kushner’s time in office, he and bin Salman allegedly formed a close relationship, exchanging texts and calls, even after the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi. In 2020, he reportedly referred to the assassination as “one of a couple of missteps” by the crown prince.
Kushner left the White House in 2021 and established Affinity Partners, seeking a $2 billion investment from PIF, which was granted by bin Salman.
In September 2024, the chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Finance sent a letter to Affinity Partners’ chief legal officer, raising concerns about the firm’s “business dealings with foreign investors, including foreign governments paying Affinity hundreds of millions of dollars in fees for investment advisory services.”
The letter claimed that Affinity has “pocketed $157 million in fees from foreign clients,” including $87 million from the Saudi Arabian government.
The letter continued:
“While I appreciate Affinity’s cooperation in this matter thus far, the information provided has heightened my concerns that investments in funds managed by Affinity create unprecedented conflicts of interest, and that Affinity’s investors may not be motivated by commercial considerations, but rather the opportunity to funnel foreign government money to members of president Trump’s family, namely Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.”
In a statement to the New York Times, Chad Mizelle, Affinity Partners’s chief legal officer, said: “Partisan politics aside, Affinity Partners is an S.E.C.-registered investment firm that has always acted appropriately and any suggestion to the contrary is false.”
“We are fortunate to have the support of some of the world’s most sophisticated investors and work hard on their behalf every day.”
While EA has entered an agreement for the investment group to acquire the company, which has been approved by the company’s board of directors, the acquisition hasn’t been finalised.
The deal is still subject to “customary closing conditions” including approval by EA stockholders and required regulators. Should it be approved, the transaction “is expected to close in Q1 FY27,” EA’s press release confirms.
