Digging deep into the mysterious funder behind Binance: Love sports, play games, and betting on trillion-dollar AI

In February, Binance founder CZ and OpenAI founder Sam appeared at the same time at a private event in Abu Dhabi.

A magical force connects the two together just because they have a common investment institution - Abu Dhabi sovereign fund MGX.

On March 12, Binance announced that it had received a US$2 billion investment from MGX.

MGX Board Chairman Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan (hereinafter referred to as Tahnoon) is the funder behind the dominance of all this.

Tahnon has a "Title" like a dragon mother: son of the founding father of the United Arab Emirates, national security adviser to the UAE, deputy chief of Abu Dhabi, younger brother of the UAE president, chairman of the sovereign wealth fund Abu Dhabi Investment Agency (ADIA), chairman of the Royal Group, chairman of the UAE's largest bank First Abu Dhabi Bank, chairman of the sovereign wealth fund Abu Dhabi Development Holdings (ADQ), chairman of the International Holding Company (IHC), and chairman of the G42, the largest AI company in the Middle East.

Now 56 years old, he controls the UAE wallet and has an asset of up to $2 trillion.

This is not Tahnon's first investment in a cryptocurrency-related company.

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. It has 7% of the computing power of the global Bitcoin network and operates a US$650 million joint venture mine in Abu Dhabi and sovereign fund ADQ.

In addition, Phoenix also owns exchange M2.com and crypto investment institution Cypher Capital. It is worth noting that Phoenix Group executive and chairman of Cypher Capital Bill Qian is the former head of Binance Labs.

Tahnon is now not only the funder of the world's largest exchange and Bitcoin mine, but also the funder of the world's largest AI companies. OpenAI, xAI and Anthropic are all within its investment layout.

A businessman who has been in the Middle East for a long time told Shenchao TechFlow that it is simple to identify Tahnon. He has always worn sunglasses, both indoors and outdoors because he is sensitive to light.

To meet Tahnon, you must first deal with a circle of trusted trust, or intersect with his hobbies: Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, bicycles, video games, chess, longevity (called living to 150 years old).

A few lucky people can board his superyacht Maryah and play chess in the Persian Gulf sun.

Cryptocurrency may be just an appetizer. Tahnon is currently a fanatical AI believer. He is spending a lot of money to bet on AI, but he is deeply involved in the confrontation between China and the United States. Even if Tahnon is such a powerful figure, he has to take sides and choose between China and the United States.

Game lovers: From chess to AI

Tahnon was born in 1968, and three years later, his father Zayed led the establishment of the UAE. Tahnon was favored since he was a child because he was one of the six sons born to Fatima, Zayed's favorite wife, and was regarded as his main successor.

In the mid-1990s, Tahnon came to Southern California, USA and studied at a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu training center in Santiago under the name "ben". According to the Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Eastern European website, he was relatively modest, often arrived before others, and helped organize the venue. It was not until later that he revealed that his true identity was a prince from Abu Dhabi.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu has also become one of his lifelong hobbies, and in 1998 he co-founded the ADCC Submission Fighting World Championship with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu coach Nelson. Filmmaker Bobby Razak is filming a documentary about Tahnon, calling him “one of the founders of MMA” and “the sport would not have come to this day without him.”

In addition, Tahnon is also a cycling enthusiast.

He converted a palace in the Royal Manor into a gym, funded the world's top cycling team UAE Team Emirates, and rode on islands near the Presidential Palace, which he transformed into a bicycle paradise.

He had a special liking for ultra-light Colnago bicycles, so he simply allowed a company to acquire most of the shares of the Italian brand in 2020, and the banknote ability was fully demonstrated at this moment.

But perhaps what made Tahnon the most enthusiastic about betting was chess.

In the mid-2000s, Hydra, a small supercomputer in Abu Dhabi, was given the title of the world's best chess player, a 64-bit supercomputer with a 3.06GHz IntelXeon processor that can operate 200 million times per second and think about 40 moves.

Hydra chief designer Chrilly called their boss the most enthusiastic computer chess enthusiast, and mentioned: “This funder loves playing games with Hydra all day and night.”

The mysterious boss used the pseudonym zor_champ to participate in online chess competitions, formed a man-machine combination with Hydra, and often defeated his opponents by overwhelming advantage.

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 exceeding Hydra's performance, which shocked Tahnon and made him realize the potential of AI.

The following year (2018), he appointed former MicroStrategy chief technology officer Xiao Peng as CEO and founded the artificial intelligence company G42.

If you are a science fiction fan, you should be able to understand the deep meaning. 42 is the answer to the ultimate question of life in "The Wandering Guide to the Galaxy". Here is a small easter egg. If you search for "the answer to life, the universe, and everything" in Google, the search result is 42.

G42 is known as "Alibaba + Tencent in the Middle East" and is a leader in the AI ​​field in the UAE and even the Middle East. G42's existing artificial intelligence companies, Core42, AIQ, Presight, medical and health companies M42, Hayat Biotech, data center service provider Khazna, geospatial intelligence company Bayanat and other companies.

There are many Chinese people in the G42 management, such as G42 CEO Xiao Peng, and its biopharmaceutical company Hayat Biotech CEO Cong Hongbin. The G42 Expansion Fund (hereinafter referred to as 42X Fund) established by him has an office in Shanghai and has recruited Hu Ningfeng, former vice president of JD Group and head of the strategic investment department, to join the 42X Fund in 2023 and serve as the head of the China region.

 Picture: Xiao Peng

Power struggle and transaction

Although Tahenon, who won the uterus lottery, is a life winner envied by countless people around the world, he still faces challenges in his life.

The founding father of the UAE, Zayed, has about twenty sons, of which Tahnon and his brother Mohamed belong to the "Bani Fatima" group - six sons born to Zayed's most beloved wife Fatima.

After Zayed's death in 2004, Tahnon's elder brother Khalifa became president of the UAE, while Mohammed, the oldest of the Barney Fatima brothers, was appointed crown prince.

In 2014, President Khalifa suffered a serious stroke, Mohammed took over state affairs, and the dispute over the next crown prince began.

Tahnon insists that tradition should be maintained, that is, Zayed's sons should continue to continue their power as long as they are healthy and mentally keen, so that he is the most competitive potential candidate.

Mohammed insisted that his son Khalid should be appointed crown prince.

In response, Tahnon even presented evidence that Mohammed's strategy went against their father's wishes for his successor. This reminds people of many stories of uncles and nephews seizing power in Chinese history.

Eventually, the struggle ended with negotiations and compromises, and the brothers reached an agreement: Tahnon gave up becoming the crown prince in exchange for significant control of the state's economic assets.

In 2023, Tahnon 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.

At this point, Tahnon became the "CFO" of the UAE, in charge of the two largest sovereign wealth funds, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and Abu Dhabi Development Holdings (ADQ), the largest bank in the UAE, First Abu Dhabi Bank, and his huge business empire, covering real estate, agriculture, health care, energy, industry, shipping, catering and retail industries.

According to the latest data from Global SWF, Tahnon controls more than $2 trillion in assets.

However, according to US media reports, people with contact with Abu Dhabi have consistently reported that Tahnon's power has expanded significantly, beyond the financial sector, where he is responsible for diplomatic contacts with Iran, Qatar and Israel and establishes connections with people in the Trump circle.

MGX participated in a $6 billion financing for Musk's xAI, and its asset management company Lunate added $1.5 billion to Affinity managed by Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Tahnon's power is not only reflected in wealth control, but also extends to the fields of intelligence and technology. As a national security adviser, he is in charge of the UAE intelligence agencies and uses it to build the G42 to get deep into artificial intelligence and biotechnology.

After ending the power dispute, Tahnon encountered new difficulties on the AI ​​path, geopolitical conflicts.

AI and Geopolitics

Before 2023, G42 maintained close cooperation with Chinese technology giant Huawei, and a large number of senior Chinese executives participated in the company's operations, which also made the American hawks very dissatisfied.

"You have to choose a side," said former U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raymondo, who made it clear when meeting in Washington in 2023: Investment is welcome, but you cannot take the lead in both China and the United States.

In August 2023, the United States imposed significant restrictions on the export of Nvidia graphics processors (GPUs) to the Middle East, and any company using Huawei technology was banned from receiving these export products.

Choose one of two, Tahnon has to make a choice.

In early 2024, G42 announced that it would cut off relations with China and remove all Chinese-made technologies, even the Huawei router in the G42 office was removed, and G42 also sold its shares in ByteDance.

In April 2024, Microsoft announced a $1.5 billion investment in G42 to acquire a minority stake, and Microsoft President Brad Smith joined the G42 board of directors.

In the summer of 2024, Tahnon embarked on a U.S. diplomatic journey, meeting with tech giants such as Musk, Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Satya Nadella (Microsoft CEO) and Bezos (Amazon founder), and also discussed with National Security Advisor Jack Sullivan, Commerce Secretary Gina Raymondo, and even President Biden at the White House.

On the other hand, in March 2024, Tahnon led the establishment of investment institutions MGX, and cooperated with BlackRock, Microsoft and others to invest in the AI ​​industry, or to be precise, invest in the US 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 SoftBank's "Star Gate" project.

These efforts paid off quickly. The United States has authorized Nvidia to sell GPUs to the G42, some of which 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 related to the country's destiny.

When we examine this Sino-US technological struggle, it is not difficult to find that whether it is a technology giant or a national leader, or even the royal family members who control trillions of assets, they are just participants in the torrent of history, each betting on their own bargaining chips in an uncertain future.