MGX, a state-backed artificial intelligence investor from the United Arab Emirates, is closing in on a strategic prize: a 15% stake in TikTok's US business.  

On Dec. 18, TikTok chief executive Shou Zi Chew told employees that the company had signed binding agreements with a group of investors — including Abu Dhabi-based MGX — to form a new American version of the short-video app, according to an internal memo reported by multiple media outlets.

The move brings MGX, launched just last year with a mandate focused on AI, into the center of a geopolitically charged effort to reshape ownership of a platform used by roughly 170 million Americans — and underscores the Gulf’s growing role as a capital provider to strategically important US social media companies.

Details: Under the structure outlined in the memo, TikTok’s Chinese parent, ByteDance, has agreed to create a US joint venture majority-owned by American investors in order to avert a nationwide ban that has loomed over the app since President Donald Trump first targeted it on national security grounds in 2020.