Snopes – Examining claim Trump accepted $2B bribe to sell highly sensitive AI chips to UAE, China
- According to a rumor that circulated online in September 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration sold hundreds of thousands of highly sensitive AI microchips to the United Arab Emirates in exchange for a $2 billion bribe to Trump.
- The claim was based on a Sept. 15, 2025, New York Times article. According to the newspaper, MGX, a financial firm backed by Abu Dhabi’s government, invested $2 billion in the cryptocurrency exchange platform Binance using the stablecoin of the Trump family’s cryptocurrency company, World Liberty Financial. A spokesperson for World Liberty Financial confirmed that this $2 billion investment had occurred.
- The deal involving the chips had previously been curtailed by the administration of former President Joe Biden on concerns that China might gain access to UAE technology developed with these chips that could lead to China creating AI-enhanced weapons, according to the Times.
- The Times’ report said there was no evidence of a quid pro quo; however, it added that the proximity of the two deals — which happened within two weeks and saw some overlap regarding who was involved — was “testing the limits of ethics rules while enriching the president, his family and his inner circle.”
- While Snopes was able to confirm the $2 billion deal between Abu Dhabi’s MGX and World Liberty Financial, we could not independently verify whether this amounted to Trump personally being bribed. We reached out to all parties involved and will update this report should any of them respond.
In September 2025, a rumor circulated online that U.S. President Donald Trump received a $2 billion bribe for selling highly sensitive AI microchips to the United Arab Emirates and China.
One Instagram page claimed (archived) it was “the biggest corruption scandal in American history,” adding: “Trump PERSONALLY took a $2 BILLION bribe from the #UAE and then handed them (and China) our most advanced AI microchips.”
The rumor also appeared on X as early as Sept. 15 and later cropped up on Facebook, Bluesky and Reddit.
The claim appeared to be based on a Sept. 15 New York Times article that recounted two deals made over a two-week period, one between the UAE and the Trump family’s cryptocurrency company World Liberty Financial and another between the UAE and the U.S. government regarding highly sensitive AI microchips. While Trump did not receive $2 billion directly, that money benefited a company he co-owns, resulting in his personal enrichment, the report said. At no point in the article did the Times accuse Trump of receiving a bribe.
For this story, The New York Times said it reviewed correspondence and interviewed 75 people, including some in former President Joe Biden’s administration and people who served during Trump’s first administration. Further, the paper reportedly obtained statements from World Liberty Financial and G42, the Abu Dhabi-based company chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the same member of the Abu Dhabi royal family who was said to be involved in the two deals.
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Snopes could not independently verify the Times’ report. Therefore, we did not rate the claim that Trump received a $2 billion bribe for selling highly sensitive AI microchips to the UAE and China. However, we contacted the White House, the Abu Dhabi media office for Sheikh Tahnoon and G42, none of whom were immediately available for comment. We will update this report should they respond.
How the two deals happened
After winning the November 2024 presidential election, Trump announced that Steve Witkoff would be his special envoy to the Middle East. Since then, according to The New York Times, Witkoff, whose family co-founded World Liberty Financial with the Trump family, grew closer to Sheikh Tahnoon, with the two reportedly becoming “diplomatic allies and business partners.”
On May 1, 2025, numerous reputable news media outlets reported that Witkoff’s son Zach Witkoff, who appeared as a co-founder on the World Liberty Financial website, announced that one of the investment companies backed by Abu Dhabi’s government, MGX, would invest $2 billion into crypto exchange platform Binance using World Liberty Financial’s stablecoin, USD1. Binance is the world’s largest crypto exchange as of this writing.
David Wachsman, a spokesman for World Liberty Financial, confirmed that MGX, of which Sheikh Tahnoon is chairman, had picked USD1 for this transaction.
Wachsman said via email,
They did so after reviewing all the technology solutions available at the time,
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Two weeks later, the Times reported, Steve Witkoff and Sheikh Tahnoon came to a second agreement. By this point, Steve Witkoff had officially been sworn in as Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East. This agreement said the UAE would buy hundreds of thousands of cutting-edge AI microchips from the U.S. This deal came after an earlier agreement between the UAE and the Biden administration that the U.S. government had deemed a security risk due to concerns that many of these chips would end up in China. For this reason, Biden’s team had imposed strict conditions on the UAE’s acquisition of these chips.
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Snopes – Examining claim Trump accepted $2B bribe to sell highly sensitive AI chips to UAE, China, source
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