Abu Dhabi’s G42 Acquires $100 Million Share In ByteDance

Thanks to substantial government investment, Abu Dhabi is rapidly emerging as a MENA tech hub, and with that, high-profile investments are taking place on a frequent basis. Abu Dhabi-based AI firm G42 continued the trend by recently acquiring a $100 million-plus stake in ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok.

G42 is led by the UAE’s Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who acquired the stake from existing investors through the 42XFund.

Shortly after the move, another fund invested $225 billion to acquire ByteDance, a figure well off the company’s peak valuation of $460 billion back in 2021.

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It’s thought that G42’s investment was a nod to ByteDance’s long-term potential as the Chinese economy finally begins to rebound from endless pandemic restrictions. The growing enthusiasm for AI could also be part of renewed interest in ByteDance, as TikTok is acknowledged as pioneering algorithms a decade ago to get users hooked on videos and news.