Saudi Arabia and Gulf Funds Commit $24 Billion in Equity to Back Paramount's $81 Billion Warner Bros. Discovery Takeover

Paramount has secured signed equity commitments totaling nearly $24 billion from three sovereign-wealth funds led by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund to finance its hostile takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. The PIF is providing roughly $10 billion of the commitment, with Qatar Investment Authority and Abu Dhabi's L'imad Holding Co. contributing the remainder. These agreements, expected to be finalized as soon as Monday, represent a significant financial boost for David Ellison's Paramount bid, which beat out Netflix's competing offer for Warner—home to HBO, CNN, and the Harry Potter franchise.

The February deal announcement valued Warner Bros. Discovery at $81 billion, and Paramount executives have instructed employees to prepare for a deal closure as early as the end of July, pending European regulatory review. The Gulf investor commitments help offset costs for the Ellison family and RedBird Capital Partners, though the Ellisons have guaranteed they'll cover the entire amount if equity syndication falls short. Notably, the Gulf funds will hold no voting rights in the combined entity, and their involvement is not expected to trigger reviews by CFIUS or the FCC, since each will own far less than 25% of the merged company.

Paramount has also assembled $54 billion in debt commitments from Bank of America, Citigroup, and Apollo Global Management, which it's now syndicating to other institutions. The deal's financing structure reflects a geopolitical shift: while Paramount initially sought backing from Chinese tech giant Tencent and Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners, both have since exited the arrangement. The timing of Gulf fund involvement coincides with increased regional economic and political tension stemming from U.S.-Israeli military actions against Iran, underscoring the complexities of mega-deals in an unstable geopolitical environment.