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In a remarkable development in the gaming industry, EA announced at the end of September a preliminary agreement to be acquired by an investment consortium led by the Saudi Investment Fund and including Silver Lake and Affinity Partners. But the deal, one of the largest acquisitions in the history of the gaming industry, has provoked strong political reactions in the United States.
In a letter to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal expressed deep concern about the foreign influence and national security risks posed by the deal.
The letter, disclosed by several U.S. sources, reads:
We write with deep concern about the foreign influence and national security risks posed by the potential acquisition of EA by the Saudi Arabian Investment Fund and its partners.
We urge you and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to conduct a thorough and comprehensive investigation into this unprecedented transaction.
In their letter, the lawmakers noted that Saudi Arabia is seeking to buy influence in the US through this deal, noting that the investment consortium intends to pay more than $10 billion above EA’s current market value, which they described as having remained stagnant for the past half-decade in a market full of volatility.
The letter added that the Saudi sovereign wealth fund is a strategic arm of the Saudi government, making this acquisition an issue that goes beyond purely commercial investment.
The letter also addressed concerns about user data privacy, noting that EA holds sensitive information on millions of gamers around the world, making this data a potential target for foreign influence. The lawmakers also warned that taking EA private would lead to a loss of transparency in its internal operations and decisions.
At the conclusion of the letter, the senators called on the US Committee on Foreign Investment to conduct a thorough investigation into the deal and provide a detailed report on the results of the review before November 4, 2025.
The deal comes in the context of the Saudi Fund’s expansion into the entertainment and gaming sector after previous investments in companies such as Nintendo, Capcom and Take-Two. Analysts believe that the acquisition of EA, if completed, will be a strategic step to strengthen Saudi Arabia’s presence in the global gaming industry as part of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.
However, US political and security concerns remain one of the main obstacles to finalizing the deal in the near term, especially in light of the sensitive climate that followed huge deals such as Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision, which underwent a lengthy legal review. Do you think the US government is right to be concerned about this deal?
