Art & Culture

Saudi Arabia Just Added EA Sports to Its Growing Gaming Empire

BYYassine Hariss

August 7, 2026

American gaming giant Electronic Arts (EA) has officially been acquired in a $55 billion deal by an investor group that includes Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF).

The consortium, which also includes Affinity Partners—the investment firm led by U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner—is said to have taken the company private, meaning all its public shares have been bought out and will no longer be listed on stock exchanges.

From what we know, three investors are behind the acquisition, though little doubt exists over who now holds the keys. Saudi Arabia’s PIF reportedly owns a 93.4% stake in EA, making it the overwhelming majority owner of one of the world’s biggest gaming companies. The remaining 6.6% is split between U.S. private equity firm Silver Lake, which holds 5.5%, and Kushner’s Affinity Partners, with the final 1.1%.

The scale of the deal is just as significant. It is thought to be the largest leveraged buyout in history, with PIF putting $36 billion into the acquisition and borrowing another $20 billion from JPMorgan to finalize it. That debt will ultimately sit with EA, meaning the company itself will be responsible for paying it back over time.

Naturally, that last part has raised a few eyebrows. How EA plans to service such a sizeable debt, and what that could mean for its employees and the games it produces, has already become a major talking point across the industry. Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier suggested it could result in “mass layoffs, more aggressive monetization, and other big cost-cutting measures,” while others have questioned whether the new ownership could push EA further towards its biggest, safest franchises at the expense of smaller and more experimental titles.

For Saudi Arabia, however, the acquisition also marks another major step into the global gaming industry, arguably its biggest yet. PIF has spent years building its presence in the sector, and taking majority ownership of the company behind EA Sports FC, The Sims, and Battlefield puts some of gaming’s most recognizable franchises firmly within its expanding portfolio.

Saudi Arabia Just Added EA Sports to Its Growing Gaming Empire

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Saudi Arabia Just Added EA Sports to Its Growing Gaming Empire

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