Senators Sound Alarm on $55 Billion EA Buyout, Citing Foreign Influence and National Security Risks

EA is suddenly the most talked-about company in games again, and not because of Battlefield or The Sims. The publisher behind Battlefield 6 and The Sims 4 is headed for a $55 billion deal that would take it private, and that plan just tripped a wire in Washington. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal fired off a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent flagging what they see as very real national security and foreign influence risks if this goes through.

The deal, in plain English

Electronic Arts would be acquired by a group led by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), private equity firm Silver Lake, and Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners. Price tag: $55 billion, which would take EA off the public markets.

What Warren and Blumenthal are worried about

• Who is buying: The senators call PIF a strategic arm of the Saudi government, not just a passive investor. They note PIF has been buying cultural leverage for years, from big-money sports stakes to gaming plays like a $3.3 billion investment in Activision Blizzard.
• The premium: They say the buyers are offering more than $10 billion above EA's trading value for a company whose stock has been flat for roughly five years in a notoriously volatile industry. Their read: that looks less like a hunt for returns and more like a bid for influence.
• The Kushner factor: Affinity Partners is run by Jared Kushner, a Trump family member. His firm previously received a $2 billion PIF investment over the objections of PIF's own investment screening board, the senators write. That history raises questions about why he is in this deal and whether his involvement is meant to grease federal approval.
• User data and AI: EA's scale means massive data. The letter points out that at least 700 million players collectively logged more than 13 billion hours in EA games in 2024. Modern games collect a ton of personal and behavioral data through chats, social features, and in-game systems. Handing that to a buyer tied to an authoritarian government, the senators argue, creates risks of surveillance of Americans, covert propaganda, and targeted censorship.
• AI access: They also warn that Saudi Arabia has been positioning itself as an AI leader, and owning EA could unlock the company's AI research, work product, and user data. That combination, in their view, compounds the national security concerns.
• Transparency: Because this is a take-private deal, the senators say it could reduce visibility into what EA is doing unless regulators impose tough conditions.

'What regulator is going to say no to the president's son-in-law?'

The data layer is the whole ballgame

This part is easy to miss if you only focus on the price: the senators see a platform with millions of players, vast social and behavioral data, and the ability to shape what those players see and do. The letter says EA has deep insight into its consumers, their relationships, and their daily lives — the kind of information advertisers crave and governments covet. If PIF and partners control the company, the worry is not just what they could do on day one, but what they could do over time as AI tools get better at personalization, recommendation, and content generation.

The politics are not subtle

Beyond the numbers, Warren and Blumenthal take direct aim at Kushner's presence in the bid, tying it to a broader pattern they describe as the monetization of federal power during the Trump years. The implication is pretty blunt: if your consortium includes a former White House senior adviser who is family to a former (and possibly future) president, lots of people will assume he is there to smooth the path in Washington.

What happens if it goes through?

In their view, unless regulators impose meaningful safeguards, taking EA private under this ownership could erase public transparency into the company's decisions. They cite analyst Mariana Olaizola Rosenblat to underscore the cultural stakes:

'Saudi Arabia clearly recognizes the political and cultural influence of video games, especially among young people.'

Players and devs are already uneasy

It is not just lawmakers. Plenty of players — including big voices in The Sims 4 community — are calling the whole thing downright scary. And on the developer side, Baldur's Gate 3 director Swen Vincke chimed in with a timely reminder: the old playbook of making games faster and cheaper while charging more has never actually worked, even if he did not name EA directly.

Bottom line

A $55 billion take-private led by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, Silver Lake, and Jared Kushner's firm was always going to draw heat. Warren and Blumenthal just put those concerns in writing to Treasury: the outsized premium, the PIF track record, the Kushner link, and especially the potential control of EA's user data and AI capabilities. Whether you care about geopolitics or just want The Sims to keep being The Sims, the stakes here go way beyond one company's quarterly earnings.