NEWS · 7 MIN READ · 12 AUG 2026
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund now owns 93.4% of Electronic Arts after the largest leveraged buyout in history closed on August 4. Here is what actually changes, and what does not.
Electronic Arts spent 35 years as a public company. That ended on August 4, 2026, when a consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) completed a $55 billion all-cash purchase of the publisher behind EA Sports FC, Madden NFL, Battlefield, Apex Legends and The Sims. EA’s common stock stopped trading and was delisted from Nasdaq the same day, moving the company into private ownership for the first time since 1991.
The deal had been agreed since September 2025. It took roughly ten months, a EU subsidy clearance, and a U.S. national security review that ran longer than every other regulatory check combined to actually close. Along the way it picked up a $20 billion debt package, a warning letter from two U.S. senators, and a labor union that called it a threat serious enough to “trigger virtually every alarm bell.” None of that stopped it.
The deal, in numbers
EA stockholders received $210 in cash for every share they held, a roughly 25 percent premium over where the stock traded before the deal was announced. The ownership split and the financing behind it:
| Party | Stake / role |
|---|---|
| Public Investment Fund (Saudi Arabia) | 93.4% owner |
| Silver Lake | 5.5% owner |
| Affinity Partners (Jared Kushner’s firm) | 1.1% owner |
| JPMorgan-arranged debt package | $20 billion ($18B loans and bonds plus a $2B liquidity facility), about $1.8B in annual interest |
PIF already held a stake in EA before the buyout and rolled it into the new private company rather than cashing out, making it EA’s majority owner outright. Affinity Partners is the Miami-based investment firm run by Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, and its 1.1% stake is small but has made the deal a recurring talking point well outside gaming press.
It is the largest leveraged buyout ever recorded in any industry, but not the largest acquisition in gaming. That record still belongs to Microsoft’s roughly $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard, which closed in 2023. The EA deal is bigger on debt and structure, smaller on total price. JPMorgan arranged the $20 billion financing package behind it.
Why it took ten months to close
The EU’s antitrust and subsidy review cleared the deal without much drama. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) is the reason this took until August instead of closing near EA’s original June 30, 2026 target date. Because PIF is a foreign sovereign wealth fund and EA holds data on hundreds of millions of player accounts, the review ran past that deadline and toward a new outside date of September 28.
The Communications Workers of America wrote to the FTC and CFIUS in October 2025 flagging EA’s AI development specifically as a national security concern under foreign ownership. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Elizabeth Warren sent a letter that same month to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent asking for the same scrutiny. EA confirmed in an SEC filing that every required approval, CFIUS included, was in hand by July 30, letting the deal close on August 4, more than seven weeks ahead of the extended deadline.
What changes at EA, and what does not
Chief executive Andrew Wilson stays on as chairman and CEO. EA’s headquarters stays in Redwood City, California. Every major franchise, EA Sports FC, Madden NFL, Battlefield, Apex Legends, The Sims and EA’s Star Wars titles, continues under the same corporate parent with no announced changes to their teams or roadmaps.
Wilson framed the sale as an opportunity rather than an ending: “We are entering a new era of opportunity. This is one of the largest and most significant investments ever made in the entertainment industry. Our new partners bring deep experience across sports, gaming, and entertainment. They are committed with conviction to EA, they believe in our people, our leadership, and the long-term vision we are now building together.” What that vision actually looks like in a shipped game has not been detailed yet.
The $700 million question
The new owners have targeted $700 million in annual cost savings, and $170 million of that is explicitly labeled “organizational efficiencies,” the kind of line item that usually means headcount. What the remaining $530 million comes from (vendor contracts, marketing spend, real estate, studio consolidation) has not been broken out publicly.
EA is not new to layoffs. It cut about 6 percent of its workforce in 2023 and around 670 people, roughly 5 percent, in 2024. The CWA has already warned that debt-driven savings targets on top of that history point toward fears of mass layoffs, not just a routine trim. There is a real tension sitting on top of that: Wilson earned $38.6 million in the same fiscal year EA laid off Battlefield 6 developers, and reporting on his compensation package indicates he could collect up to $125 million more if he is pushed out following the ownership change.
The Saudi ownership debate
Human rights organizations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have documented Saudi Arabia’s record on free speech, the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the imprisonment of dissidents, restrictions on women’s rights, and the criminalization of LGBTQ+ relationships. Critics of the deal, including some gaming press, have framed PIF’s growing footprint in entertainment as “sportswashing,” the same criticism leveled at the fund’s investments in golf, football and esports.
That criticism has landed close to home for some EA players specifically because of the games involved. Mass Effect, Dragon Age and The Sims 4 all let players pursue same-sex relationships, and that content has real communities built around it. Wilson has said EA’s “values and commitment to players and fans around the world remain unchanged,” but that is a statement of intent, not a contractual guarantee, and EA has not published any policy committing to keep existing content untouched under the new ownership structure.
Not the same fund that owns your Nintendo and Take-Two stock
It is easy to assume this is one big Saudi gaming rollup, but the structure is more specific than that. PIF’s broader gaming bets, roughly $38 billion allocated since 2021 and consolidated over several rounds of portfolio transfers, run through a separate subsidiary called Savvy Games Group. Savvy holds around a $3 billion stake in Take-Two Interactive, roughly 10 percent positions in Nintendo, Bandai Namco, Koei Tecmo, NCSoft, Nexon and Square Enix, and it owns the esports tournament organizers ESL and FACEIT outright.
Savvy is not a party to the EA acquisition. This deal runs through PIF directly, alongside Silver Lake and Affinity Partners. EA is not being folded into Savvy’s portfolio companies, at least not as part of anything announced so far, and the two ownership structures should be treated as separate until PIF says otherwise.
What this means for the games you actually play
In the short term, close to nothing. Studios keep working on what they were already working on, the same leadership is in place, and no franchise has been announced as discontinued, sold off or restructured. The risk is medium-term, not immediate.
A newly private EA carrying $18 billion in debt and a $700 million cost-cutting target has a direct financial incentive toward more aggressive monetization on its live-service titles, think EA Sports FC Ultimate Team packs, Apex Legends’ battle pass, and the loot box style bundles that already drive a large share of EA’s revenue, and to look for savings anywhere headcount touches development timelines. Neither EA nor its new owners have announced specific monetization changes, and treating that outcome as confirmed would be getting ahead of the facts. What is confirmed is the debt, the cost target, and a workforce that has already been cut twice in three years.
Frequently asked questions
Was EA bought by Saudi Arabia?
Yes. A consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, alongside Silver Lake and Affinity Partners, completed a $55 billion all-cash acquisition of Electronic Arts on August 4, 2026. PIF holds 93.4% of the newly private company.
How much did Saudi Arabia pay for EA?
$55 billion total, at $210 in cash per share, funded in part by a $20 billion debt package arranged through JPMorgan. It is the largest all-cash leveraged buyout ever recorded in any industry.
Why did Saudi Arabia buy EA?
The purchase fits Saudi Arabia’s broader Vision 2030 strategy of diversifying its economy away from oil by expanding into global entertainment and technology. PIF already held a stake in EA before the buyout and has been building a large gaming portfolio for years, though that separate portfolio runs through a different subsidiary, Savvy Games Group, not through this deal.
What is Affinity Partners, and why is Jared Kushner involved?
Affinity Partners is a Miami-based investment firm founded by Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and former White House advisor. It holds a 1.1% stake in the deal, a minority position alongside PIF and Silver Lake, but it is the detail most cited outside gaming coverage of the sale.
Will this change the games EA makes?
Nothing has changed yet. Leadership, headquarters and every major franchise remain in place. The financial pressure from $18 billion in new debt and a $700 million cost-cutting target creates a real incentive toward heavier monetization and further layoffs, but neither has been officially announced, and EA says its approach to players is unchanged.
Bottom line
EA did not change hands because it was struggling. It changed hands because a Saudi-led consortium was willing to pay a 25 percent premium and take on $18 billion in debt to control the studio behind FC, Madden, Battlefield, Apex Legends and The Sims. Nothing about how those games play has changed today. What to watch is whether the $700 million savings target turns into a third round of layoffs, and whether a company now owned 93.4% by a foreign sovereign fund handles the content and labor questions that scrutiny has already raised. Both are answerable only with time, not with today’s press release.