REDWOOD CITY, California – Electronic Arts officially ceased to be a publicly traded company Monday, completing a $55 billion transfer of ownership to a consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. It is the largest all-cash leveraged buyout in history, and the clearest signal yet that the Gulf kingdom is building a global entertainment empire on a foundation that has nothing to do with oil.
The deal, announced last September and approved by shareholders in December, closed August 4 after regulators in the United States and Europe cleared all outstanding hurdles. EA’s common stock was delisted from the Nasdaq, ending more than three decades on public markets. For the hundreds of millions of people who play Madden NFL, The Sims, EA Sports FC, or Apex Legends, the change of ownership introduces a new variable into every game development decision the company will make for the foreseeable future.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund controls 93.4 percent of the new private entity. Silver Lake, the technology-focused private equity firm, holds 5.5 percent. The remaining 1.1 percent belongs to Affinity Partners, the Miami-based investment firm run by Jared Kushner, whose business dealings, from a $2 billion Saudi-linked private equity commitment to a contested Albanian resort now under criminal investigation, have drawn sustained scrutiny from lawmakers and prosecutors on two continents.
The purchase price of $210 per share represented a 25 percent premium over EA’s pre-announcement stock price. To finance the deal, the consortium loaded the company with $20 billion in debt, nearly ten times what EA carried before the transaction. That leverage will constrain the capital available for new games and studio investment, raising questions about whether the creative projects EA has announced will survive the budget realities of private ownership. The announced pipeline includes a fifth Mass Effect game from BioWare, an Iron Man title from Motive Studio, and a third Star Wars Jedi installment from Respawn Entertainment.
CEO Andrew Wilson is staying. EA will remain headquartered in its Redwood City campus. Wilson, whose pay package reached an estimated $38.6 million in the fiscal year that included hundreds of layoffs from Battlefield 6 development and BioWare’s studio, stands to collect a reported $125 million exit payment if pushed out following the acquisition. In the official EA press release announcing the close, Wilson offered language suited to the occasion: “We’re entering this next chapter from a position of strength with partners who share our vision and ambition.”
For PIF, the acquisition extends a strategy pursued methodically across entertainment. The fund purchased mobile game developer Scopely, creator of Monopoly Go, for $4.9 billion in 2024, and acquired Niantic, the company behind Pokémon Go. It also built minority stakes in Nintendo, Activision Blizzard, and Take-Two Interactive. EA, with roughly $7.5 billion in annual revenue and franchises reaching more than 150 countries, is the largest piece yet.
PIF Deputy Governor Turqi Alnowaiser was unambiguous about the intent: “Entertainment and sports are key areas of strategic focus for PIF, and are among the fastest growing and evolving sectors around the world.” The statement fits the broader arc of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 program, the kingdom’s blueprint to build an economy capable of sustaining a post-oil future through technology, tourism, and entertainment. Saudi Arabia has bet heavily across sport as well, from its ownership of LIV Golf to Premier League football clubs and Formula One initiatives, with mixed results.
Not everyone is celebrating. In the weeks before the deal closed, several creators who worked within EA’s Sims partner program departed, citing concerns about whether the company would maintain its policies on LGBTQ-inclusive content under Saudi ownership. Saudi Arabia criminalizes same-sex relationships. The Sims, in particular, has carried relatively progressive content standards among major publishers for over two decades, and its player community includes a substantial LGBTQ fanbase. EA has not publicly addressed what, if anything, will change under new ownership.
Jared Kushner’s statement at the deal’s close leaned toward the philosophical: “EA has created stories, characters, and communities that have become part of everyday life for hundreds of millions of people.” Those communities, and their creators, have been asking a version of that question since September.
The financing structure, $36 billion in equity and $20 billion in debt, makes this the largest leveraged buyout in history, Gulf News reported. EA finished its most recent fiscal quarter with $387 million in net profit. Confirmed 2026 releases, including Madden NFL 27, FC 27, NHL 27, and Star Wars Zero Company, will proceed as scheduled, the company said. What happens beyond that, and how the $20 billion debt load shapes studio decisions over the next several years, is the question EA’s development teams are beginning to live with.
PIF’s investment thesis is that interactive entertainment reaches global audiences at a scale no other medium can match. EA’s franchises reach into more than 150 countries. The Sims alone has more than 70 million registered players. Madden NFL is embedded deeply enough in American sports culture that its roster ratings generate genuine controversy each August.
All of that now belongs to Riyadh. The deal is done. What comes next, the daily budget calls, content decisions, and creative tradeoffs inside studios that have just discovered they are working for a sovereign wealth fund, is the part no press release addresses.
