Paramount asks Trump's FCC to let Gulf funds own 38.5% of CBS-CNN owner

On April 27, 2026, Paramount Skydance disclosed in a Federal Communications Commission filing that, following the close of its roughly $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, three Gulf sovereign wealth funds would collectively hold 38.5% of the combined company: Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (15.1%), Abu Dhabi's government-owned L'imad Holding (12.8%), and the Qatar Investment Authority (10.6%). The funds' roughly $24 billion in equity is part of a foreign stake of about 49.5% that also includes the Chinese technology company Tencent. According to the filing and subsequent reporting, the foreign investors will receive no board seats and no voting shares; the Ellison family and RedBird Capital Partners retain 100% of the voting control through a separate share class. Paramount asked the FCC for a declaratory ruling permitting foreign ownership above the agency's 25% statutory benchmark. In May 2026, a group of Senate Democrats led by Maria Cantwell urged FCC Chair Brendan Carr to conduct a rigorous national-security and press-freedom review, warning that placing CBS News, CNN, and 60 Minutes partly under the ownership of foreign governments and a Chinese firm could enable undue influence over major U.S. news outlets.