Paramount Secretly Courting Arabian Gulf Cash to Buy Hollywood's Crown Jewels

KEY POINTS

•Last year, Paramount said it would use $24 billion from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar to help buy Warner Bros. Discovery.
•Paramount won the deal but has not confirmed if it still plans to use the Gulf sovereign funds for financing.
•Gerry Cardinale of RedBird Capital indicated Gulf money could be positive and emphasized the Ellison family and RedBird backstop the $47 billion equity.

In a deliciously opaque dance, Paramount, the company that apparently likes billion-dollar cliffhangers, is mum about whether it will still embrace $24 billion from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar to buy Warner Bros. Discovery. Meanwhile, RedBird Capital's Gerry Cardinale, sounding like the world's most cagey real estate agent, insists the $47 billion equity backstopped by Larry and David Ellison and RedBird themselves covers everything. Financing includes an $81 billion debt mountain, because what’s a media merger without a Greek tragedy? At a November 2025 DC conference, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman shared the VIP table with Elon Musk and treasury head Scott Bessent, making it feel like a diplomatic game of Monopoly—just with real kingdoms and real cash. Paramount’s silent treatment about Gulf money might be negotiating, hiding, or just really bad at Twitter.