Earlier this week, I posted a thread laying out Semafor’s financial ties to Qatar. It went up the same day Semafor Gulf’s editor, Mohammed Sergie, argued that accusations of Qatari terror-funding and influence “hold little evidence.”
Two days later, KIND snack founder and Shark Tank investor Daniel Lubetzky went public with a story of his own. Lubetzky says that years ago, Semafor CEO Justin Smith, while pitching him to invest, “bragged about getting an enormous amount of money from the government of Qatar” to “train journalists.” Lubetzky says he doesn’t recall the precise figures, but that “directionally” it was like being paid $2 million for a boot camp that cost Semafor $50,000. He says he told Smith it sounded like a bribe.
His video opens with the same highlighted screenshot of Sergie’s article from my thread. TheWrap and Jewish Insider have since reported on the findings in my thread.
Semafor & Qatar Financial and Program Ties
As my thread noted, Semafor named Invest Qatar, the Qatari government’s investment promotion agency, among the “inaugural launch partners” of Semafor Gulf. Jewish Insider confirms it, adding that the deal included “digital and event collaborations.”
I also explained in my thread that Semafor ran at least four “Independent Media Initiative” workshops in Doha from October 2024 to December 2025, working with the Doha Institute and state-run entities like Media City Qatar and the Qatar Leadership Centre.
The Non-Denial
Here’s what a Semafor spokesperson told both TheWrap and Jewish Insider:
“Semafor has never accepted investment from any government or sovereign wealth fund, and we remain firmly committed to independent journalism.”
But Lubetzky didn’t accuse Semafor of selling Qatar an equity stake. He alleged Qatar paid Semafor for services, at a wildly inflated price. “We never took investment” answers a question nobody asked.
What Semafor wouldn’t answer matters more. According to TheWrap, the company did not say who funded the workshops or how much it received. Jewish Insider reports the spokesperson did not directly address the training-payment allegation at all.
Is Semafor Violating FARA?
The Foreign Agents Registration Act requires people acting on behalf of foreign governments to disclose it publicly. There’s a narrow exemption for genuine journalism, but paid events and training programs for a foreign state raise real questions about whether that exemption covers them. That’s exactly what the Justice Department should investigate: who paid Semafor, how much, on what terms, and how it influenced Semafor’s coverage of Qatar.
In my view, a newsroom that takes state money for services, then publishes defenses of that state while refusing to disclose the arrangement, is precisely what FARA was written for.