Sam Altman, Co-Founder and CEO of OpenAI, has reportedly held meetings with Middle East investors as the artificial intelligence company explores raising close to $50 billion in a new funding round.
According to Bloomberg, Altman met with several state-backed investment funds in Abu Dhabi as part of early-stage discussions. The ChatGPT developer is said to be seeking fresh capital at a valuation of between $750 billion and $830 billion, although the final fundraising amount could change as talks progress.
In October, Abu Dhabi-based technology investor MGX acquired shares in OpenAI through a $6.6 billion secondary transaction that valued the US-based company at $500 billion. That deal followed an earlier funding round in October 2024, which valued OpenAI at approximately $157 billion, with MGX also participating.
MGX was established in March 2024 by Mubadala Investment Company and AI firm G42, and focuses on artificial intelligence infrastructure, semiconductors and core technologies.
Bloomberg also reported that in June, OpenAI held discussions with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, India’s Reliance Industries and MGX regarding a separate $40 billion financing effort. Each investor could potentially commit hundreds of millions of dollars.
Separately, OpenAI has selected the UAE as the first international location for its Stargate data infrastructure project, which is expected to deliver up to 5 gigawatts of computing capacity.
The project will be developed by G42 in partnership with OpenAI, Oracle, Nvidia, Cisco and SoftBank, and follows the UAE’s pledge last year to invest $1.4 trillion in the U.S.
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