Abu Dhabi’s MGX invests in Trump Crypto, TikTok and OpenAI

Artificial intelligence startups are raising increasingly large amounts of capital to fund their growing infrastructure needs and are turning to strategic partners, including: Nvidia and leading venture firms such as Thrive Capital, Sequoia, and Andreessen Horowitz.

But one major investor’s name is MGX, which is not a household name in the world of tech investing.

Founded in March 2024 with the backing of Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, MGX has emerged as a key source of capital for the hyperscaler. microsoft, meta and googleand startups like OpenAI are racing to build the massive computing power needed to meet anticipated AI demand.

In September, MGX joined in with even more buzz. oracle And Silver Lake was involved in President Donald Trump’s push to bring TikTok under U.S. control.

And on Wednesday, MGX was in the news again as part of another huge AI deal. MGX joins investors including Nvidia, Microsoft, BlackRock and Elon Musk’s xAI to acquire Aligned Data Centers for $40 billion, the largest global data center deal to date. Alignment designs and operates facilities throughout North and South America.

MGX was formed from a joint venture between Group 42 (G42), a UAE-based technology holding company, and Mubadala Investment Company. Tech companies have welcomed MGX and its deep pockets into the group, despite the geopolitical concerns associated with bringing large amounts of Middle Eastern money into critical U.S. infrastructure.

MGX’s first big announcement in the US came in the fall of 2024, less than two years after OpenAI’s ChatGPT sparked the generative AI boom.

In its first agreement, MGX joined a consortium formed by the following companies, now called the AI ​​Infrastructure Partnership (AIP): black rock Separately, Microsoft has invested $1.5 billion in G42 to develop AI technology in the Middle East, and G42 is powered entirely by Microsoft’s Azure cloud services.

The AIP consortium is also a vehicle for MGX to participate in its latest transaction with Aligned.

MGX later joined Stargate, a $500 billion joint venture with OpenAI backed by President Trump, as a partner. oracle According to PitchBook, MGX also invested in a number of companies over the past year, including Databricks, Anthropic, and xAI. Its chairman is Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s national security adviser and brother of the country’s president.

Certain deals suggest some degree of cordiality with President Trump.

Earlier this year, MGX reportedly provided $2 billion in funding to crypto exchange Binance using cryptocurrencies purchased from the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial. Al Nahyan also visited President Trump at the White House this spring and announced that his country would invest $1.4 trillion in the United States over the next 10 years.

Then along came TikTok.

On September 25, President Trump signed an executive order supporting a proposed agreement to allow social media apps owned by China’s ByteDance to continue operating in the United States.

ByteDance faced an ultimatum under a federal law passed with bipartisan support from members of Congress to either sell the platform’s U.S. operations or shut down in the United States.

As part of President Trump’s executive order, MGX partnered with Oracle and Silver Lake to acquire a combined 45% stake in TikTok USA, although details have not yet been officially announced.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, slammed the deal.

“The shady Abu Dhabi company MGX has already terminated its contract to obtain sensitive American technology while enriching the Trump family’s crypto company,” Warren said in a statement last month. “The American people have a right to know whether the president has cut new behind-the-scenes deals for this billionaire’s acquisition of TikTok.”

Representatives for MGX, OpenAI, Microsoft, and BlackRock declined to comment for this story.

Patrick Moorhead, an analyst at Moore Insights and Strategy, said U.S. tech companies may need to partner with Middle Eastern companies on AI to prevent them from collaborating with major international adversaries.

“I believe in the Middle East… Either we provide the goods or the goods go to China,” Moorhead said.

Moorhead added that MGX follows the same strategy as Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. They’re trying to diversify away from oil, and AI is one area they can put money into.

“The amount of capital required is astronomical,” Moorhead said. “And they’re willing to take the risk.”

Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon If you have enough cash to fund your AI ambitions, additional resources are always welcome. That’s why many AI leaders are borrowing AI capabilities from companies such as: core weave Rather than building everything ourselves.

“I think it will really catch on among venture capitalists because the public is used to sovereign wealth,” said Bradley Tusk, venture capitalist and co-founder of Tusk Capital Partners. “This could potentially be a good source of funding given the current difficult funding environment.”

Tusk warned that MGX could become embroiled in U.S. politics or the perception that MGX is too close to the Trump administration, which could create problems if a Democrat takes the White House in the coming years.

“The biggest risk is that right now all they’re communicating is that they’re friends of Mr. Trump,” Tusk said.

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