MGX, the newly launched AI-focused investment company in Abu Dhabi is in talks to invest in OpenAI’s chip venture. This development comes a month after OpenAI chief Sam Altman spoke about his ambition of raising $7 trillion for his AI chip venture. This is in a bid to reduce dependency on the current semiconductor giants of the world.
UAE company MGX is state funded and is led by UAE’s national security advisor Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed-al-Nahyan. The funding move will also boost UAE’s market presence in the AI world as it looks to take on the big tech companies of the West. Sheikh Tahnoon also chairs G42, an AI holding company in the UAE.
Big Tech – Emirati Collaboration
Abu Dhabi’s interest in OpenAI or rather the other way round has been happening for over months now. Last year, OpenAI partnered with G42, where the latter will leverage OpenAI’s generative AI models for UAE’s industrial sectors including energy, healthcare and more. On the other hand, OpenAI will benefit by expanding its presence in UAE, and even utilise G42’s Arabic language model.
It was reported that tech mogul, Elon Musk, is also looking to have strategic partnerships with the UAE. Musk’s ambitious plans to expand in the AI market is nothing new, considering how he is trying to get ahead of OpenAI with whom he is having a continuous beef with. Additionally, xAI, his AI company will need a bigger market, and UAE could fit the bill.
Altman’s dream of raising trillions of dollars involves forward-year planning to disrupt the current AI chip market, which is predominantly dominated by Intel and TSMC. While this development happens on one side, OpenAI’s GPT-5 is highly anticipated considering how it is exactly one year since GPT-4’s launch.
