Abu Dhabi’s MGX closes $49 billion fund, signalling new era of Gulf AI dominance

Abu Dhabi’s MGX has closed its first fund at $49 billion, topping an original target of $45 billion and underscoring the scale of Gulf capital flowing into artificial intelligence. According to The National, the investment firm has already backed 14 companies across the AI stack since it was launched in 2024, placing it among the most powerful new financiers in the sector.

The fund’s reach spans semiconductors, AI infrastructure and applications built on top of the technology. PYMNTS reported that MGX intends to deploy capital across the full ecosystem, rather than limiting itself to model developers alone. That strategy reflects a broader shift in AI funding: the most valuable companies are no longer just those building frontier models, but also those controlling the data centres, chips and power connections needed to train them.

MGX was set up as a joint venture between Mubadala Investment Company, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, and G42, the emirate’s AI and cloud computing group. It is chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who also serves as the UAE’s deputy ruler and national security adviser. The structure has helped position MGX as a bridge between state capital and outside institutional money, giving it unusual firepower in a market where the cost of scaling AI infrastructure has risen sharply.

The firm has already become a recurring presence in some of the sector’s largest funding rounds. Among its better-known bets are Anthropic, OpenAI and xAI, while its portfolio also includes Binance, SpaceX and TikTok USDS, according to reporting by The National and Forbes. Forbes said the fund’s holdings give it exposure to both model developers and the infrastructure and platform layer around them.

The infrastructure side of MGX’s strategy may prove the most consequential. The firm joined a consortium to acquire Aligned Data Centres in a deal valued at about $40 billion, and in June it announced roughly $8.7 billion to help develop an AI campus near Paris with Bpifrance, Mistral and Nvidia. The project is expected to aim for as much as 3 gigawatts of compute capacity, which would put it among the largest AI infrastructure builds in Europe.

MGX’s fundraising comes as global appetite for AI assets remains intense. Dealroom data cited in the lead reporting showed that AI companies have raised $416.6 billion so far in 2026, putting the year on track to dwarf previous totals. Against that backdrop, MGX’s $49 billion close gives Abu Dhabi a much larger seat at the table as the capital-intensive race to build and control AI infrastructure accelerates.

The fund’s expansion has not been free of controversy. Its investment in Binance has drawn scrutiny because the exchange pleaded guilty in 2023 to criminal anti-money-laundering violations in the US. Separately, MGX’s co-founding partner G42 faced pressure from Washington in 2024 over earlier ties to Chinese technology companies before later divesting those holdings. Those issues have not slowed MGX’s momentum, but they do highlight the geopolitical sensitivity surrounding where the money for frontier AI is coming from.

MGX has also signalled that this is only the beginning. According to The National, the firm has a long-term goal of exceeding $100 billion in assets under management, which would require sustained deployment over several years. If it gets there, MGX will not merely be a large investor in AI; it will be one of the defining institutions shaping how, where and by whom the industry is built.