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Abu Dhabi’s MGX signs up for $500bn Stargate project

23 January 2025

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Abu Dhabi-based artificial intelligence (AI)-focused fund MGX has teamed up with US technology firms Oracle and ChatGPT creator OpenAI, and Japan's Softbank, to form the Stargate project, which aims to invest $500bn to build AI infrastructure in the US.

On 22 January, US President Donald Trump announced the project as "the largest AI infrastructure project by far in history".

Backed by Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala, MGX was formed in 2024.

MGX aims to build $100bn in assets under management within a few years, along with US-headquartered Global Infrastructure Partners and Microsoft, the fund's key partners.

In September 2024, it was announced that technology investment platform Global AI Infrastructure Investment Partnership aims to invest in new and expanded data centres, chiefly in the US, to meet the growing demand for computing power, as well as energy infrastructure to create new sources of power for these facilities.

The same month, Sheikh Tahnoon Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, deputy ruler of Abu Dhabi and national security adviser, and Jake Sullivan, US national security adviser, sealed an agreement on the common principles for cooperation on AI in Washington, following a meeting between UAE President Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and then-US President Joe Biden.

No money

Following the launch of the Stargate project, Tesla co-founder and head of the newly formed US Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk, who was kept out of the project, remarked in a social media post that the joint venture "don't [sic] actually have the money ($500bn)".

He followed up by saying that Softbank had well under $10bn secured.

Softbank's Masayoshi Son pledged to invest $100bn in the US in December.

The Stargate project's planned investment is greater than the investment in data centres planned by Emirati billionaire Hussain Sajwani, who together with President Trump, announced a plan to invest at least $20bn over four years in building data centres in several US states.

On 13 January, days before President Trump took office, the White House issued a brief of a regulation by the Department of Commerce imposing controls on the export of advanced computing integrated circuits.

The regulation's final draft splits countries into three tiers. Chip exports to the top-tier countries, comprising 18 of the closest allies of the US, are "without limit".

According to reports, the third tier comprises countries of concern, including Macau (China) and Russia.

All other nations and states, including those in the GCC, are presumed to be mid-tier countries, where a cap of approximately 50,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) between 2025 and 2027 will apply.

Individual companies from these countries will be able to achieve higher computing capability if they comply with US regulations and obtain validated end-user status.

The White House brief is no longer available online, but a copy of the regulation can still be found in the Federal Register, the US government's daily journal.  

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Jennifer Aguinaldo

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