OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is set to visit the United Arab Emirates this week to explore fundraising opportunities with the Abu Dhabi investment group MGX, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
Altman’s Abu Dhabi stop comes as the ChatGPT maker looks to raise about $40bn to fuel its model development and ambitious infrastructure plan Stargate at a time when US AI companies are facing a new challenge from cheaper Chinese alternative DeepSeek.
MGX participated in OpenAI's most recent funding round of $6.6bn, which concluded in October. The firm, with an increasing footprint in the US AI landscape, has also invested in companies like xAI and Databricks. MGX did not immediately respond for comment.
Altman's discussions with Abu Dhabi's MGX come after his fast-paced tour of Asia, during which a partnership with Japan’s SoftBank for AI services was announced on Monday.
SoftBank is in talks to lead a funding round of up to $40 billion in OpenAI at a valuation of $300bn, including the new funds, in what could be a record single funding round for a private company, sources have said.
US President Donald Trump last month unveiled a joint venture dubbed Stargate involving three principal equity backers OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle ORCL.N, in which MGX is also participating.
The Stargate partners have promised to spend $100 billion to build the servers providing computing muscle for AI, ramping up to $500bn over four years.
Altman visited India on Wednesday, where he met IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and discussed the country’s plan for creating a low-cost AI ecosystem.
Altman’s OpenAI, which is part-owned by Microsoft, released ChatGPT in late 2022 and reached over 300 million weekly active users two years later. But China’s DeepSeek emergence this month showed companies a cheaper alternative to access AI technology at a fraction of the cost.
AI was a key focus during UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan's visit to Washington in December. Abu Dhabi's AI initiatives are spearheaded by the state-backed G42 and MGX, with Mubadala, the $330bn wealth fund, as a partner.