Gulf Funds Invest in xAI, SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI
Saudi Arabia's PIF and UAE entities have placed billions into U.S. AI companies. The investments coincide with planned public listings for SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI.
pymnts.comGulf sovereign wealth funds have invested several billion dollars in U.S. artificial-intelligence companies, according to investment records cited by Fortune. The stake converted to SpaceX shares after the companies merged. Prince Alwaleed's Kingdom Holding, the Oman Investment Authority and the Qatar Investment Authority participated in xAI's December 2024 Series C round.
Two UAE firms, International Holding Company and Alpha Dhabi Holding, bought SpaceX shares in 2022.
Data-center projects Abu Dhabi's MGX joined xAI's latest round and also invested in Anthropic's May Series H round. That round raised $65 billion and lifted Anthropic's valuation to $965 billion. The UAE and the United States formed an AI Acceleration Partnership last year.
One project under the partnership is the Stargate UAE campus, planned for up to 5 gigawatts of computing capacity at an estimated cost of $30 billion. The first 200-megawatt phase is scheduled to open by the end of 2026. The campus is being built by G42 with OpenAI, Oracle, Nvidia, Cisco and SoftBank.
Saudi Arabia aims for AI to account for 12 percent of GDP by 2030; the UAE targets 40 percent by 2031.
