很少有风投基金有足够的财力与微软(MSFT.US)和亚马逊(AMZN.US)等科技巨头数十亿美元的投资额相竞争。但这些主权基金在为人工智能交易筹集资金方面没有问题。它们代表中东国家进行投资，这些国家得益于近年来能源价格上涨。高盛称，到2026年，海湾合作委员会(GCC)成员国的总财富预计将从2.7万亿美元增至3.5万亿美元。Sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East are becoming key supporters of the darling of Silicon Valley artificial intelligence (AI).
Sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East have become key supporters of the darling of Silicon Valley artificial intelligence (AI). Countries rich in oil resources such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Qatar have been seeking economic diversification and using technology investments as a hedge. According to Pitchbook data, investment by Middle Eastern sovereign nations in AI companies has increased fivefold in the past year.
Two sources revealed that the newly established artificial intelligence fund MGX in the United Arab Emirates is one of the investors hoping to participate in OpenAI's latest financing. This round of financing will value OpenAI at $150 billion.
Few venture capital funds have the financial resources to compete with technology giants such as Microsoft (MSFT.US) and Amazon (AMZN.US) with billions of dollars in investment. However, these sovereign funds have no problem raising funds for AI trades. They represent Middle Eastern countries in investments, which have benefited from the rise in energy prices in recent years. Goldman Sachs predicts that by 2026, the total wealth of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member countries will increase from $2.7 trillion to $3.5 trillion.
Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) has surpassed $925 billion in size and has been heavily investing as part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's 'Vision 2030' initiative. PIF has made investments in companies such as Uber (UBER.US), as well as making significant investments in the LIV Golf League and professional football.
Mubadala in the United Arab Emirates manages $302 billion in assets, while the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority manages $1 trillion in assets. The Qatar Investment Authority manages $475 billion in assets, and Kuwait's fund management size has exceeded $800 billion.
Earlier, MGX, based in Abu Dhabi, established partnerships in artificial intelligence infrastructure with BlackRock, Microsoft, and Global Infrastructure Partners, with the aim of raising up to $100 billion for data centers and other infrastructure investments. MGX was established in March this year and is a dedicated AI fund, with Mubadala in Abu Dhabi and AI company G42 as its founding partners.
According to Pitchbook's data, Mubadala also invested in OpenAI's competitor Anthropic and is one of the most active venture capitalists, conducting 8 AI transactions in the past four years. Sources revealed that Anthropic refused Saudi funding in the last round of financing, citing national security as the reason.
However, Saudi's PIF is negotiating a $40 billion partnership with the American venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. It has also established an AI fund called Saudi Center for Artificial Intelligence (SCAI).
It's not just the Middle East that is investing in the field of AI. Pitchbook data shows that the French sovereign fund Bpifrance has closed 161 AI and machine learning transactions in the past 4 years, while Singapore's Temasek has completed 47 transactions. Another Singapore-backed fund, GIC, has completed 24 transactions.
The influx of large amounts of cash has raised concerns among some Silicon Valley investors about the so-called SoftBank effect. It is reported that SoftBank's Vision Fund made massive investments in Uber and WeWork, pushing their valuations sky-high before going public. In 2019, SoftBank valued WeWork at $47 billion, but the company went bankrupt last year.