OpenAI has been sounding out multiple UAE investment funds to anchor a fresh $30 billion round, and those investors would pool together as a syndicate, according to people familiar with the talks. One of the players at the table is MGX, based in Abu Dhabi. The UAE group has discussed contributing as much as $10 billion in total, one person said.
BlackRock is also in conversations to take part alongside the UAE syndicate, the people said. The raise is ongoing and could shift in size or structure. The people asked not to be named because the discussions are private. OpenAI and BlackRock declined to comment, and MGX's spokespeople were unavailable to provide comment outside normal business hours.
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OpenAI is pitching a pre-money valuation of around $1.4 trillion as a take it or leave it number, despite not designating a lead investor, the people said. That flips the usual script where firms submit terms and negotiate to lead a round. According to Bloomberg, OpenAI is targeting no less than $30 billion at that price and has pushed any initial public offering out to next year at the earliest, pointing to an emphasis on AI safety. The company's latest financing, completed in March, brought in $122 billion and valued the firm at $852 billion, including the new capital.
Leading AI firms such as OpenAI and Anthropic have more often turned to wealthy Middle Eastern capital to bankroll expensive AI research and infrastructure. MGX has put money into both before and, earlier this year, gathered nearly $50 billion to boost outlays for AI infrastructure and technology, Bloomberg reported. OpenAI has also spoken with the University of California's endowment, an existing investor, about joining this round.
Existing investors Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz have discussed adding more capital too. Thrive declined to comment, while the teams for Andreessen and the University of California did not reply to requests for comment.
If OpenAI pulls off a raise of this size at a $1.4 trillion pre-money valuation, it reinforces how much capital is chasing AI infrastructure and the platforms that run on it. That can ripple into everything from chip demand to data center buildouts to who foots the bill for AI services you use. Keep an eye on where the cash is coming from and the price being set. It signals which parts of the AI stack might see the biggest investment tailwinds next.
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