Abu Dhabi’s MGX backed Anthropic’s $65 billion fundraise, further strengthening its position in the Claude developer. MGX, launched in 2024 by Abu Dhabi AI conglomerate G42 and sovereign wealth fund Mubadala, and chaired by UAE National Security Adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, owns stakes in three frontier model frontrunners: Anthropic, OpenAI, and xAI. All three are expected to go public this year (xAI as part of its parent company SpaceX), making the UAE the Gulf state with the greatest private-market exposure to the AI race. Qatar’s QIA has invested in both Anthropic and xAI, while Saudi Arabia’s PIF-backed HUMAIN is also a recent backer of xAI.
Anthropic initially ruled out taking the region’s money on national security and moral grounds, only to backtrack. The latest funding round gives it a $965 billion valuation, above that of its rivals. Anthropic has blown past growth expectations while spending at least $1.25 billion a month on compute in “a very delicate dance” between growing too fast and going bankrupt, as one investor told Semafor’s Reed Albergotti.