Abu Dhabi MGX is in talks to invest hundreds of millions in Anthropic’s latest funding round, which is expected to raise more than $20 billion and value the company at about $350 billion, Bloomberg reported. The talks underline the growing role of sovereign-backed capital in shaping the global Generative AI race. The move would add to MGX’s expanding portfolio across frontier AI labs and the infrastructure that powers them.
State-owned MGX invested in Anthropic last year and has also backed OpenAI and xAI. It is a supporter of OpenAI’s data centre joint venture, Stargate, and Mistral’s French data centre plans. Beyond model developers, MGX has focused on compute and infrastructure. Last year, it partnered with BlackRock to acquire data centre firm Aligned in a landmark digital infrastructure deal. In January, BlackRock said it raised $12.5 billion for an AI investment partnership backed by MGX, Microsoft, Nvidia, and xAI. MGX also took a 15 percent stake in the newly formed US version of TikTok this year.
Anthropic is a major player in Generative AI, known for building large-scale models and safety-focused research. Its scale and computing needs help explain interest from sovereign investors with long-term capital. CEO Dario Amodei previously acknowledged the trade-offs of such funding, saying taking money from state-backed Middle Eastern funds was a necessary compromise, even as he noted concerns in a leaked memo about who ultimately benefits.
Backed by Abu Dhabi, MGX links capital with infrastructure and partnerships. Its chairman, Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan, also chairs G42, which is involved in Stargate UAE and has a large deal with Cerebras. The approach blends investment in labs with support for data centres and compute capacity.
MGX’s talks with Anthropic point to a wider shift. Gulf capital is becoming a central force in funding frontier AI, influencing how competition among leading labs is financed and where critical AI infrastructure is built.