Abu Dhabia state-funded investment company that is considering support for theOpenAIofChip Program. According to the Financial Times, MGX held discussions with CEO Sam Altman to help fund the project, which is seen as a way to reduce its reliance on Nvidia GPUs. OpenAI is reportedly seeking funding to support its ambitious chip development program.
In February, it was reported that Altman was seeking up to $7 trillion to cover AI chip design and manufacturing, but he has denied those claims. Even a smaller design-only endeavor could require huge sums of money, prompting Altman to look beyond traditional venture capital to sovereign wealth funds.
Source Note: The image is generated by AI, and the image is authorized by Midjourney
MGX, an AI-focused investment fund launched earlier this week, is chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the UAE's national security advisor. Sheikh, who has previously reportedly expressed interest in investing in the chip program (then known as the "Tigris program"), manages up to $1.5 trillion in investment funds and is chairman of G42, a UAE-based group of AI-focused companies.
G42 owns a controlling stake in data center company Khazna Data Centers, is funding a geothermal data center in Kenya, and is partnering with Microsoft to build a sovereign cloud in the UAE. The company is also spending $900 million to build a series of Cerebras in the U.S. featuring Cerebras giant AI chipssupercomputers.G42 has also been accused of developing espionage tools for use by the state.
As for OpenAI, it is believed to be evaluating a potential acquisition target to internalize AI chip manufacturing.DCDexclusiveLast November, the company hired the former leader of Google's TPU AI chip as the company's head of hardware and is building a team to "co-design the future of AI gas pedals" with hardware vendors, according to the report.Sam Altman is also an investor in neuromorphic semiconductor company Rain AI Sam Altman is also an investor in neuromorphic semiconductor company Rain AI, from which OpenAI has committed to buying chips.