The News
Abu Dhabi-based investment firm MGX plans to invest $8-$10 billion a year in artificial intelligence infrastructure and companies, particularly in the US, as the technology’s potential outweighs short-term economic growth concerns, the company’s chief investment officer said on Friday.
“We remain optimistic that the technology will revolutionize the way we create value in the economy, and the United States continues to be at the bleeding edge of this technology,” Ali Osman said at Semafor’s World Economic Summit.
“Whether you’re bullish or bearish in the space, you’re still looking at capital formation to the tune of trillions of dollars” and MGX’s planned role is still just a “drop in the water,” he said.
While MGX hasn’t disclosed the overall size of its fund — estimates put it at $100 billion — Osman said the firm will invest between $1 billion and $2 billion per deal. He said MGX is taking a 5-10 year view and is “deploying capital in order to support that build-out growth.”
In March, NVIDIA and Elon Musk’s xAI joined the AI Infrastructure Partnership, a platform formed by BlackRock, Microsoft, and MGX in September. The partnership plans to raise $30 billion from investors and ultimately deploy, including debt, $100 billion for AI data centers and related power supply systems.
Osman said that there’s still uncertainty about what the future investments in AI technology looks like, but what’s clear is “the [data center] demand is still very high.” He predicted that global installations’ capacity, currently expected to be around 60 gigawatts, will need to grow over the next five years to 200 or 300 gigawatts.
The Semafor View
Artificial general intelligence seems imminent, with increasingly capable robots coming along for the ride, but it remains unclear how increasingly powerful computers will impact the world’s knowledge workers. The billions of dollars companies are pouring into AI have not paid off, yet.