The Abu Dhabi investment fund MGX has secured $50 billion from external investors, marking a historic shift. For the first time, the oil-exporting country is attracting outside capital to make a major bet on artificial intelligence. This transformation from a local manager to a global asset administrator will concentrate wealth on a large scale, impacting jobs and public services. The move is clear: Abu Dhabi no longer just extracts crude oil; it now extracts data and algorithms.
Infrastructure and algorithms: the new oil of the East 🤖
MGX will channel these $50 billion into high-performance data centers, specialized chips, and generative AI platforms. The technical strategy aims to develop proprietary language models and industrial automation systems, competing with giants like OpenAI or Google. By integrating external capital, they accelerate the construction of critical infrastructure to train models with billions of parameters. The goal is to create a self-sufficient ecosystem where AI processes everything from financial transactions to medical diagnoses.
When your boss is an Emirati algorithm 😅
The irony is that while ordinary citizens see AI taking away their jobs as cashiers or clerks, the sheikhs are rubbing their hands together with their new data centers. Now, instead of complaining about traffic in Abu Dhabi, you can complain that an artificial intelligence assigns you work shifts at 3 AM. Sure, at least the algorithm won't ask you to fill up its gas tank. AI doesn't drink oil; it only consumes electricity and capital gains.