Sam Altman courts Middle East giants for OpenAI’s next $50b mega-round
- Marijan Hassan - Tech Journalist
- 4 hours ago
- 2 min read
Seeking to nearly triple its valuation, OpenAI turns to Gulf Sovereign wealth funds to fuel a $1.4 trillion AI infrastructure vision.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has landed in the Middle East for a high-stakes fundraising tour that could cement his company as the most valuable private tech entity in history. Reported on January 21, 2026, the "ChatGPT" maker is in early talks to raise at least $50 billion, and potentially as much as $100 billion, at a staggering valuation target between $750 billion and $830 billion.
The move highlights OpenAI's transition from a software startup into a global infrastructure giant, as it seeks the capital necessary to build the physical backbone of the AI age.
The "Gulf supremacy": Why the Middle East?
With Silicon Valley investors becoming increasingly cautious about AI "burn rates," Altman is turning to the world’s most liquid pools of capital: Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
Altman has held direct meetings with top state-backed funds in Abu Dhabi, including MGX (a dedicated AI fund) and Mubadala.
The "Stargate" connection
The funding is tied to massive regional projects like Stargate UAE, a planned 5-gigawatt AI data center campus being built in partnership with G42, Oracle, and Nvidia. The first 200 MW of this cluster is expected to go live later this year.
A strategic asset
For Gulf monarchies, investing in OpenAI is not just a financial play; it is part of a "National AI Strategy" to diversify their economies. By 2030, AI is projected to account for nearly 14% of the UAE's GDP.
The competition heats up
OpenAI isn't the only one at the Middle Eastern buffet. Rival firms are also hungry for the same capital to survive the "Compute Arms Race":
Anthropic is reportedly seeking funds at a $350 billion valuation while Elon Musk is also actively courting the same Gulf investors to fund xAI‘s "Colossus" supercomputer expansions.
While Altman courts the Middle East, reports suggest he is simultaneously negotiating a $10 billion side-deal with Amazon, potentially creating a complex "Cloud Triangle" between Microsoft, OpenAI, and its fiercest rival.
The "bubble" debate
Critics and veteran investors have warned that these valuations are "comical" and based on "excitement" rather than traditional SaaS math. To justify an $830 billion valuation, analysts suggest OpenAI must reach $200 billion in annual revenue by 2030, a 15x growth requirement in just five years.
Altman, however, remains undeterred. In a recent post on X, he brushed off skeptics, noting: "People think of us mostly as ChatGPT, but the API team is doing amazing work!"
