By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-03-20 04:41:42 | Updated at 2025-03-20 15:14:53
11 hours ago
Microsoft, the biggest backer of Sam Altman’s OpenAI, and BlackRock, which has an executive on the artificial intelligence start-up’s board, are joining forces with one of its chief rivals.
Abu Dhabi’s MGX, Microsoft and BlackRock said Elon Musk’s xAI is joining their effort to build US$30 billion worth of data centres and other artificial intelligence infrastructure. The AI chipmaker Nvidia, which was already named as a technical adviser to the group when it was announced last year, is also formally joining, according to a statement on Wednesday that did not detail member commitments.
Microsoft, which has invested about US$13 billion in OpenAI, has increasingly been developing AI outside that partnership. The software giant has created in-house AI models that it believes can compete with OpenAI, Bloomberg News reported this month. Musk, a co-founder of OpenAI, has meanwhile publicly feuded with Altman over the company’s efforts to shift to a for-profit structure.
MGX has also backed OpenAI, poured money into xAI, and is among entities helping bankroll US President Donald Trump’s US$100 billion AI investment plan dubbed Stargate. It is overseen by one of the world’s most influential deal makers – Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan – who met Trump in the US this week.
The capital demands and enthusiasm for AI have prompted a range of companies and investors to forge alliances to build some of the biggest data centre campuses in the world. Sheikh Tahnoon planned to talk with Trump about increasing Emirati investment in the US, technology and energy, Bloomberg News has reported.
The Microsoft-backed group will be renamed the AI Infrastructure Partnership, or AIP, and focus on infrastructure investments – including energy projects – mostly in the US, with a portion of the funds to be deployed in partner countries, according to the companies. The plan foresees bringing on additional investors. Clients, including pensions and insurers, are eager for such long-term infrastructure projects, BlackRock Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink said in the statement.
BlackRock and Microsoft last year unveiled the coalition in partnership with MGX and Bayo Ogunlesi’s Global Infrastructure Partners. The companies said at the time they would seek US$30 billion of private equity capital over an unspecified time frame and eventually leverage as much as US$100 billion in potential investments.
