The largest AI fund of the year is launched
A high-stakes gamble has begun.
News has spread that Abu Dhabi's technology investment firm, MGX, has raised nearly $50 billion, catapulting it into the position of the largest AI investment fund this year. During the same period, Menlo Ventures also raised a record $3 billion, going all-in on AI.
"The pool of funds for AI investment is running out." This is the first time Abu Dhabi has raised external funds on such a large scale. Looking at this, the investment and financing boom brought about by AI is reaching unprecedented levels.
The largest AI fund of this year
Has just been born
It is understood that this huge sum mainly comes from regional sovereign wealth funds, global pension funds, and large institutional investors. It was closed in recent weeks and has started investing.
MGX is well - known in the field of AI investment.
Founded in 2024, MGX was established under the impetus of the Abu Dhabi Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Technology Council. It is organized like an alternative asset management institution, with Mubadala Investment Co. and G42 as founding partners.
This is also the first time it has raised external funds on such a large scale. For a long time, Abu Dhabi has basically been a capital exporter. However, the model training and infrastructure required for AI often require tens of billions of dollars in investment, and the original pool of funds is no longer sufficient.
Currently, MGX's investment portfolio covers cutting - edge AI models, semiconductor infrastructure, and data centers. Its invested projects include OpenAI and xAI, and it jointly supports global infrastructure with BlackRock and Microsoft.
"Our goal is to expand the asset management scale to over $100 billion and plan to invest up to $10 billion annually in the next few years." Previously, MGX had already invested billions of dollars.
Coincidentally, another globally renowned venture capital firm recently set a new record for the largest fundraising. Menlo Ventures raised $3 billion, targeting AI investment and covering all stages from seed to post - Series B.
Founded in 1976, Menlo Ventures is one of the oldest venture capital institutions in Silicon Valley. It was reorganized around AI and has successively invested in a number of AI rising stars such as OpenRouter, Axiom, Skild AI, Lovable, and OpenEvidence.
The most well - known story is its investment in Anthropic when the company didn't even have an official product. Later, it invested $750 million in the Series D financing. After subsequent additional investments, the book value of its shares in Anthropic is close to $14 billion.
"AI is creating one of the biggest technological platform transformations we'll see in our lifetime," said Matt Murphy, a partner at Menlo Ventures. "Many defining AI companies in the next decade haven't been born yet."
Maybe this move seems too crazy, but looking back, it might be the most correct one.
The era of fanaticism
No AI, no wealth
AI has clearly become the biggest investment theme today.
Not long ago, Anthropic secretly filed for an IPO and is expected to go public as early as the third quarter of this year. Previously, the company announced the completion of a $65 billion Series H financing, with a post - investment valuation of up to $965 billion, surpassing OpenAI to become the world's number one.
The story of this behemoth began with a brother and sister, Dario Amodei and Daniela Amodei. In 2021, they left OpenAI and started anew with a group of core members. In just five years, Anthropic's valuation has exceeded that of its former parent company.
OpenAI followed suit, claiming to have submitted confidential listing documents. In an earlier round of financing this year, OpenAI just raised about $122 billion, with a post - investment valuation of $852 billion, setting a new record for the largest single private equity financing globally.
Coupled with the previously listed SpaceX and the upcoming largest A - share IPO this year, Changxin Technology, those who have witnessed it can't help but sigh. In the past, billion - dollar unicorns were extraordinary, but now, companies worth hundreds of billions or even trillions are constantly emerging.
"No AI, no allure; no AI, no high valuation; no AI, no wealth." This scene is not an exaggeration.
However, just as there is often a warning bell behind fanaticism, discussions about the bubble are endless.
Just the three AI giants, SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI, will absorb ten times the money of the entire U.S. stock IPO market last year. Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, warned that too many AI startups have received valuations that their fundamentals cannot support, and investors may lose a lot.
Jensen Huang offered another explanation: "When AI can do useful work, tokens have value; when tokens can generate profits, the demand for computing will accelerate." In other words, AI is the largest infrastructure project in human history.
Looking back, the scale of the AI industry is no longer comparable to that of the mobile Internet era, and its cycle is also longer. Whether investors or entrepreneurs, perhaps they should be a little more patient and wait for the moment when the tide recedes and the real gold is refined.
After all, isn't the bubble also a kind of homage when humans face disruptive productivity?
This article is from the WeChat public account "Investment Circle" (ID: pedaily2012), written by Yu Mengying and published by 36Kr with authorization.