BlackRock, Microsoft, and Abu Dhabi Sovereign Wealth Fund Launch Joint Fund
Aiming to Attract a Total of $100 Billion in Investments
Musk Seen as Intending to Counter Altman
xAI, a generative artificial intelligence (AI) company founded by Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk, is joining an AI infrastructure fund led by BlackRock. Foreign media interpret this as a sign that technology companies and investors are actively forming alliances amid the massive investments flowing into AI infrastructure development following the emergence of generative AI.
According to the Financial Times (FT) on the 19th (local time), Nvidia and xAI are participating in the multibillion-dollar "Global AI Infrastructure Investment Partnership (AIP)." AIP is an investment partnership jointly established last September by BlackRock, Microsoft (MS), and MGX, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The investment group aims to first raise $30 billion and then attract a total of $100 billion in investment funds, including debt financing. FT interpreted this as "reflecting the recent trend of companies rushing to build data centers and energy projects to power generative AI."
However, specific details about whether xAI and Nvidia will make large investments in the fund have not yet been disclosed. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) reported that Nvidia was originally designated as the "technical advisor" for this partnership.
Part of this fund comes from Abu Dhabi, which is increasing its AI investments by leveraging its vast oil resources. Leading this effort is Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s National Security Advisor. He also met with former U.S. President Donald Trump during his visit to the United States on the 18th.
Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, said, "The global build-out of AI infrastructure will benefit every company and country worldwide," adding, "The AI factories built on Nvidia’s full-stack AI infrastructure support data acceleration across all businesses."
The alliance between Nvidia and xAI comes just two months after SoftBank and OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, launched their own Stargate project to build AI infrastructure. Earlier, President Trump announced the Stargate project in January, pledging up to $500 billion (approximately 730 trillion won) in investments over the next four years.
Regarding xAI’s participation in this fund, Nikkei interpreted it as "an intention to counter the investment plan Stargate promoted by rival OpenAI," noting that "technology companies and investors are actively forming camps around the massive AI infrastructure investments."
CEO Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have recently clashed over OpenAI’s transition to a for-profit corporation. Musk criticized OpenAI for abandoning its original founding goals (open source & public interest) and focusing on commercialization, even filing a lawsuit. He also proposed acquiring OpenAI for 141 trillion won.
In response, CEO Altman retorted, "We will buy X (formerly Twitter) for 14 trillion won," mocking Musk’s acquisition proposal as unrealistic and ridiculing Musk’s AI competitor xAI and X.
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