Abu Dhabi’s artificial intelligence investment platform MGX has participated in a $6.6 billion secondary share sale in OpenAI, marking one of the largest private transactions in the AI sector this year and setting the ChatGPT-maker’s valuation at around $500 billion, according to Reuters.

The deal enables OpenAI employees and early investors to monetise part of their holdings. It does not bring in new capital for the company’s operations.

The transaction was led by existing institutional investors, including Thrive Capital, SoftBank, Dragoneer, T. Rowe Price, and now MGX, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign-backed vehicle dedicated to artificial intelligence investments.

OpenAI, which operates a capped-profit model, has been seeking ways to provide liquidity to shareholders while funding major infrastructure and model-training initiatives.

MGX’s AI ambitions

MGX was launched in 2024 by Abu Dhabi’s G42 and Mubadala Investment Company to consolidate the emirate’s AI investments and attract global technology partnerships.

The firm has been exploring large-scale fundraising plans—up to $25 billion, according to Bloomberg—to deploy across AI infrastructure, model training, and semiconductor projects.

Earlier this year, OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman held preliminary discussions in Abu Dhabi about potential collaboration and investment through MGX. Those talks reportedly paused in February, but the secondary purchase signals a renewed alignment between the two sides.

Strategic rationale

For MGX, the OpenAI stake represents both a strategic anchor and an early foothold in the global AI value chain. The investment complements Abu Dhabi’s broader ambition to position itself as a global AI capital, following prior partnerships through G42 with Microsoft and Cerebras.

For OpenAI, the sale helps retain and reward employees ahead of new funding rounds and major capital projects, including the multibillion-dollar “Stargate” supercomputing initiative being developed with SoftBank and Oracle.

Valuation and outlook

The deal values OpenAI at roughly 25 times its estimated 2025 revenue, underscoring investor confidence in the company’s commercial trajectory. Still, the $500 billion figure is largely based on secondary-market demand and not on a primary issuance.

Abu Dhabi’s participation reflects a longer-term strategy to gain exposure to frontier technologies rather than a short-term financial return.

As MGX scales its fund and continues to court global AI ventures, its stake in OpenAI could serve as a benchmark for regional investors seeking access to the sector’s upper tier.