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Mariam Al-Yazidi

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Specializing in Capital and Politics, Mariam Al-Yazidi has written for Yahoo Finance MENA. She blends economic reporting with a keen interest in environmental and social governance. Mariam holds a master’s degree in Media and Cultural Studies. Watching sunsets makes her happy.
$49 billion AI fund

$49 billion AI fund by Abu Dhabi’s MGX closed this week above its original target. The firm set out to raise $45 billion and finished the round with $49 billion. Investors from the Gulf, North America, Asia, and Europe supplied the new pool of capital. MGX said the fund gives backers exposure across the whole artificial intelligence technology stack. Since launch, the vehicle has taken positions in 14 separate companies around the world. You should read the size of this raise as a signal about capital concentration. Abu Dhabi AI investment now sits near the centre of the global technology finance system.

MGX Fund I holds stakes in OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, Binance, SpaceX and TikTok USDS. Mubadala Investment Company and technology group G42 established the firm back in March 2024. Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, Deputy Ruler of Abu Dhabi, chairs the MGX board of directors. He works at the same time as national security adviser for the United Arab Emirates. At launch, the company named AI infrastructure, semiconductors and core AI applications as targets. Fund I follows the same three-part plan with a much larger pool of money.

Inside the biggest dedicated AI vehicle on record

Bloomberg reported the raise puts the two-year-old firm among the sector’s most consequential investors. MGX plans to deploy up to $10 billion each year for the coming years. Executives have set a goal of more than $100 billion in assets under management. A sovereign wealth fund normally deploys state savings and avoids outside limited partners entirely. MGX broke with the pattern and raised institutional money from investors on four continents. Reports put the minimum ticket size for entry at around $500 million per investor.

From my standpoint, the structure matters more than the headline number attached to it. Sheikh Tahnoon described the company’s purpose when Abu Dhabi first announced the venture in 2024. He said the emirate was “establishing a UAE national champion focused on AI and advanced technologies”. The $49 billion AI fund by Abu Dhabi’s MGX now gives weight to the claim. United States senators have already asked MGX to preserve documents tied to its Binance stake.

What the $49 billion AI fund by Abu Dhabi’s MGX buys next

Fund I spreads its capital across three layers of the artificial intelligence supply chain. AI infrastructure occupies the middle layer, covering data centres, power access and compute platforms. Power access, land and construction timelines shape every serious wager on AI infrastructure today. In October 2025, MGX helped acquire Aligned Data Centres in a $40 billion deal. BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners joined the consortium behind one of the largest infrastructure deals. MGX, Nvidia, Bpifrance and Mistral AI back a French campus targeting three gigawatts of compute. The $49 billion AI fund by Abu Dhabi’s MGX buys time as much as assets.

MGX co-led Anthropic’s $30 billion round in February and joined its $65 billion Series H. Dealroom counts a record $416.6 billion flowing into AI companies during this calendar year. Anthropic and OpenAI absorbed most of the capital, and MGX holds stakes in both. S&P puts Abu Dhabi’s net asset position near 358 per cent of national output. The $49 billion AI fund by Abu Dhabi’s MGX will face its test through deployment. Watch the pace of spending, the choice of chips, and the location of new compute.

  • 3 min read
Social media viewership
  • Media

Fans set new online records while the league celebrated its strongest ratings in decades. Social media viewership reached record highs during the 2026 NBA Finals between New York and San Antonio. The Knicks won their first championship in 53 years, and millions of fans watched everywhere. Games drew 20.6 million average viewers on ABC and ESPN, the most since 1998. Social platforms told a bigger story with 15 billion views across the five-game series. This figure nearly tripled the previous record, showing how fans now follow the action. Merchandise sales also hit a league record within the first day after Game 5.

Records fall on every screen

NBA Finals viewership climbed as young fans mixed live games with quick online clips. Game 5 alone pulled more than 4 billion views across the major social platforms online. A record comeback in Game 4 spread across feeds within minutes of the buzzer. Many viewers watched sports highlights on TikTok and YouTube instead of every full broadcast. An S&P Global report found 68 percent of fans still watch live games somewhere. About 38 percent watch clips and interviews on social media and other video sites. YouTube holds the largest share of all streaming time, according to Nielsen tracking reports. Global searches for the Knicks and Spurs reached all-time highs during the series run. These numbers explain why sports content on social media now shapes every league strategy.

Why social media viewership keeps climbing

Social media viewership grows because young fans want fast, shareable moments on their phones. Gen Z sports fans treat clips, memes, and reactions as part of the game. They follow teams through short videos rather than sitting for a whole live broadcast. Group chats and watch parties turn each game into a shared online social event. Short videos let fans follow teams during busy days without a long time commitment. Leagues see this shift and treat a young audience as a real business need. Teams now post behind-the-scenes videos and player clips to reach these younger viewers daily. Jonathan Miller, chief executive of Integrated Media, framed the stakes for team owners plainly. It is no longer a luxury to have a young base, Miller said clearly.

What broadcasters decide next

Broadcasters now face a hard choice about social media viewership and paid subscriptions online. Free clips build new fans, yet they can pull attention from costly live coverage. Live sports streaming still earns the most money through big television deals and subscriptions. Advertising also helps networks recover the huge cost of these long-term media contracts. The NBA works within an eleven-year deal worth 77 billion dollars with its partners. Rising fees push every network to earn back this spending as fast as possible. FIFA now lets broadcasters post the first ten minutes of each World Cup match. Each clip ends with a link, sending viewers toward the full paid live stream. New streaming viewers during the Finals skewed older, according to one audience tracking firm. From my standpoint, leagues win when free clips feed fans toward paid live games. Strong social media viewership can grow into loyal audiences for years to come now.

  • 3 min read
Abu Dhabi Fund for Development
  • Global Markets

Abu Dhabi Fund for Development’s strategic investments reached AED562 million across six high-impact projects in 2025. These investments support healthcare, education, food security, and economic development across several emerging markets. The fund spread its capital across India, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Uzbekistan during the year. You can see how these projects target essential services in underserved regions around the world. Each investment aligns with the ADFD 2030 Strategy and its focus on lasting impact. Together, these projects should deliver healthcare to more than two million people each year. They also aim to educate over 34,000 students and support more than 10,000 jobs. Healthcare drew the largest share of activity during the year, according to the fund.

How the fund spread its money

In Vietnam, the fund backed SIS Hospital, a specialised stroke and cardiovascular care provider. This hospital serves roughly 17 million people across the Mekong Delta and nearby regions. Doctors there have raised the share of stroke patients who now receive timely treatment. The hospital also helped more than 1,300 low-income patients through its treatment assistance programmes. ADFD also invested in Tam Tri Medical, one of Vietnam’s largest private healthcare networks. This network served more than one million patients during 2025 across seven hospitals total. It works mostly in underserved cities and eases pressure on public health systems there.

Abu Dhabi Fund for Development strategic investments widen education access

Beyond hospitals, the fund put money into human capital through schools and student learning. Its investment in Phase Education supports more than 34,000 students across 31 school campuses. This platform now runs across Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand as a regional K-12 provider. The ADFD healthcare and education investments show a clear focus on essential daily services. Food security formed another core area for the fund throughout the past full year. In Uzbekistan, ADFD backed Korzinka, the country’s leading food retail chain, through its ADUI arm. The retailer employs more than 10,000 people and is now expanding its logistics operations widely.

Leadership view on the strategy has Mohamed Saif Al Suwaidi, Director-General of ADFD, described the strategy behind this large capital. He said the projects “strengthen economic resilience in partner countries” and advance shared prosperity goals.

What these investments mean for you

For you as a reader, these moves shape how development finance reaches real communities. The Abu Dhabi Fund for Development strategic investments target sectors people rely on daily. From my standpoint, this mix of healthcare and food spending shows careful, disciplined planning. Each project carries clear targets for patients, students, and workers across these partner nations. You also see a clear link to the ADFD 2030 Strategy in every choice. This wider push fits a broad global trend in emerging markets development finance today. The ADFD AED562 million investments cover six deals spread across four different partner countries.

A long-term path forward

Officials frame these deals as part of the fund’s broader long-term 2030 development goals. Abu Dhabi Fund for Development strategic investments form one part of a wider global program. Across decades, the fund has supported 108 countries through loans, grants, and equity stakes. You can expect more deals like these as the 2030 deadline draws closer now. These Abu Dhabi Fund for Development strategic investments will shape outcomes for millions ahead.

  • 3 min read
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