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MGX, a United Arab Emirates–backed fund, is only a year old but has already become one of the biggest data center financiers in the world, leading the largest data center sale negotiated so far and quietly scooping up a stake in another provider with ties to OpenAI.

MGX will be the biggest shareholder in Aligned Data Centers, one of the largest data center operators in the U.S., following its $40 billion sale to an investor group, announced in October, according to a person familiar with the sale. At the same time, MGX last year acquired a minority stake in Vantage Data Centers, another big data center operator, which is central to OpenAI’s Stargate project, said people with knowledge of MGX’s data center activities.

The UAE has a long history of backing tech companies, both through its $330 billion sovereign wealth fund, Mubadala, and more recently through MGX, formed last year. In addition to its Aligned and Vantage stakes, MGX has invested in UAE-based Khazna Data Centers and struck deals to build data centers in France and Italy. The breadth and scale of MGX’s tech investments are a signal the country wants to become a dominant player in the development of powerful AI.

MGX is chaired by Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a top national security official in the UAE, who has become a frequent presence in Silicon Valley. He met with President Donald Trump at the White House in March. The UAE afterward promised to invest $1.4 trillion in the U.S. over the next decade.

Much of that will likely go toward AI data centers, whose construction could require trillions of dollars in funding over the next few years, according to bank estimates.

BlackRock has said a partnership it formed with MGX could invest as much as $30 billion in data centers and power resources, an amount that would be boosted by $70 billion in borrowings. That suggests the companies could strike more deals following the Aligned acquisition.

BlackRock and MGX declined to comment on the specifics of the Aligned deal. Aligned and Vantage did not respond to requests for comment.

In Alignment

Aligned, which Macquarie Asset Management currently owns, operates data centers all over the U.S., in some cases on behalf of traditional cloud providers. The company had been considering an IPO before it struck the sale deal in October, according to the person familiar with the situation.

The Aligned buyers, identified as BlackRock, MGX and an investor group called the AI Infrastructure Partnership, together are paying about $21 billion for Aligned’s equity. Including its debt, the enterprise value put on the company will be about $40 billion. That will make the deal the largest data center transaction on record if its expected closing goes through in the first half of next year.

The breakdown of how much each investor owned wasn’t disclosed at the time the deal was announced. But a person with knowledge of it has since said MGX is purchasing 35% of Aligned’s equity, while BlackRock will purchase 20%.

AIP is buying the other 45%, said a person with knowledge of the deal. MGX owns the largest stake in AIP, although its investors also include Nvidia, Microsoft and BlackRock. That makes MGX the biggest investor in Aligned, while BlackRock will be the second biggest investor. The transaction hasn’t yet closed, and the details could still change.

MGX’s investment could trigger a review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which typically looks at acquisitions handing control of a U.S. company in critical infrastructure to foreign investors.

It’s unclear whether MGX’s combined stake in Aligned would give it control of the company under CFIUS definitions. MGX shares control of AIP with BlackRock, said one person with knowledge of the partnership, suggesting it has a say in how AIP votes.

Meanwhile, MGX’s stake in Vantage has also given it a front-row seat to some of this year’s biggest data center deals. Vantage has borrowed a combined $38 billion for two data center campuses it’s building for Oracle, which is providing computing resources to OpenAI as part of the Stargate project. Ali Osman, MGX’s head of AI investments, joined the Vantage board of directors this year, said one person with knowledge of the investment.