Connect with us

Published

on

Sovereign wealth funds out of the Middle East are emerging as key backers of Silicon Valley’s artificial intelligence darlings.

Oil-rich nations like Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar have been looking to diversify their economies, and are turning to tech investments as a hedge. In the past year, funding for AI companies by Middle-Eastern sovereigns has increased fivefold, according to data from Pitchbook.

MGX, a new AI fund out of The United Arab Emirates, was among investors looking to get a slice of OpenAI’s latest fundraise this week, two sources told CNBC. The round is set to value OpenAI at $150 billion, said the people, who asked not to be named because the discussions are confidential.

Few venture funds have deep enough pockets to compete with the multibillion-dollar checks coming from the likes of Microsoft and Amazon. But these sovereign funds have no problem coming up with cash for AI deals. They invest on behalf of their governments, which have been helped by rising energy prices in recent years. The Gulf Cooperation Council, or GCC, countries’ total wealth is expected to rise from $2.7 trillion to $3.5 trillion by 2026, according to Goldman Sachs.

The Saudi Public Investment Fund, or PIF, has topped $925 billion, and has been on an investing spree as part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s “Vision 2030” initiative. The PIF has investments in companies including Uber, while also spending heavily on the LIV golf league and professional soccer.

UAE’s Mubadala has $302 billion under management, and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority has $1 trillion under management. Qatar Investment Authority has $475 billion, while Kuwait’s fund has topped $800 billion.

Earlier this week, Abu Dhabi-based MGX joined a partnership on AI infrastructure with BlackRock, Microsoft and Global Infrastructure Partners, aiming to raise as much as $100 billion for data centers and other infrastructure investments. MGX was launched as a dedicated AI fund in March, with Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala and AI firm G42 as founding partners.

UAE’s Mubadala has also invested in OpenAI rival Anthropic, and is among the most active venture investors, with eight AI deals in the past four years, according to Pitchbook. Anthropic ruled out taking money from the Saudis in its last funding round, citing national security, sources told CNBC. 

Saudi Arabia’s PIF is in talks to create a $40 billion partnership with U.S. venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. It also launched a dedicated AI fund called the Saudi Company for Artificial Intelligence, or SCAI.

Still, the kingdom’s human rights record remains an issue for some Western partners and start-ups. The most notable case in recent years was the alleged killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, an event that triggered international backlash in the business community.

It’s not just the Middle East spraying money into the space. French sovereign fund Bpifrance has inked 161 AI and machine learning deals in the past four years, while Temasek out of Singapore has completed 47, according to Pitchbook. GIC, another Singapore-backed fund, has completed 24 deals.

The flood of cash has some Silicon Valley investors worried about a SoftBank effect, referring to Masayoshi Son’s Vision Fund. SoftBank notably backed Uber and WeWork, pushing the companies to sky-high, valuations before going public. WeWork spiraled into bankruptcy last year after being valued by SoftBank at $47 billion in 2019.

For the U.S., having sovereign wealth funds invest in American companies, and not in global adversaries like China, has been a geopolitical priority. Jared Cohen of Goldman Sachs Global Institute said there’s a disproportionate amount of capital coming from nations like Saudi Arabia and UAE, and a willingness to deploy it around the world. He described them as “geopolitical swing states.”

WATCH: OpenAI is the indisputable leader in AI supercycle

Continue Reading

Technology

Stocks end November with mixed results despite a strong Thanksgiving week rally

Published

on

By

Stocks end November with mixed results despite a strong Thanksgiving week rally

Continue Reading

Technology

Palantir has worst month in two years as AI stocks sell off

Published

on

By

Palantir has worst month in two years as AI stocks sell off

CEO of Palantir Technologies Alex Karp attends the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit, at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S., July 15, 2025.

Nathan Howard | Reuters

It’s been a tough November for Palantir.

Shares of the software analytics provider dropped 16% for their worst month since August 2023 as investors dumped AI stocks due to valuation fears. Meanwhile, famed investor Michael Burry doubled down on the artificial intelligence trade and bet against the company.

Palantir started November off on a high note.

The Denver-based company topped Wall Street’s third-quarter earnings and revenue expectations. Palantir also posted its second-straight $1 billion revenue quarter, but high valuation concerns contributed to a post-print selloff.

In a note to clients, Jefferies analysts called Palantir’s valuation “extreme” and argued investors would find better risk-reward in AI names such as Microsoft and Snowflake. Analysts at RBC Capital Markets raised concerns about the company’s “increasingly concentrated growth profile,” while Deutsche Bank called the valuation “very difficult to wrap our heads around.”

Adding fuel to the post-earnings selloff was the revelation that Burry is betting against Palantir and AI chipmaker Nvidia. Burry, who is widely known for predicting the housing crisis that occurred in 2008 and the portrayal of him in the film “The Big Short,” later accused hyperscalers of artificially boosting earnings.

Palantir CEO Alex Karp vocally hit the front lines, appearing twice in one week on CNBC, where he accused Burry of “market manipulation” and called the investor’s actions “egregious.”

“The idea that chips and ontology is what you want to short is bats— crazy,” Karp told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

Despite the vicious selloff, Palantir has notched some deal wins this month. That included a multiyear contract with consulting firm PwC to speed up AI adoption in the U.K. and a deal with aircraft engine maintenance company FTAI.

But those announcements did little to shake off valuation worries that have haunted all AI-tied companies in November.

Across the board, investors have viciously ditched the high-priced group, citing fears of stretched valuations and a bubble.

In November, Nvidia pulled back more than 12%, while Microsoft and Amazon dropped about 5% each. Quantum computing names such as Rigetti Computing and D-Wave Quantum have shed more than a third of their value.

Apple and Alphabet were the only Magnificent 7 stocks to end the month with gains.

Sill, questions linger over Palantir’s valuation, and those worries aren’t a new concern.

Even after its steep price drop, the company’s stock trades at 233 times forward earnings. By comparison, Nvidia and Alphabet traded at about 38 times and 30 times, respectively, at Friday’s close.

Karp, who has long defended the company, didn’t miss an opportunity to clap back at his critics, arguing in a letter to shareholders that the company is making it feasible for everyday investors to attain rates of return once “limited to the most successful venture capitalists in Palo Alto.”

“Please turn on the conventional television and see how unhappy those that didn’t invest in us are,” Karp said during an earnings call. “Enjoy, get some popcorn. They’re crying. We are every day making this company better, and we’re doing it for this nation, for allied countries.”

Palantir declined to comment for this story.

WATCH: Palantir CEO Alex Karp: We’ve printed venture results for the average American

Palantir CEO Alex Karp: We've printed venture results for the average American

Continue Reading

Technology

CME disruption, Black Friday, the K-beauty boom and more in Morning Squawk

Published

on

By

CME disruption, Black Friday, the K-beauty boom and more in Morning Squawk

CME Group sign at NYMEX in New York.

Adam Jeffery | CNBC

This is CNBC’s Morning Squawk newsletter. Subscribe here to receive future editions in your inbox.

Here are five key things investors need to know to start the trading day:

1. Down and out

Stock futures trading was halted this morning after a data center “cooling issue” took down several Chicago Mercantile Exchange services. Individual stocks were still trading before the bell, while the CME said futures indexes and options trading would open fully at 8:30 a.m. Follow live markets updates here.

The stock market has rebounded during the holiday-shortened trading week. But the three major indexes are still on pace to end November’s trading month — which ends with today’s closing bell — in the red. The Dow and S&P 500 are poised to snap six-month winning streaks, while the Nasdaq Composite is on track to see its first negative month in eight.

Today’s trading session ends early at 1 p.m. ET.

2. Shopping and dropping

A Black Friday sale sign is displayed in a shop window at an outlet mall in Carlsbad, California, U.S., Nov. 25, 2025.

Mike Blake | Reuters

Black Friday was once considered the biggest in-person shopping day of the year, drawing huge crowds to stores in search of bargains. But while millions are still expected to partake in the occasion, it’s not what it used to be.

Here’s what to know:

  • In the past six years, online sales have outpaced brick-and-mortar spending on Black Friday. Data shows in-person foot traffic has been mostly flat over the last few years, as well.
  • No matter where they make their purchases, shoppers are also skeptical that they’re getting the best deals.
  • As CNBC’s Gabrielle Fonrouge reports, the shift has meant a change in strategy for many of the retail industry’s biggest names. Some have started offering their holiday sales earlier in the season, while others are spacing out their promotions.
  • Deloitte reported that the average consumer will shell out $622 between Nov. 27 and Dec. 1, a decrease of 4% from last year.
  • Even as the day of deals loses its allure, AT&T found that Gen Z participates the most, while their older counterparts do their shopping closer to Christmas.

3. AI comeback

Cfoto | Future Publishing | Getty Images

Alphabet has been a notable exception to the recent tech downturn. Shares of the Google parent have surged more than 13% this month as Wall Street sees the company as an AI leader.

Alphabet began the month by announcing its latest tensor processing units, or TPUs, called Ironwood. Last week, the company launched its latest AI model, Gemini 3, which caught positive attention from Silicon Valley heavyweights.

Shares of the stock are now up close to 70% this year, making it the best-performer within megacap tech. But experts told CNBC’s Jennifer Elias that Alphabet’s lead in the competitive AI market is marginal and could be hard to hold onto.

Get Morning Squawk directly in your inbox

4. Tech’s tug of wars

Alibaba announced plans to release a pair of smart glasses powered by its AI models. The Quark AI Glasses are Alibaba’s first foray into the smart glasses product category.

Alibaba

The Alphabet-Nvidia AI race isn’t the only tech rivalry that has heated up in recent days.

Alibaba‘s AI-powered smart glasses went on sale yesterday. With its new wearable tech offering, the Chinese tech company is going up against major players — namely Meta, which unveiled its smart glasses with Ray Ban in September.

Meanwhile, Counterpoint Research found Apple is poised to ship more smartphones than Samsung this year for the first time in 14 years. Apple is also poised to boast a larger market share, driven by strong iPhone 17 sales.

5. From Seoul to Los Angeles

Carly Xie looks over facial mask items at the Face Shop, which specializes in Korean cosmetics, in San Francisco, April 15, 2015.

Avila Gonzalez | San Francisco Chronicle | Hearst Newspapers | Getty Images

American shoppers are increasingly looking to South Korea for their cosmetics. NielsenIQ found U.S. sales of so-called “K-beauty” products are slated to surge more than 37% this year to above $2 billion.

Retailers ranging from beauty product hubs Ulta and Sephora to big-box chains Walmart and Costco are jumping on the trend. On top of that, Olive Young — aka the “Sephora of Seoul” — is opening its first U.S. store in Los Angeles next year.

The Daily Dividend

Here are some stories worth circling back to over the weekend:

CNBC’s Chloe Taylor, Gabrielle Fonrouge, Laya Neelakandan, Jessica Dickler, Sarah Min, Sean Conlon, Jennifer Elias, Arjun Kharpal and Luke Fountain contributed to this report. Josephine Rozzelle edited this edition.

Continue Reading

Trending