UAE's MGX Eyes $20 Billion Acquisition of DayOne to Control AI Data Centre Infrastructure Across Asia

Abu Dhabi-backed artificial intelligence investor MGX is exploring the acquisition of DayOne, a Singapore-based data centre operator, in a deal that could value the company at around $20 billion. The talks remain at an early stage and no final agreement has been reached, but if completed, the transaction would mark MGX's first direct acquisition in Asia and one of the most significant moves yet by a Gulf sovereign-backed fund to secure ownership of physical AI infrastructure rather than simply taking minority stakes in AI companies.

MGX has been working with an investment bank to prepare for a potential transaction, though sources familiar with the matter have cautioned that DayOne may still choose to pursue a US initial public offering at its target valuation, which MGX is reportedly reluctant to match in full.

Why Data Centres Are the New Strategic Asset

The timing of these talks reflects a broader shift in how Gulf sovereign wealth funds are thinking about the AI economy. For the past two years, funds including MGX, Mubadala, and G42 have built portfolios of minority investments across the AI value chain, backing companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI. The calculus is now evolving: as global demand for AI compute capacity intensifies, ownership of the physical infrastructure, the data centres, power connections, and cooling systems that make AI workloads possible, is becoming as strategically important as owning a stake in the models running on top of it.

Dubai's Gulf peer DAMAC Digital had already signalled this shift in early June, announcing a data centre pipeline of 6,000 megawatts across 13 countries. MGX's interest in DayOne would take that logic further, moving the fund from passive capital into direct operational control of a data centre network spanning Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Japan, and Finland.

MGX's Growing AI Infrastructure Footprint

MGX was founded in 2024 as a joint initiative between Mubadala and G42, two of the UAE's most active technology investors. Since its inception, the fund has moved quickly to establish itself at the centre of global AI investment flows. Its commitments include a $40 billion AI infrastructure fund alongside BlackRock and Nvidia, stakes in OpenAI and xAI, a 15 per cent share in TikTok's US operations, and a $2 billion investment in cryptocurrency exchange Binance. In Europe, MGX holds a stake in Campus AI, a partnership between France's Bpifrance, Mistral, and Nvidia targeting 3 gigawatts of AI compute capacity across France.

The DayOne deal would add a different dimension to this portfolio: not financial exposure to AI companies, but direct ownership of the infrastructure those companies depend on. DayOne closed a $4.5 billion Series C round in early June 2026, led by Coatue and Hillhouse, with new backers including Indonesia's sovereign wealth fund. Since its founding in 2022, DayOne has secured more than 1.5 gigawatts of bookings across Asia-Pacific and Europe, making it one of the most significant independent data centre operators in the region.

The Gulf's Race for Compute

The MGX-DayOne talks are part of a wider pattern of Gulf sovereign capital competing directly with hyperscalers, private equity, and pension funds for data centre assets. The UAE's position in this race has been reinforced by the Stargate UAE initiative, an AI infrastructure agreement with Washington targeting up to 5 gigawatts of compute capacity, announced earlier this year as part of the bilateral AI Acceleration Partnership between the two countries.

For Saudi Arabia and the broader GCC, the strategic logic is the same: controlling AI infrastructure provides leverage in the global AI economy that no amount of minority investment can replicate. The question is no longer whether Gulf funds will compete for compute assets, but how aggressively and at what price.

The MGX-DayOne deal remains unconfirmed and a public listing remains a live option for DayOne. Reuters, which first reported the talks, noted that both parties declined to comment formally. A transaction, if it materialises, would represent one of the largest technology acquisitions ever made by a UAE-based investment vehicle.