With the support of the UAE royal family, why did Binance raise $2 billion?

After the UAE "Prince" made a 100 billion bet on AI, he aimed at Crypto. Just now, Abu Dhabi's state-owned capital MGX announced that it would invest $2 billion in Binance. This is the first time that MGX has invested in Crypto, and it is also the first time that Binance has accepted institutional investment. It is also the largest single investment in the crypto field to date.

What's more interesting is that MGX has a great background. It not only manages 100 billion US dollars in capital, but also brings together the most powerful and wealthy royal family members and "tycoons" in the UAE.

After investing heavily in AI, what is the significance of MGX aiming at Crypto? And why did Binance, which has never lacked money, take such a huge investment this time?

After a 100 billion US dollar bet on AI, the UAE royal capital is aiming at Crypto.

MGX (MetaGPT X) was established only one year ago. It was jointly established by the Abu Dhabi Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Technology Committee (AIATC), Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala (Mubadala) and UAE technology giant G42. The scale of assets managed by MGX is expected to exceed 100 billion US dollars.

MGX can be said to be one of the most important strategic capitals for the UAE to promote economic diversification. It also brings together top-level lineups in the fields of politics, economy, technology, etc.

The chairman of the board of directors of MGX is Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the son of the founder of the UAE and the younger brother of the current president of the UAE. He is also the deputy chief of Abu Dhabi and the national security adviser.

Most of the UAE sovereign funds are basically in the hands of Tahnoon. He is in charge of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), which mainly invests overseas and has a scale of US$853 billion, and the Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding Company (ADQ), which mainly invests domestically and has a scale of US$110 billion.

Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, vice chairman of the board of directors of MGX and investment strategist, is the CEO of Mubadala, one of the three major sovereign wealth funds in the UAE. Mubadala manages assets of more than US$300 billion, which can be said to be the other half of the Abu Dhabi sovereign fund. Ahmed Al Idrissi, the head of Mubadala's direct investment department, also serves as the CEO of MGX.

Other members of the MGX board of directors include Jassem Al Zaabi, vice chairman of the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates, and Xiao Peng, CEO of G42.

It is worth mentioning that G42 is one of the most important technology giants in the UAE, focusing on artificial intelligence, cloud computing, healthcare and cybersecurity. For example, G42 has developed the most advanced large-scale Arabic language model "Jais" in the Middle East; G42 Cloud is one of the largest cloud computing platforms in the Middle East. It has a very high strategic position in the UAE and is regarded as the "jewel in the crown of the UAE."

With a capital of 100 billion US dollars and a top lineup, what does MGX want to invest in?

According to public information from the Abu Dhabi government, MGX The investment strategy will focus on the following three areas: AI infrastructure, semiconductors, and AI core technologies and applications.

MGX participated in OpenAI's latest round of financing, and worked with BlackRock, Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) and Microsoft to launch a $30 billion fund focused on the construction of data centers and their power supply energy; in addition, it also participated in the "Stargate" AI investment project announced by President Trump.

After heavily investing in AI and semiconductors, MGX officially entered the cryptocurrency and blockchain field for the first time by investing in Binance, which may indicate that the UAE royal family funds will be used Investment, layout to promote the widespread adoption and compliance development of digital assets.

For crypto, the richest national capital may bring a huge pump to crypto, accelerate the global application of blockchain technology, and enhance market confidence and compliance.

Why did Binance, which is not short of money, take a huge investment at this time?

As the largest crypto exchange, Binance is not short of money.

In 2021, after rejecting Sequoia Capital's investment, Zhao Changpeng made it clear that Binance does not need external funds. He is only interested in cooperating with venture capital companies that can help exchanges cooperate with regulators and obtain operating licenses.

After a lapse of 4 years, Binance took $2 billion of UAE state-owned capital. What is the intention?

Finding a local umbrella may be one of the purposes. Under the pressure of crypto regulatory compliance, Binance can be said to be displaced. After being "expelled" by China, Tokyo and Singapore, it was able to settle down in Dubai.

Crypto KOL AB Kuai.Dong said that the significance of this investment is far greater than the funds themselves. "The entry of the UAE officials is equivalent to inviting many top global political capitals to become supporters of Binance. ”

Under pressure from various parties such as compliance, relying on the center of national power is also one of the trends of crypto companies. In the view of AB Kuai.Dong, compared with the power changes in North America every four years, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Qatar are all super stable.

It is not difficult to understand that relying on the UAE officials for compliance and policy support, but why the amount is as high as 2 billion US dollars and where this part of the equity sale comes from has caused some speculation.

Last November, Bloomberg broke the news that Zhao Changpeng received an offer to sell his controlling stake in the exchange - these shares constitute the majority of his personal net worth, but he refused to disclose who the buyer was or the price. Twitter users speculated that it might come from the shares held by Zhao Changpeng's family through him, but no more public information has been disclosed yet.

However, in any case, relying on the UAE officials is an extremely important historical node for Binance or the crypto field.