Aleksei Gorodenkov/Alamy via Reuters
- Qatar fund open to tech investment
- US tech titans at inauguration
- AI on QIA’s radar
The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) is open to exploring further technology investment opportunities, as it expects a sharp increase in US tech deals under the Trump administration.
The presence of Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos at President Donald Trump’s inauguration suggests his government will be supportive of the tech industry, Mohammed Al Hardan, the head of technology, media and telecommunications at QIA, told Bloomberg.
“I will be amazed if the environment is not pro tech,” he said, describing the current period as “probably one of the best tech environments ever seen in the US.”
The $510 billion sovereign fund has been an active investor in the US tech space and participated in the $6 billion funding round for Musk’s artificial intelligence venture xAI last year.
QIA is open to investing in joint ventures similar to the one announced this week between SoftBank, OpenAI and Oracle, which aims to spend $500 billion on building AI-related infrastructure.
“We have a funds team that has been spending time to understand data centres and to review all these opportunities,” Al Hardan said.
The huge capital needed for AI investments opens up a good opportunity for deep-pocketed funds, he said, adding multiple billion-dollar series A and B rounds are taking place that were previously unheard of in the market.