DUBAI (Reuters) -MGX, an Abu Dhabi artificial intelligence investment firm and partner of Silver Lake, said on Tuesday it has joined the buyout group in acquiring a majority stake in California programmable chip business Altera, leaving Intel with a 49% holding.
The size of MGX’s investment was not disclosed.
“Altera provides a foundational platform for next generation computing. This is an opportunity to scale a company of such significance into a true global leader for the AI era,” said Omar Alismail, MGX chief investment officer, semiconductors and infrastructure.
In April, Intel agreed to sell 51% of Altera to Silver Lake, valuing the unit at $8.75 billion, well below the nearly $17 billion Intel paid in 2015. Intel completed the transaction on September 12, with Silver Lake acquiring a majority stake in Altera for an equity value of about $3.3 billion, according to a regulatory filing, reflecting debt financing and cash for the business.
MGX falls under the purview of Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the United Arab Emirates’ national security adviser and brother of the president, who steers a $1.5 trillion business empire spanning sovereign wealth funds, energy and the artificial intelligence giant G42.
MGX was established last year with Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala and G42 as founding partners and ambitions to surpass $100 billion in assets. It has quickly become a centrepiece of the United Arab Emirates’ drive to dominate financial intelligence.
(Reporting by Hadeel Al Sayegh; Editing by Susan Fenton)
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