Big Money: UAE AI Investor MGX May Make A Run At Singapore's DayOne To Head Off A $20 Billion IPO

From the property mavens at Mingtiandi, June 22:

Abu Dhabi’s MGX Weighs DayOne Buyout as GDS Spin-Off Pursues $20B IPO

Artificial intelligence investor MGX is exploring a multibillion-dollar acquisition of data centre operator DayOne, according to a media report, in a potential twist for the Singapore-based operator after the overseas spin-off of China’s GDS Holdings had appeared headed for a $20 billion public listing.

Abu Dhabi-owned MGX is working with an investment bank in preparation for a potential transaction, Reuters said Friday, citing sources familiar with the matter. The deal would mark the firm’s first Asia acquisition if it proceeds.

DayOne has been preparing for a US initial public offering targeting a valuation of $20 billion, though Reuters reported that MGX may not be willing to match that price. The takeover chatter comes two weeks after DayOne closed a $4.5 billion Series C equity round led by existing investors Coatue Management and Hillhouse Investment. 

“The sources cautioned that a deal may not proceed and that the firm may still opt to pursue an IPO,” the news agency said.

Potential Pivot 
DayOne’s final Series C close more than doubled the size of the fundraising from its initial close in January, with new investors including the Indonesia Investment Authority and Achi Capital Partners joining the pre-IPO round.

The June fundraising brought total equity secured by DayOne since its 2022 inception to around $6.4 billion, according to Mingtiandi calculations. The company said the capital would support expansion in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, Finland and Spain.

DayOne had selected JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Citigroup to work on the planned US listing, which Bloomberg reported in February could raise as much as $5 billion. The operator was also said to be considering a dual listing in the US and Singapore.

DayOne Data Centers was established in 2022 as the overseas arm of Shanghai-based GDS under the GDS International name before rebranding in January 2025. Analysts described the relaunch as a move to distance the platform from its Chinese parent amid geopolitical tensions and position it for a public listing.

GDS founder William Huang stepped down as executive chairman of DayOne in April, with former Olam Group chairman Lim Ah Doo now serving as non-executive chairman after having been named co-chairman during the rebrand.

GDS has been paring its exposure to DayOne. The mainland data centre giant held 19.9 percent of the platform as of late April after DayOne repurchased $385 million in ordinary shares from its former parent at the Series C new issue price. Originally, it wholly owned the company, reducing its stake to 52.7 percent at the Series A funding, then to 35.6 percent at the Series B.

DayOne said earlier this month that it had secured more than 1.5 gigawatts of total bookings across Asia Pacific and Europe, up from around 1GW of customer commitments reported at the initial close of the Series C in January.

Gulf AI Push 
MGX was established in March 2024 with Abu Dhabi sovereign fund Mubadala Investment Company and Abu Dhabi-based tech firm G42 as foundational partners, with a mandate to invest across AI infrastructure, semiconductors and AI-enabled technologies.

The firm is chaired by Tahnoon bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, deputy ruler of Abu Dhabi and national security advisor of the United Arab Emirates. Tahnoon, a brother of UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, also chairs the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the emirate’s trillion-dollar sovereign fund....

....MUCH MORE 

The sovereign fund is now up to $1.1 trillion. As noted in the introduction to March 2024's "ICYMI: "Abu Dhabi Targets $100 Billion AUM for AI Investment Firm""

Probably the reason OpenAI's Sam Altman was in the UAE talking about raising $7 trillion for chips and cheese or something. A big ask in anybody's book.

Here's hoping it doesn't become another SoftBank Vision Fund which was the same $100 billion size and for the first few years of its life mainly succeeded in jacking up the price of speculative private investments before roller-coastering into a profitable position this year.

Abu Dhabi had a hand in that one and went on one heck of a ride with Mr. Son....

Our most recent mention of MGX was October 2025's "BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners Circling $40 Billion Data Center Purchase (BLK)"

Also May 2025's "French Tech: France To Host Europe's Largest Data Center (UAE's MGX; EDF; NVDA; Bpifrance; Mistral AI)" 

And for fellow members of the Short Attention Span Finance Fraternity, a flashback to all that gallivanting in the Gulf we saw in 2025:

"Trump’s Road to Riyadh: The Geopolitics of AI and Energy Infrastructure"