While Wall Street executives have beat a trail to the UAE capital since the onset of the war, Silicon Valley leaders — who have been a major beneficiary of Gulf sovereign wealth funds’ largesse — have been less demonstrative. Still, Abu Dhabi is pouring billions into tech as it looks to beef up defense, maximize oil production, and automate more government services.

OpenAI is a major partner in these efforts as the UAE has deepened its US tech relationships under the Trump administration with a pledge to invest $1.4 trillion into the world’s largest economy over the next decade.

Altman’s planned trip had coincided with the disclosure this week that OpenAI filed initial paperwork to US regulators to become a public company, a process it has indicated it’s not rushing but could happen as soon as September. The IPO could value the company at up to $1 trillion, Reuters reported. Abu Dhabi’s MGX co-led OpenAI’s March funding round of $122 billion, setting the Silicon Valley record for largest amount raised, then valuing the ten year-old company at $852 billion. MGX is also invested in rival Anthropic and xAI, now folded into SpaceX.

Chipmaker Cerebras faced delays to its IPO due to significant ties to Abu Dhabi’s G42, which US regulators flagged as a potential national security concern, before going on to list on NASDAQ in May. It was the largest IPO of 2026, now expected to be unseated by SpaceX, which debuts today.