Anthropic is preparing to pursue investment from the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, according to a Slack message CEO Dario Amodei sent to staff Sunday morning and WIRED obtained. The decision marks a sharp and sensitive turn for a company that has publicly argued that the supply chain for frontier AI should remain on American soil.
In the memo, Amodei presented the move as an uncomfortable but necessary business choice. He acknowledged that accepting money from Middle East leaders could enrich “dictators,” while arguing that a blanket rule against any bad actor benefiting from Anthropic’s success would be hard to apply in practice.
Why Gulf investment is now on the table
The memo arrives as AI companies compete for the enormous funding needed to train and develop frontier AI models. Amodei wrote that there is “easily $100B or more” in capital in the Middle East, and said access to that money could help Anthropic remain at the frontier.
That financial pressure is the central argument in the memo. Anthropic appears to be weighing whether it can take a limited form of Gulf funding while avoiding deeper commitments that could affect the company’s control, infrastructure decisions, or public position on AI governance.
Amodei described the contemplated approach as a “narrowly scoped, purely financial investment from Gulf countries.” The aim, according to the memo, is to secure capital without giving outside investors “leverage” over the company.
The distinction matters because Anthropic has drawn a line between commercial activity in the region and handing over sensitive parts of the AI supply chain. The company’s public statement also emphasized that, as an American company at the frontier of AI development, it believes the supply chain for frontier AI model development should be on American soil to maintain America’s lead.
The policy tension Anthropic now faces
Amodei’s memo directly addresses the risk that Anthropic will be accused of hypocrisy. In his essay “Machines of Loving Grace,” he wrote that democracies need to set the terms for bringing powerful AI into the world, both to avoid being overpowered by authoritarians and to prevent human rights abuses within authoritarian countries.
That earlier position creates a difficult backdrop for any Gulf fundraising. In 2024, Anthropic decided not to accept money from Saudi Arabia, citing national security concerns, per CNBC. That decision came as FTX, the failed cryptocurrency exchange, entered bankruptcy proceedings and its nearly 8 percent stake in Anthropic went up for sale.
Most of those shares ultimately went to ATIC Third International Investment, a UAE firm. At the time, the stake was worth about $500 million.
Now, Anthropic appears ready to seek money from the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. The company has not said whether its position on Saudi Arabia specifically has changed.
Data centers, chips and control remain the dividing line
The memo draws a boundary between taking financial investment and allowing critical AI infrastructure to shift into the hands of authoritarian governments. Amodei referred to opposition to large training clusters in the Middle East and to shipping H20’s to China, describing the AI supply chain as dangerous to hand to authoritarian governments.
His concern, as stated in the memo, is that powerful AI could be used by those governments to gain military dominance or leverage over democratic countries. That is why the proposed investment is framed as financial rather than operational.
Still, the memo concedes that money can create influence even without formal control. Amodei wrote that the promise of future investment can create “soft power,” making it harder to resist investor demands later.
That concern is especially relevant because Amodei also suggested that the largest possible investment amounts may be difficult to secure without agreeing to additional terms. His proposed answer was to see how much Anthropic can raise without accepting those terms, and then hold firm if investors ask for more.
Competitive pressure is shaping the decision
Anthropic’s shift comes amid broader movement by major AI companies and governments. In January, OpenAI announced a $500 billion data center project called Stargate with financial backing from MGX, a state-owned Emirati investment firm. Four months later, OpenAI said it planned to build a data center in Abu Dhabi as part of work to help foreign governments “build sovereign AI capability in coordination with the US.”
In May, President Donald Trump toured the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia during a four-day trip focused on economic investments. Tech leaders including Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and Nvidia chief Jensen Huang joined him for a meeting with the crown prince of Saudi Arabia. Anthropic’s leadership was notably absent.
Amodei’s memo suggests Anthropic has been trying to avoid a wider industry shift it could not stop. In a section titled “Erosion of Standards,” he wrote that Anthropic had pushed against allowing big data centers in the Middle East because, without a central authority blocking them, companies could gain advantage by going deeper into the region.
He also referred to the United States’ agreement to build a new AI data center in the UAE powered by 5 gigawatts of electricity. In that context, the memo frames Gulf fundraising as a way to reduce disadvantage while staying away from the most objectionable arrangements.
Commercial access without local data centers
Anthropic is not presenting the Middle East only as a source of capital. The company also says it serves the Middle East and other regions commercially in line with its Usage Policy.
In the memo, Amodei wrote that serving the region commercially could be positive as long as Anthropic does not build data centers there and enforces its acceptable use policy. He cited possible benefits including improving human health and aiding economic development.
The public communications challenge is clear. In a section titled “Comms Headaches,” Amodei acknowledged that taking Gulf State investment would likely draw criticism from the “media / Twitter / the outside world.” He argued that it can be consistent to oppose a policy outcome for everyone, then act differently if that policy fails and competitors move ahead.
Amodei closed the memo by saying the decision has downsides but that Anthropic believes it is the right one overall. The core issue is no longer whether the company sees risk in Gulf funding. The memo shows that it does. The question is whether Anthropic can separate capital from control while staying competitive in frontier AI.