Musk tried to block OpenAI deal in Middle East, WSJ reports

Before Microsoft-backed (MSFT) OpenAI led a group of American technology companies that won a deal to build one of the world’s largest artificial-intelligence data centers in Abu Dhabi, Tesla (TSLA) CEO and Trump advisor Elon Musk worked hard to try to derail the deal if it didn’t include his own AI startup, xAI, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal’s Dana Mattioli, Josh Dawsey and Eliot Brown. On May 22, Cisco (CSCO) announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to join the Stargate UAE consortium as a preferred technology partner. The strategic MoU, signed by Cisco together with other consortium partners, G42, OpenAI, Oracle (ORCL), Nvidia (NVDA) and SoftBank Group (SFTBY), envisions the construction of an AI data center in Abu Dhabi with a target capacity of 1 GW.