DUBAI/NEW YORK (Reuters) - OpenAI CEO Sam Altman plans to visit the United Arab Emirates this week to discuss raising funds with Abu Dhabi investment group MGX, two sources with knowledge of the matter said.

Altman's Abu Dhabi stop comes at a key moment for the ChatGPT maker as established U.S. firms face a new challenge from cheaper Chinese alternative DeepSeek.

The talks with Abu Dhabi's MGX will follow a whirlwind tour of Asia by Altman, during which a partnership with Japan's SoftBank for AI services was announced on Monday.

The UAE, a wealthy oil producer and longtime security partner of the U.S., is in a race to become an AI leader amid rising competition from neighbouring Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

MGX took part in a $6.6 billion OpenAI funding round which closed in October. It was not immediately available for comment.

SoftBank is in talks to lead a funding round of up to $40 billion in OpenAI at a valuation of $300 billion, including the new funds, in what could be a record single funding round for a private company, sources have said.

U.S. President Donald Trump last month unveiled a joint venture dubbed Stargate involving three principal equity backers OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle, in which MGX is also participating.

The Stargate partners have promised to spend $100 billion to build the servers providing computing muscle for AI, ramping up to $500 billion over four years.

Altman visited India on Wednesday, where he met IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and discussed the country's plan for creating a low-cost AI ecosystem.

Altman's OpenAI, which is part-owned by Microsoft ( MSFT ), released ChatGPT in late 2022 and reached over 300 million weekly active users two years later. But China's DeepSeek emergence this month showed companies a cheaper alternative to access AI technology at a fraction of the cost.

AI was top of the agenda when UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan visited Washington in December.

The UAE is pouring billions of dollars into AI and officials believe the bet will give it global clout by making the Gulf state a key economic actor long after oil demand has dried up.

But there have been U.S. concerns over its warm relationship with China on fears that U.S. technology could be shared with Beijing.

Abu Dhabi's AI push is led by the state-backed G42 and MGX, in which the $330 billion wealth fund Mubadala is a partner.