OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman recently visited the Middle East and met with state-backed investment funds, as the start-up seeks at least $50 billion (£37bn) in a new funding round, Bloomberg reported.

Altman spoke with investors including some of the largest state-backed funds in Abu Dhabi, according to the report.

The ChatGPT developer is seeking to raise at least $50bn in the round at a valuation of about $750bn to $830bn, the news service said, citing unnamed people.

OpenAI has also reportedly held recent talks with Amazon to raise at least $10bn.

The company has previously raised funding from Abu Dhabi-based fund MGX and partnered with G42 on plans for a large data centre complex in the United Arab Emirates.

Other AI start-ups including Anthropic and xAI have also turned to Middle Eastern investors for their large capital requirements.

AI companies are spending hundreds of billions on data centres and other capital infrastructure, with plans to spend trillions more in the coming years, but say they still face an acute shortage of computing power.

As a result, start-ups such as OpenAI, which is not profitable, are obliged to engage in practically continuous fund-raising.

OpenAI was most recently valued at $500bn in a funding round last autumn.