Qatar Eyes Digitalisation, AI Amid Plans To Double US Investments

(MENAFN- Gulf Times) The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) is considering artificial intelligence (AI) and digitalisation as promising sectors amid plans to double its investments in the US, QIA CEO Mohammed Saif al-Sowaidi announced at the 2025 edition of the 'Qatar Economic Forum Powered by Bloomberg' Tuesday.
Earlier, the QIA announced plans to deploy“$500bn” in the US over the next decade. Al-Sowaidi explained that the country's sovereign wealth fund is preparing for an unprecedented investment push into the US, which is part of Qatar's“$1.2tn” economic pledge announced during President Donald J Trump's“historic visit” to Qatar last week.
This marks a significant acceleration in QIA's investment pace, effectively doubling or more its previous commitments in the past years, stated al-Sowaidi, who emphasised that the US remains a priority due to its robust financial systems and dominant global trade position.
“His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani indicated openly that a lot of the additional reserves sales that are coming from the LNG expansion will be routed to the Future Generations Fund...and the US is 60% of the available trading markets in the world. It makes sense that most of our investments will go to the US market. We believe in the robustness of the US systems, the growth perspective the US enjoys, and we will continue to be there,” al-Sowaidi told the forum.
Al-Sowaidi noted that a major portion of these investments will be directed toward digitalisation and AI-related technologies, which, he said, are among the sectors that QIA considers fundamental for long-term economic growth.
“AI is definitely at the centre of what we're focused on...more AI-enabled software and applications may improve people's lives and increase productivity, especially as demographics are decreasing everywhere around the world,” he further explained.
According to al-Sowaidi, the QIA has already taken significant steps into AI and digital infrastructure, having invested“$500mn” in Databricks this year. The fund also remains actively involved in hardware, infrastructure software, and applications, reinforcing its commitment to a technology-driven future, he also pointed out.
“We started investing in data centres and AI hyperscale space about 10 years ago. We were hesitant when we started, but after a couple of years, we deployed size, and we're very happy that we did it early because those investments are very valuable now,” al-Sowaidi noted.
Beyond digitalisation, al-Sowaidi said the QIA has also invested significantly in Elon Musk's AI venture XAI, citing this as an investment that aligns with Qatar's broader strategy of capitalising on next-generation technological advancements.

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