UAE's Mubadala, Adia Lead Dh206 Billion Spending By Mena Swfs

The UAE sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) Mubadala and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (Adia) led the deployment among the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) SWFs in the first nine months.

According to Global SWF, the top investors were Mubadala, which topped the table with $17.4 billion, followed by Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (Adia) ($9.6 billion; Dh35.2 billion), Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) ($7.6 billion), Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) ($6.2 billion), and ADQ ($4.8 billion).

In total, sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region deployed $56.3 billion (Dh206.6 billion) in 97 transactions in the first nine months of 2025.

According to Global SWF, the top investors were Mubadala, which topped the table with $17.4 billion, followed by Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (Adia) ($9.6 billion; Dh35.2 billion), Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) ($7.6 billion), Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) ($6.2 billion), and ADQ ($4.8 billion).

Over a third of the capital was deployed in the US, 28 per cent in Europe, including the UK, and 16 per cent invested domestically.

Assets of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) reached $ 5.6 trillion at the end of September 2025 and like to increase to $8.8 trillion by 2030, growing at 10 per cent annual rate, Global SWF said in its latest research released on Wednesday.

It added that seven of the world's 11 largest SWFs are in the region, including $3 trillion funds: Abu Dhabi's ADIA, Kuwait's KIA and Saudi Arabia's PIF.

Abu Dhabi is the richest city in the Mena region as its SWFs control $1.819 trillion assets followed by Riyadh ($1.071 trillon) and Kuwait ($1.011 trillion).

While assets of state-owned-investors - which includes SWFs, public pension funds, and central banks - will see their assets increase from $8.2 trillion in 2025 to $12 trillion by 2030.

Pension funds and central banks are forecast to show more modest annual growth of six per cent and three per cent, respectively.

For outbound investments, the Gulf SWFs dominate, with Abu Dhabi's Adia and Mubadala, Qatar's QIA, and Saudi Arabia's PIF have each invested over $150 billion historically.

“Of every dollar invested by enaA funds, 25 cents stays at home. Of the remainder, almost half goes to the US or the UK, but China (including Hong Kong), India and Egypt are increasingly popular,” said SWF Global.

By industry, about 40 per cent of spending by SWFs goes to real estate and infrastructure, 22 per cent to financials (including funds), and 12 per cent to technology.

For inbound investment, Mena state-owned investors (SOIs) have spent a total of $1.1 trillion, but Mena markets have received only a third of that capital from global sovereign investors.

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