Abu Dhabi was a global backwater when it started exporting oil six decades ago, with a population of 30,000, few paved roads and clusters of buildings spilling into the desert sands.
Today the gleaming emirate has a population of 4mn largely made up of expatriates and boasts among the highest concentrations of sovereign wealth in the world, having channelled its petrodollars into international investment and domestic development.
In the early decades of its wealth-building efforts, the emirate “kept a low profile by design”, said Diego López, founder and managing director of industry tracker Global SWF. But “Abu Dhabi was always the ‘capital of capital’, for those that knew about it.”
Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan, Abu Dhabi’s conservative ruler from 1966 until his death almost 40 years later, used the huge surpluses generated by oil sales to build local infrastructure, while squirrelling away the excess in the sovereign wealth fund that would become one of the world’s largest: the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, established in 1976.
In 1984 Abu Dhabi created a new fund called the International Petroleum Investment Company to invest in energy assets and use its petrodollars to diversify the emirate’s economy. The local development mandate was extended to the newly formed Mubadala Development Company in 2002. But the emirate was a low-key investor.
That changed after Sheikh Zayed’s death in 2004. His sons Sheikh Khalifa, who succeeded him, and Sheikh Mohammed had ambitious development plans and the funds became much more active. Mubadala bought minority stakes in Italian carmaker Ferrari in 2005, and Carlyle Group and chipmaker AMD two years later.
As western assets became depressed and needed capital injections when the global financial crisis hit in 2008, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign investors — boosted by oil prices that surged to $140 a barrel — embarked on a spending spree and grew in prominence. During this period of high spirits, veteran financiers say Abu Dhabi’s entities were often shown the same deals by bankers and at times competed against each other.
But as the different funds sprawled out, things went wrong. In the mid-2010s Ipic was ensnared in Malaysia’s 1MDB sovereign fund embezzlement scandal and eventually agreed to pay $1.8bn to settle a legal dispute with the south-east Asian nation over the imbroglio.
In the fallout, Abu Dhabi sought to rationalise its assortment of funds, catalysing mergers and shunting around holdings to streamline how its sovereign wealth was being deployed and its assets managed.
Three major organisations have been left — Adia, Mubadala and the youngest entity ADQ, created in 2018 to hold vital state assets. Abu Dhabi also has a separate pension fund. Together, they boast about $1.7tn in assets under management.
Bankers and advisers say the three funds — the core of Abu Dhabi Inc — have brought in top professionals and institutionalised systems and processes to become sophisticated deal machines. However, like most Gulf institutions they remain male-dominated, with each of their three boards made up solely of men and only one woman sitting on any of their investment committees.
Three figures in particular are seen as crucial controllers and shapers of Abu Dhabi’s wealth: Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan, chair of ADQ and Adia; Sheikh Mansour, Mubadala chair; and Khaldoon al-Mubarak, Mubadala group chief executive. Sheikhs Tahnoon and Mansour are full brothers of ruler Sheikh Mohammed, and among the “Bani Fatima” — the six sons of Sheikh Zayed by his third wife Fatima who are the most powerful men in Abu Dhabi.
The key players
Sheikh Tahnoon
A member of the ruling Nahyan family, Sheikh Tahnoon has often been characterised as a secretive spy chief because of his role as the United Arab Emirates’ national security adviser.
But the deputy Abu Dhabi ruler has in recent years built an enormous business empire and publicly positioned himself as the emirate’s chief technology envoy, spearheading Abu Dhabi’s push to become a regional artificial intelligence superpower and forging ties with US technology companies. Among his many roles he chairs G42, Abu Dhabi’s AI champion, and MGX, its AI investment vehicle that is backed by G42 and Mubadala.
One of the most influential voices in Abu Dhabi Inc, Sheikh Tahnoon also chairs sovereign investor ADQ, royal-owned business conglomerate International Holding Company and the UAE’s biggest lender, First Abu Dhabi Bank.
During a leadership shake-up a year after Sheikh Khalifa’s death, Sheikh Mohammed in March 2023 appointed his son Sheikh Khaled as Abu Dhabi crown prince and Sheikh Tahnoon was made chair of investment titan Adia.
Sheikh Mansour
A major investor as well as a vice-president and deputy prime minister of the UAE, Sheikh Mansour is also the owner of Manchester City football club and in 2023 was made chair of Mubadala, Abu Dhabi’s most active investor.
Formerly chair of Ipic, Sheikh Mansour’s funds were also caught up in the 1MDB scandal and he has kept a lower profile in recent years. An attempt to buy the Daily Telegraph newspaper, backed by his investment group, caused a political outcry in the UK last year.
Khaldoon al-Mubarak
Group chief executive of Mubadala, Mubarak is one of the UAE’s best known business figures and the most prominent non-royal to hold significant sway over Abu Dhabi’s finances. He became close to the ruling Nahyan family after his father, an Emirati diplomat, was murdered by Palestinian militants in 1984 in Paris.
Having led Mubadala since it was founded in 2002, Mubarak chairs major lender Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, state nuclear body Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation and one of the country’s top exporters Emirates Global Aluminium.
He also chairs Manchester City and holds diplomatic roles — Mubarak is a special presidential envoy to China and acts as Abu Dhabi’s point person for the UK-UAE relationship. He also chairs the powerful Executive Affairs Authority, which advises UAE President Sheikh Mohammed.
The key funds
Adia
Abu Dhabi Investment Authority invests at least 32% of its long-term strategy portfolio in developed market shares, its biggest asset class
$1.1tn
AUM, 2024 (Global SWF estimate)
Chair: Sheikh Tahnoon
Managing director: Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan
Abu Dhabi’s estimated $1.1tn sovereign wealth fund is tasked with taking care of the emirate’s oil surpluses for future generations, and only deploys capital outside the UAE. Founded in 1976, Adia is Abu Dhabi’s most traditional wealth manager.
The fund is secretive but says publicly that it invests a minimum of 45 per cent of its portfolio in North America, with at least 15 per cent in Europe, 10 per cent in emerging markets and 5 per cent in what it describes as “developed Asia”.
Adia invests at least 32 per cent of its long-term strategy portfolio in developed market shares, its biggest asset class. Private equity gets at least 12 per cent, coming in second.
While Adia does not hold majority stakes in companies, it does make big investments: for example, in 2023 it invested almost $600mn in the retail subsidiary of India’s Reliance conglomerate, giving it 0.6 per cent equity in the division.
Mubadala
Mubadala acts much more like a returns-focused private equity fund
$330bn
AUM, 2024
Chair: Sheikh Mansour
CEO: Khaldoon al-Mubarak
Key assets: GlobalFoundries, Emirates Global Aluminium
Founded in 2002 to help diversify Abu Dhabi’s oil-dependent economy, Mubadala made some big strategic bets, including on chipmaker GlobalFoundries. But Mubadala dramatically expanded in 2016 when it was merged with much older Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Ipic, which had been engulfed in the 1MDB embezzlement scandal. Abu Dhabi continued to rationalise its disparate funds and two years later it added the Abu Dhabi Investment Council to Mubadala, doubling the group’s value.
Since 2022, Abu Dhabi’s second-largest sovereign investor has been one of the most active in the world, according to industry trackers. While ADIC’s portfolio is mostly managed externally, Mubadala mostly takes minority stakes in companies and its direct investment arm is its largest. Its role as a development vehicle has diminished in recent years, and Mubadala acts much more like a returns-focused private equity fund.
Mubadala has carved out specialist units, including Mubadala Capital, which also takes capital from other investors. One of its biggest and highest-profile investments was a $15bn commitment to SoftBank’s Vision Fund.
ADQ
ADQ’s more than 25 companies contributed about a fifth of Abu Dhabi’s non-oil GDP
$263bn
Total assets, June 2025 (self-reported)
Chair: Sheikh Tahnoon
CEO: Mohamed Hassan Alsuwaidi (also minister of investment)
Key holdings: Etihad, AD Ports, Taqa
Abu Dhabi’s youngest fund was established in 2018 to house an assortment of state-owned enterprises, including airline Etihad. It managed these companies, often changing their boards, and used them as the basis for thematic clusters: for example, ADQ used its holding in AD Ports to anchor a logistics portfolio, then made further acquisitions including postal company Aramex. Although initially focused on the UAE and Middle East region, ADQ is expanding globally and is assembling a whole value chain under each of its major clusters through acquisitions.
Although ADQ’s stated aims are commercial, some observers see the Sheikh Tahnoon-chaired ADQ as having a geopolitical function and acting as an important tool in his sprawling business network. When Abu Dhabi wanted to support Egypt’s government last year with a $35bn cash injection in return for prime land, ADQ was the vehicle it used. But a person close to the fund said the Ras el Hekma is a commercial opportunity for ADQ.
A person close to the fund said it was reassessing its strategy for 2026 and may look to make more minority investments after taking a stake in auction house Sotheby’s last year. The person also said ADQ was looking into manufacturing as a potential sector for expansion.
ADQ last year issued $4.5bn worth of bonds. Its more than 25 companies contributed about a fifth of Abu Dhabi’s non-oil GDP, according to its 2024 annual report.
Other important entities
Lunate
Emerging national champion alternative asset manager in Sheikh Tahnoon’s business empire, Lunate manages a portfolio for ADQ and $30bn climate fund Alterra. Bankers say it is one of the most active dealmakers in Abu Dhabi. Although Lunate is privately owned — it is part of Sheikh Tahnoon’s sprawling business conglomerate International Holding Company — it is widely perceived to co-ordinate with the other Abu Dhabi Inc entities.
This year it bought an undisclosed minority stake in British hedge fund Brevan Howard, committing $2bn towards a joint partnership in Abu Dhabi, and launched a $1bn real estate joint venture with Canadian investment group Brookfield.
MGX
A specialist state-owned investment vehicle backed by Mubadala and G42, an artificial intelligence company chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon, MGX is mandated to oversee Abu Dhabi’s multibillion-dollar investments in AI.
Although MGX says its strategy is to invest in chips and AI infrastructure and technology, it has also invested $2bn in cryptocurrency exchange Binance and is taking a minority stake in TikTok US.
