Abu Dhabi sovereign fund to invest space tech, AI this year

ABU Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment will deploy significant capital into artificial intelligence and space technology this year, its managing director said on Wednesday (Feb 28), committing the sovereign wealth fund to investing more in the United States.

Khaldoon Mubarak told an investor conference in Abu Dhabi that sovereign wealth funds had an opportunity and responsibility to transform from asset investors to enablers of global progress.

“We plan to invest more in the US market and deepen strategic and forward-looking investment products in the UK, Europe, France,” he said.

Mubadala, which controls US$276 billion of assets, would also invest in healthcare, digital infrastructure and financing this year, Mubarak said, and had increased long-term allocations for Asia.

“We are in the business of driving progress and investing in solutions to global challenges,” he said.

The government-controlled fund was also scaling to participate in the long-term, dynamic markets in Asia, Mubarak said, as the sovereign fund focused on mega-trends and global demographics.

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“We’ve increased our long-term allocations for Asia, including Japan, China, Korea and, of course, India,” he said.

Mubarak did not specify how much capital Mubadala would deploy this year into the US, China or elsewhere.

The increased long-term allocation to Asia suggests Mubadala is betting that China’s economic slowdown will not last and that it sees significant investment opportunities there over a longer period.

The UAE and China have close political and economic ties but Mubarak said in his address that investments were based on the attractiveness of investment opportunities and not geopolitics.

Washington has become increasingly concerned about Gulf-Chinese partnerships, fearing sensitive US technology could be exposed. The US is the security partner of the Gulf.

Mubadala and Goldman Sachs this week announced they had agreed to a US$1 billion private credit partnership to invest in Asia-Pacific. The US and its allies have sought to counter China’s mostly economic influence in the region. REUTERS