The News
Khaldoon Al Mubarak, one of Abu Dhabi’s top money men, visited Washington last week, touting progress one year into the UAE’s decade-long, $1.4 trillion investment commitment to the US.
Al Mubarak pledged to accelerate investments in technology and energy infrastructure in the world’s largest economy “despite regional and macroeconomic challenges,” he said in a statement.
The Mubadala managing director and chairman of the UAE’s Executive Affairs Authority, which advises President Mohamed bin Zayed on strategic policy, met with several members of the Trump administration including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who greenlit AI chips to the Gulf earlier this year, as well as Vice President JD Vance and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Know More
The UAE has announced more than $100 billion in investment and trade deals since President Donald Trump’s visit to the Gulf in May 2025, according to the US-UAE Business Council. Money is largely being directed into AI and energy infrastructure, as well as healthcare and manufacturing.
The UAE’s recent decision to quit OPEC puts it on track for additional oil revenue that will be reinvested, according to its Ambassador to the US Yousef Al Otaiba, further boosting its profile as a global investor.
Step Back
Some of the UAE’s largest firms have stepped up US deal announcements in the past year, as enthusiasm for AI and energy infrastructure drives momentum.
Abu Dhabi AI investment firm MGX participated in Anthropic’s most recent fundraise, and has also backed OpenAI and xAI. It also joined a BlackRock-led consortium that acquired AI infrastructure firm Aligned Data Centers in a deal valued at $40 billion.
Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed’s new financial services holding company Judan has also been active, buying a majority stake in Alpha Wave Global, a Miami-based investor in Anthropic, OpenAI, and SpaceX. G42 has expanded its data center footprint in the US, while also building the 5GW UAE-US AI Campus in Abu Dhabi — largely catering to US hyperscalers — with 500MW coming online this year. UAE aluminum firm EGA and Century Aluminum are in a joint venture to build a massive aluminum smelter in Inola, Oklahoma.
US exports to the UAE hit $31.4 billion in 2025, producing a $23.8 billion trade surplus in Washington’s favor, the largest in the Middle East and North Africa, according to the UAE Embassy in the US.
Notable
- Abu Dhabi’s newest sovereign wealth fund L’imad last month said it would work with BlackRock’s infrastructure arm and Singapore’s Temasek to invest $30 billion in central Asia and the Middle East, the Financial Times reported.