Gulf sovereign wealth funds are on track for one of their busiest years on record, despite the economic disruptions caused by the Iran war. In the first half of 2026, Gulf funds invested $53.9 billion across 108 transactions, an all time high, according to data compiled by Global SWF.
Almost half of that went into the US, including funding rounds for Anthropic and xAI (prior to its merger with SpaceX), showing that, even as the Iran conflict led to questions about the future of Gulf-US ties, it remains the main destination to recycle petrodollars. China was a distant second, receiving 17% of Gulf investments. Overall, half of the world’s largest deals so far this year involved Gulf sovereign capital.
Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala, with $15.2 billion deployed so far this year, was the world’s most active sovereign fund in the first half. Alongside other UAE funds like Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and L’IMAD Holding, it meant the emirate accounted for about half of all deals involving Gulf state-controlled funds.
