Mohammed’s view
It’s not quite the final work week of the year, but in the Gulf, it feels like they’re throwing the kitchen sink at 2025. In Abu Dhabi, the world’s top asset managers are convening as the government commits tens of billions of dollars to accelerate its ascent as a global financial hub. Meanwhile, Qatar — fresh off its annual diplomacy confab where the bizarre highlight was provocateur Tucker Carlson’s decision to buy a home in Doha — is launching a $20 billion digital infrastructure venture to invest in, among other things, data centers.
And sovereign funds from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE emerged as backers of Paramount’s bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, collectively offering $24 billion. A club deal among the three is rare, maybe unprecedented, and the fact they appeared together in one of the year’s largest transactions underscores how central Gulf capital has become to global markets.
That new centrality is the message Abu Dhabi Finance Week wants to project. The gathering has shed its origins as a citywide fintech conference and is now a coming-out party for the emirate. The luxurious financial center ADGM, home to the event, is getting a $16.3 billion expansion — funded by Mubadala and Aldar. The city is planning a new fintech, insurance, digital, and alternative-asset cluster expected to create 8,000 jobs. Hedge fund Brevan Howard is one that committed this week to boost its local headcount.
As with most events in the region, there were MOUs, of which we will spare you the details. And there was more than just coffee and talks: The weekend saw a dramatic Formula 1 finale and a Sotheby’s auction that pulled $133 million, including nearly $3 million for an empty handbag. Ok, a Birkin.
The takeaway? As Carlyle Group co-founder (and Semafor investor) David Rubenstein put it: “I’ve seen the future of capitalism, and its name is Abu Dhabi.”
Notable
- Gulf sovereign wealth funds aren’t neutral market actors, but use “state-directed funds to pursue the dual mandate of generating financial returns and projecting state power,” Goldman Sachs’ Jared Cohen and George Lee argue in Foreign Policy — what they term the rise of “instrumental capital.”