Gulf sovereign funds pour into AI and infrastructure while trimming non-core assets abroad

It’s an investment and M&A-heavy kind of morning, as is so often the case at midweek. The big themes this morning: Lots of activity in AI and infrastructure (centers of gravity for the coming decade, folks) and Gulf sovereigns continuing to rotate out of non-core assets as they focus on strategic assets abroad (the UAE) and deploying capital at home (Saudi).

UAE sovereign AI investor MGX and BlackRock have closed one of the largest data center buyouts on record — the USD 40 bn acquisition of Aligned Data Centers from Macquarie Asset Management and its partners, the firms said in a statement. The transaction is the first investment under the AI Infrastructure Partnership — the vehicle MGX launched with BlackRock, GIP, Microsoft, and Nvidia to put USD 30 bn of equity, and as much as USD 100 bn including debt, into AI infrastructure.

IN CONTEXT- There’s likely a lot more where that came from MGX recently raised more than USD 50 bn from sovereign and institutional investors and plans to deploy up to USD 10 bn a year.

We also have for you this morning a run of infrastructure news:

GFH Partners exited a USD 130 mn portfolio of US logistics and industrial assets, with investor returns expected to top 10%, according to a press release. The seller is GFH Financial Group’s Dubai-based asset management arm. The firm has built a sizeable US book since 2023, including a USD 300 mn logistics and industrial fund, some USD 450 mn across medical clinics and student housing, and a student housing portfolio now at USD 900 mn. It’s targeting group AUM at USD 7.5 bn by year-end.

Egypt and the World Bank are pushing ahead with a USD 520 mn guarantee facility for private infrastructure financing, with the Bank putting in USD 150 mn, according to a ministry statement and a document seen by Al Arabiya. The vehicle — a commercially run, non-bank special-purpose company issuing payment, debt-service, and contract-termination guarantees — starts with renewables, transmission, desalination, wastewater, and waste-to-energy.

What to watch for: The goal is to attract commercial banks, institutional investors, and Gulf capital to projects that today lean on sovereign backing.

MEANWHILE- DP World lined up a EUR 25 mn senior loan from the EBRD and a EUR 19.8 mn EU grant toward the EUR 100 mn green overhaul of its Constanța South Container Terminal — Romania’s main box facility — according to an EBRD statement.

AND- Red Sea Gateway Terminal is weighing up to USD 1 bn in fresh investment across Bangladesh’s ports and logistics sector, CEO Lars Vang Christensen said, according to Arab News — appetite that surfaced with the expansion of its Chittagong terminal freshly complete. The Saudi company inaugurated the Patenga Container Terminal after a USD 170 mn buildout, it said on X, making it the Kingdom’s first international port management concession.

The consolidation wave rolling across Saudi healthcare shows few signs of slowing down: Fakeeh Care completed its SAR 1.6 bn (c. USD 427 mn) acquisition of Al Fagih, it said in a Tadawul filing, with SAR 100 mn parked in escrow. The transaction gives Fakeeh a 350-bed central-east Riyadh hospital as a wholly owned subsidiary, giving it 535 beds at two facilities in the capital city. SNB and SAB provided SAR 2.2 bn in financing.

BACKGROUND- Dallah has been stringing together acquisitions of its own (Al Salam, Al Ahsa) while Sulaiman Al Habib and Mouwasat are building organically, and Almoosa Health has built an SAR 2.5 bn war chest of debt for an expansion drive as Saudi’s healthcare industry continues to heat up.

SWFs continue to rotate out of non-core assets: Adia is selling down its 5%+ stake in Jersey Mike’s alongside majority owner Blackstone as the US sandwich chain IPOs, according to an SEC filing. The USD 1.1 bn offering will likely be at a valuation north of USD 10 bn — well ahead of the USD 8 bn Blackstone paid for control in 2024.

Why it matters: Adia and Advent cashed in USD 2.4 bn on Innio’s IPO just last month. UAE and Saudi sovereigns have been trimming smaller, less-strategic passive positions abroad as they concentrate on strategic plays globally and economically significant opportunities at home.

Mubadala Capital has locked in the terms for its takeover of Pierre & Vacances-Center Parcs and now holds commitments from 80.13% of the French leisure group, according to a press release. The transaction values Pierre & Vacances at EUR 900 mn. Look for a close some time in 1H 2027. It’s not the first European holiday asset the UAE has gone after: Adia took a minority stake in European Camping Group last year and has a 17-hotel, EUR 600 mn portfolio in Spain.

Tawal wants to get much bigger before it lists: PIF-backed telecom towers player Tawal is in talks to buy more than 10k mobile tower sites from Mobily, Semafor reports. The transaction would, if it goes forward, make Tawal one of the Middle East’s largest tower owners. PIF paid USD 2.3 bn (SAR 8.9 bn) for its 51% stake in Tawal in early 2025. The company is expected to start preparing an IPO for 2027 or 2028.

Egypt’s Misr Capital tripled its money on Nile Scan: Elevate Capital signed a definitive agreement that will see Banque Misr’s investment arm Misr Capital exit Nile Scan and Labs for just under EGP 1 bn (c. USD 20 mn) in what Elevate Group CEO Tarek Moharram described to our Egypt desk as an LP swap — a new set of investors raised by Elevate steps into Misr Capital’s exact position, and the company itself never changes hands. The all-cash exit implies a c. 3.2x return on the EGP 312 mn Misr Capital paid for its 70% stake in 2023.

What to watch for: Elevate Healthcare is keeping 70% — and Nile Scan is eyeing an EGX IPO in the next two to three years.

MEANWHILE- Banque Misr also sold its entire 9.3% stake in EGX-listed Goldentex Wool in a two-stage exit worth a combined EGP 135.5 mn, according to two EGX filings (here, pdf and here, pdf), with CI Capital’s brokerage arm executing. It’s not a lot of money, but paired with Nile Scan, it’s Egypt’s second-largest state-owned bank pruning its investment portfolio twice in one week.

More Egyptian IPOs in the pipeline? Buried in Qalaa’s 4Q 2025 release: The group is preparing five subsidiaries for IPO over the coming two years, including NPM as early as this year. Investors with appetite for Egypt are looking forward to offerings by fintech darling MNT-Halan and Banque du Caire this fall, if market conditions allow.

SIGN OF THE TIMES #1- Saudi Arabia drew USD 1.6 bn in net foreign inflows in 2Q — the only GCC market in positive territory, while Dubai posted the region’s largest outflows for the second straight quarter, with USD 641.5 mn in net selling on top of 1Q’s USD 654 mn, according to Kamco Invest’s quarterly report (pdf). Net foreign buying across the GCC came to USD 1.2 bn in 1H — down 83% y-o-y.

SIGN OF THE TIMES #2- Syria has its first foreign investment in a startup. UAE property investor Amer Al-Zoubi (LinkedIn) will reportedly invest USD 10 mn in Labbi, a super-app “launching within weeks” with taxi-hailing and food delivery. Groceries and other daily services will follow, Al Arabiya reports.

ALSO WORTH KNOWING TODAY-

Paramount Skydance’s USD 110 bn takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery — backed by PIF, the Qatar Investment Authority, and Abu Dhabi’s L’imad Holding — is temporarily on hold after a US federal judge found a “strong showing” that the deal unlawfully hampers competition, Reuters reports.

SpaceX’s insider trading restrictions lift on 6 August, freeing as much as USD 116 bn in stock in one of the largest share unlocks in history, Bloomberg reports. Worth keeping an eye on given how deeply Gulf sovereign capital is embedded in the Musk companies.

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