MENA sovereign funds lose global ground as sovereign investors elsewhere speed up

MENA sovereign wealth funds put USD 102 bn to work in the first nine months of 2026 across 245 transactions. That accounts for 39% of all dealmaking by state-owned investors globally, coming in below where the region sat in 2023-25 in both total value and global share, according to Global SWF’s 2026 MENA Playbook.

As the Gulf caught its breath, the rest of the world’s SWFs sped up. The region lost ground relative to the global total as sovereign and pension funds outside the region invested USD 160 bn by the end of 3Q 2026, totaling more than they managed in all of 2025, according to the report.

At the current pace, MENA funds are set to finish the year with a total of USD 136 bn deployed. That would fall short of the 2025 total, but come as the second-highest annual total on record — although the total was inflated by PIF’s takeover of EA. Dealcount is projected to close at 327, second only to 2019, pushed by smaller and more frequent technology cheques.

Mubadala was the most acquisitive fund at USD 26.2 bn, counting capital deployed by ADIC, Mubadala Capital and MGX, which took part in the multi-bn financing rounds at OpenAI, Anthropic, and Databricks. PIF follows at USD 14.0 bn, then ADIA at USD 12.2 bn, L’imad at USD 10.8 bn, and QIA at USD 10.3 bn.

Most Gulf funds — with the exception of PIF — are tracking above their 2020-25 annual averages. The Saudi fund is projected to end the year at USD 18.7 bn against an average of USD 21.4 bn, as it slows down outside the Kingdom and concentrates what it does spend. Its holdings in EA (USD 51.4 bn), SpaceX (USD 26.4 bn), and Warner Bros stake (USD 10.0 bn) would account for roughly half its international book, which Global SWF says no other sovereign fund comes close to matching.

Four-fifths of the money went abroad. The US took 45% of total value at USD 45.6 bn, followed by the UAE at USD 18.2 bn, China including Hong Kong at 10%, and the UK at 7%. Technology, including AI rounds, made up 28% of deal volume and almost 30% of value, ahead of infrastructure at 22% and financial services at 14%. Real estate fell to 5% of volume and 11% of value.

Governments are now starting to draw on the funds themselves, with Global SWF expecting industry assets to drop for the first time since 2015. Kuwait reported a USD 23.1 bn budget deficit in 1Q 2026, and Qatar’s 2Q 2026 deficit came in at USD 5.8 bn, which the firm reads as pointing to fresh withdrawals from KIA and the first tap of QIA.

The AUM outlook: MENA SWFs manage USD 6.1 tn today, and the firm still sees that reaching USD 8.8 tn by 2030.