UAE’s top 3 sovereign wealth fund assets set to jump by nearly Dh3 trillion in 5 years

The UAE’s top three sovereign wealth funds Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (Adia), Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD), and Mubadala, will see their assets jump by over 40 per cent in five years on the back of oil income and investment made in equities and other sources, said a new report.

According to Global SWF, the assets of the UAE’s three SWFs will jump from $1.974 trillion (Dh7.24 trillion) in 2025 to $2.767 trillion (Dh10.15 trillion) by 2030, an increase of $793 billion (Dh2.9 trillion).

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The UAE’s seven largest state-owned institutions control nearly $2.5 trillion in assets at the end of 2025.

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Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, with $1.18 trillion, has the highest assets under management, followed by Investment Corporation of Dubai ($429 billion), Mubadala ($358 billion), ADQ ($251 billion), Emirates Investment Authority ($116 billion), Dubai Investment Fund ($80 billion), and Dubai Holding ($72 billion).

It sees 792 state-owned investors’ (SOIs) assets jumping from $60 trillion in 2025 to $79.6 trillion by 2030, led by public pension funds (PPFs), SWFs, and central banks (CBs).

“We are expecting SWFs to grow from $15.2 trillion today to $22.4 trillion by 2030. In addition to the performance in financial markets (which affects all segments), the growth of SWFs will be highly dependent on oil prices, given the source of wealth of about half of the funds, and to new sovereign funds being formed. In the first half of the decade, we have seen the establishment of 38 new SWFs that manage $0.5 trillion in assets, so this trajectory may be crucial,” the global industry specialist firm said in its latest report.

According to the World Economic Forum, a group of 20 countries will run a surplus of over $100 billion between 2026 and 2030, and nine of them do not currently have a SWF with a savings function (or a SWF at all), and may adopt one. “The setup of any of them would add inorganic growth to the SWF segment, which PPF (public pension fund) and CB (central bank) do not normally have,” it said.

Public pension funds will keep benefiting from demographics, rising contributions, and likely, performance net of fees. “We expect them to grow from today’s $27.6 trillion to $36.3 trillion by 2030, slightly up from last year’s numbers,” it added.

Lastly, central banks have experienced the slowest growth, at four per cent per annum between 2000 and 2025, but have accelerated their balance sheets thanks to the evolution of gold in the past two years. “We expect them to increase their reserves from $17.3 trillion today to $20.9 trillion by 2030. Some of them may decide to transfer some of this capital to their SWFs for better prospects of superior performance, like MAS does with GIC in Singapore – so this segment may grow less,” it added.

Waheed Abbas

waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com

Waheed Abbas is Assistant Editor, covering real estate, aviation and other business stories that directly affect the lives of UAE consumers. He frequently reports human interest stories, too.