When you put it like this, it's kind of an incredible and underappreciated success story:
Abu Dhabi was a global backwater when it started exporting oil six decades ago, with a population of 30,000, few paved roads and clusters of buildings spilling into the desert sands. Today the gleaming emirate has a population of 4mn largely made up of expatriates and boasts among the highest concentrations of sovereign wealth in the world, having channelled its petrodollars into international investment and domestic development.
Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, and the Mubadala companies, are one of the few actually holding some bitcoin (ETFs, I presume, but whatever... in the ano 2025, who's counting).
That changed after Sheikh Zayed’s death in 2004. His sons Sheikh Khalifa, who succeeded him, and Sheikh Mohammed had ambitious development plans and the funds became much more active. Mubadala bought minority stakes in Italian carmaker Ferrari in 2005, and Carlyle Group and chipmaker AMD two years later.
The SWF is 3x Dubai or Qatar's, even bigger than the Saudis', dwarfed only somewhat by the much-more well-known Norwegian one (#899606)
As western assets became depressed and needed capital injections when the global financial crisis hit in 2008, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign investors — boosted by oil prices that surged to $140 a barrel — embarked on a spending spree and grew in prominence.
The FT being FT, it's very important to point out that the investment boards of the various male-dominated companies only have a single woman involved.
Since 2022, Abu Dhabi’s second-largest sovereign investor has been one of the most active in the world, according to industry trackers. While ADIC’s portfolio is mostly managed externally, Mubadala mostly takes minority stakes in companies and its direct investment arm is its largest. Its role as a development vehicle has diminished in recent years, and Mubadala acts much more like a returns-focused private equity fund.
...including participating in SoftBank's Vision Fund and, I'm informed (though the article doesn't say) bitcoin. (Apparently, there's a vehicle backed by Mubadala that also has a stake in TikTok and Binance)
Clearly, also, some geopolitical interests rather than purely financial returns:
Although ADQ’s stated aims are commercial, some observers see the Sheikh Tahnoon-chaired ADQ as having a geopolitical function and acting as an important tool in his sprawling business network. When Abu Dhabi wanted to support Egypt’s government last year with a $35bn cash injection in return for prime land, ADQ was the vehicle it used.
How many of those 4 million expatriates are slaves, tho?