The Global Sovereign Wealth Fund (GlobalSWF) announced in its latest report that Abu Dhabi has been named the richest city in the world based on the total amount of capital managed by its sovereign wealth fund.As of October 2024, the total assets under management of multiple sovereign wealth funds headquartered in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, are nearly US$1.7 trillion. These funds include Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), Mubadala (including Abu Dhabi Investment Council and Mubadala Capital), ADQ (including part of Lunate's business), Abu Dhabi Development Fund, Tawazun (including EDGE) and the Emirates Investment Authority (EIA).
In second place is Oslo, the capital of Norway, with more than $1.6 trillion in assets under management by its Government Pension Fund (GPF). It is followed by Beijing, where China Investment Corporation (CIC) is located, Singapore, which manages the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) and Temasek, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which has the Public Investment Fund (PIF).
As of October 1, 2024, the total capital managed by sovereign wealth funds in the top six cities accounted for two-thirds of the total capital managed by sovereign wealth funds worldwide, totaling US$12.5 trillion.
It is worth noting that the huge amount of capital managed by Abu Dhabi’s Royal Private Offices (RPOs) is not included in the above data. The boundaries between these private offices and sovereign wealth funds are blurred, with a combined total of $344 billion in assets under management.
In addition, the report noted that Abu Dhabi also leads in terms of human capital, with the jurisdiction having the largest number of employees employed by sovereign wealth funds at 3,107. Followed by Singapore (GIC, Temasek), Riyadh (PIF), Kuala Lumpur (Hazana, PNB) and Dubai (ICD, DIF) all have more than 1,000 employees.
Abu Dhabi is the only region consistently rated AA and Aa2 by S&P, Fitch and Moody’s. According to Fitch's assessment, Abu Dhabi has one of the lowest government debt levels (15% of GDP) and the highest liquidity ratios (350% of GDP). As of December 2023, Abu Dhabi is responsible for only one-third of the UAE government's total debt.
In the first three quarters of 2024, a total of 68 financial services companies were registered in the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), an international financial free zone. Furthermore, foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into the UAE have continued to grow since 2015 and will peak at $30.7 billion in 2023.
GlobalSWF predicts that by 2024, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund will have close to $1.7 trillion in assets under management. In addition, Abu Dhabi has $200 billion in central bank assets, $100 billion in public pension fund assets and $344 billion in royal private office assets, for a total of $2.3 trillion.
It is estimated that by 2030, the assets under management of Abu Dhabi's multiple sovereign wealth funds may grow to US$2.3 trillion, while the assets under management of all its sovereign investors may reach US$3.4 trillion. Among them, ADIA, Mubadala and ADQ have the most active investment activities, investing a total of US$36 billion in the first three quarters of 2024.