Banking and Finance

Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala reveals 34% rise in 2024 spending

May 8, 2025, 11:19 AM

Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak said Mubadala's results reflected the fund's 'focused and resilient strategy, with risk-adjusted returns in sectors where we have conviction' — Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak said its results reflected the fund's 'focused and resilient strategy, with risk-adjusted returns in sectors where we have conviction'

Assets increase to AED1.2 trillion
Annualised returns top 10%
‘Future-focused’ strategy

Mubadala deployed AED119 billion ($32 billion) of capital last year, a rise of nearly 34 percent on 2023, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund has revealed in its latest earnings report.

The fund, which is thought to have been the world’s most active sovereign investor in 2024, has not released data on its annual revenues or net earnings since 2021.

In its latest report, Mubadala says it has delivered annualised returns of more than 10 percent over the past five years.

The fund increased the assets it manages by 9.1 percent in 2024, to a total of more than AED1.2 trillion. Its 10-year rolling internal rate of return, a metric it only began to share publicly last year, was 8.7 percent for 2024.

Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, the sovereign investor’s managing director and group chief executive, said its results reflected a “focused and resilient strategy, with risk-adjusted returns in sectors where we have conviction”.

“Our portfolio has been constructed to navigate market cycles and scale future-focused sectors – from AI and clean energy to life sciences, semiconductors and advanced manufacturing – all aligned with our national priorities,” he said in a statement.

Speaking at a CEO forum in Washington last month, Al Mubarak said US protectionist policies had prompted Mubadala to change its “base case assumptions” and take longer to evaluate investment opportunities.

In Thursday’s press release, Al Mubarak said one of the highlights of 2024 was Mubadala’s partnership with artificial intelligence developer G42 to create MGX, an investment fund focused on advanced technology.

MGX has been issuing equity cheques of approximately $1 billion to $2 billion per transaction it takes part in, according to Ali Osman, its chief investment officer for AI. It has an overall availability of about $8 billion to $10 billion per year, Osman told the Washington conference at the end of April.

Last September MGX launched the AI Infrastructure Partnership with Microsoft, Global Infrastructure Partners and BlackRock among others, to invest $30 billion in the development of large-scale data centres.

Also in 2024 Mubadala established Space42 by merging Yahsat and Bayanat. The wealth fund says it is the largest publicly listed space technology company in the Middle East and North Africa.