On Tuesday, 8 October, Global SWF released a new global ranking of cities in terms of capital managed by their Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs). According to data and research of the industry specialist, Abu Dhabi is the world’s richest city by SWFs, with US$ 1.7 trillion as of October 2024.

This figure includes the assets under management of ADIA, Mubadala, ADIC, ADQ, Lunate, ADFD, Tawazun, and EIA. Following Abu Dhabi are Oslo (home of the world’s largest SWF, NBIM), Beijing (CIC), Singapore (GIC, Temasek), Riyadh (PIF) and Hong Kong (where China’s second SWF, SAFE IC, operates from). These six cities represent two-thirds of the wealth held by SWFs globally today, i.e., US$ 12.5 trillion.

For the past few decades, Abu Dhabi (“the Capital of Capital”) has grown an impressive portfolio of institutional investors, which are among the world’s largest and most active dealmakers. In addition to SWFs, the emirate is home to several other asset owners, including Central Banks (CBs), Public Pension Funds (PPFs), and family offices linked to royal family members, or Royal Private Offices (RPOs). All in all, we estimate Abu Dhabi’s public capital at US$ 2.3 trillion and we project it to reach US$ 3.4 trillion by 2030.