Abu Dhabi’s Wealth Fund Ramps Up Tech Investments
These investments have included firms in sectors such as artificial intelligence and biotechnology.
Ankush Chibber
Abu Dhabi’s national wealth fund Mubadala is ramping up tech investments as part of its partnership with Japan’s SoftBank, a key official from the firm revealed this week.
According to Waleed al-Muhairi, deputy group CEO at Mubadala, the organization has made 15 to 16 investments in technology firms as part of the partnership.
Al-Muhairi was speaking at a conference in Abu Dhabi on Monday.
“We have done 15 to 16 different investments today, mostly centered in Silicon Valley,” Muhairi said. “Those businesses will be incredibly disruptive.”
These investments have included firms in sectors such as artificial intelligence and biotechnology.
Mubadala has committed $15 billion to SoftBank’s $93 billion private equity fund, the SoftBank Vision Fund.
Muhairi said that the 15 to 16 technology investments were made as part of Mubadala’s partnership with SoftBank and that the Vision Fund was involved in some of them.
The Vision Fund has also raised money from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and other marquee investors.
Mubadala had revealed in October that it had launched a venture capital arm that would oversee an early growth fund set up with SoftBank and a fund of funds focusing on emerging fund managers.
Mubadala is also looking at new sectors for investment, such as transportation and roads globally, according to the deputy group CEO.
Mubadala, which managed Dhs465.5 billion ($127 billion) at mid-year, has indicated before that it could list its unit Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), one of the world’s biggest aluminum producers, next year.