Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Investment Co plans to spend heavily on artificial intelligence (AI) and spacetech this year, according to a statement shared on Zawya.
The sovereign wealth fund has also committed itself to investing more in the United States, said Khaldoon Mubarak, Managing Director of Mubadala, speaking at an investor conference in Abu Dhabi.
“We plan to invest more in the U.S. market and deepen strategic and forward-looking investment products in the UK, Europe, France,” he said. Mubadala, which controls $276 billion of assets, would also invest in healthcare, digital infrastructure and financing this year, Mubarak said, and had increased long-term allocations for Asia.
“We are in the business of driving progress and investing in solutions to global challenges,” he said.
The government-controlled fund was also scaling to participate in the long-term, dynamic markets in Asia, Mubarak said, as the sovereign fund focused on mega-trends and global demographics.
“We’ve increased our long-term allocations for Asia, including Japan, China, Korea and, of course, India,” he said.
Mubarak did not specify how much capital Mubadala would deploy this year into the United States, China or elsewhere.
The increased long-term allocation to Asia suggests Mubadala is betting that China’s economic slowdown will not last and that it sees significant investment opportunities there over a longer period.
The UAE and China have close political and economic ties but Mubarak said in his address that investments were based on the attractiveness of investment opportunities and not geopolitics.
Washington has become increasingly concerned about Gulf-Chinese partnerships, fearing sensitive U.S. technology could be exposed. The U.S. is the security partner of the Gulf.
