In the first global ranking of cities by the data and research firm Global SWF, Abu Dhabi just beat Oslo to the top spot, despite Oslo’s being the home of the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund. Oslo’s sovereign-related capital was $1.668 trillion as of Oct. 1.
Diego Lopez, founder and managing director of Global SWF, said in an email that he was not surprised to see Abu Dhabi come out on top, although he added that it was a “close race with Oslo, given NBIM’s increasing value.” Norges Bank Investment Management is the in-house manager for the Government Pension Fund Global.
Rounding out the top five cities were Beijing, with $1.34 trillion in assets; Singapore, with $1.14 trillion; and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with $1.12 trillion in assets.
Global SWF said the top six cities — adding Hong Kong and its $1.11 trillion in assets into the mix — represent two-thirds of the wealth held by sovereign-related investors across the globe, which totals about $12.5 trillion.
Including other asset owners — such as central banks, public pension funds and family offices linked to members of the royal family — Abu Dhabi has an estimated $2.3 trillion in public capital, Global SWF said. It expects that figure to grow to $3.4 trillion by 2030. The city’s wealth fund capital includes that of the $993 billion Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and the $302 billion Mubadala Investment Co.
Abu Dhabi is also the top city in terms of staff employed by sovereign wealth funds, with 3,107 people among its funds. Singapore comes next, followed by Riyadh, Kuala Lumpur and Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which each employs more than 1,000 people.
The Global SWF ranking is part of an in-depth report by the firm, which details Abu Dhabi’s development as a sovereign wealth fund capital. It said the emirate has been through a consolidation exercise among sovereign wealth funds, with Mubadala absorbing International Petroleum Investment Co. and Abu Dhabi Investment Council following the 2015 oil-price collapse. A number of new entities have also come into play alongside existing wealth funds.
The city’s wealth funds are also the most active in the region and globally, Global SWF said, citing ADIA, Mubadala and Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding Co. — known as ADQ — collectively investing $36 billion in deals across the globe in the first three quarters of 2024. That equates to about two-thirds of what all Persian Gulf-based wealth funds invested and 26% of what all wealth funds across the world invested in that period. ADQ has $249 billion in assets.