The initial article in the series, “Part 1: The New Gulf Moment,” was published in February 2023. “Part 2: The New Gulf Moment: Does it belong to Saudi Arabia alone? ” was originally written in August 2023.
In early December 2025, Abu Dhabi hosted the world’s leading investors for Abu Dhabi Finance Week. The host was its own financial center, Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), where family offices from Europe and North America have been setting up satellite holding companies in recent years, including prominent investors like Ray Dalio.
During the week, other marquee events also took place, including a collaboration with global philanthropists comprising Africa’s leading investors, the Bridge Summit, which brought together media and capital, and the Further Network Summit focused on blockchain innovation.
This came after another epic Formula 1 weekend that featured billionaires, heads of state, and yachts. On the sidelines, Mubadala held its annual business forum, and the Milken Institute hosted its annual regional summit.
If there ever was a week establishing Abu Dhabi as the capital of capital, this was it.
What made Abu Dhabi the capital of capital beyond the fanfare on the surface? Underneath is a tectonic awareness of global shifts underway and a deft instrumentalization of sovereign power combined with sovereign capital. The scaffolding includes investment institutions built over three decades, which has accelerated over the last five years.
While there has been intentionality, there has also been risk-taking and overreach. The adaptability of the leadership, including oscillating attention between East and West, has catapulted Abu Dhabi to a unique position on the global cap table.
Will it last? Who are the relevant institutions? How can Abu Dhabi and its global partners be stewards of success rather than cannibalize each other’s capital?
The landscape is best understood in its narrative form.
Transiting in Dubai
In the summer of 2007, the hottest place to be was Starbucks in Emirates Towers. The second hottest location? The nearby hotel lobby café. To say that billion-dollar deals were being made over Mocha Frappuccinos was no understatement. It was the summer of Dubai. All investment roads led to the desert and its building bonanza.
At the time, a flamboyant figure, David Jackson, stood at the helm of Dubai’s sovereign wealth fund, Istithmar (part of Dubai World), which he led on an international buying spree. Barney’s. The Mandarin Oriental in Manhattan. Queen Elizabeth 2. All gobbled up. Like many things in the Dubai boom at the time, purchases were fueled by debt.
Following the 2008 global financial crisis, Dubai entered a period of recovery. Expat mainstays that had indulged in the excess, like David Jackson, faded away. Many firms went insolvent. Debts were restructured. And the cranes went quiet.
Soon after, the Middle East erupted in revolution. Then the revolutions gave way to ISIS, which is when oil prices slumped. In the Gulf, a cold war erupted, pitting Qatar against the UAE and Saudi Arabia. The latter two countries soon faced their own scrutiny in the spotlight. The rise of new leadership in Saudi Arabia was marked by trials and tribulations, to say the least. The Mueller investigation focused in part on the UAE.
The COVID pandemic provided the Gulf with respite. Buoyed by rising oil prices and then wider détentes – within the Gulf and regionally – by late-2022, it was clear that a ‘New Gulf Moment’ was underway. Amid rising interest rates, the Gulf’s $1 trillion capital surplus became a favored source of global investment.
The constant stream of announcements and events masks the true undercurrent: Gulf institutions, from the global financial crisis onwards, have been on a straight growth curve through all the ups and downs. Leadership had never stopped investing in infrastructure and institution-building.
Even Dubai, which seemed in despair in 2009, opened the Dubai Metro on time on 9/9/9. On January 4, 2010, the vaunted Burj Dubai was completed, with a new name upon unveiling: Burj Khalifa. Dubai’s destiny deserves its own telling in a separate article.
In Abu Dhabi, while the Burj Khalifa was named after Khalifa bin Zayed, the then-president of the UAE, his younger half-brother, Mohamed bin Zayed, was beginning to chart the country on an aggressive path forward.
Roots of Abu Dhabi
Much of the coverage of the rise of Abu Dhabi as a city, emirate and sovereignty is either overly hagiographic or polemical. As it is one of the world’s leading political and economic centers, this is a disservice to all. While this article focuses on investment flows in the modern period, it is worth situating Abu Dhabi in a broader, deeper perspective.
Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founder of the nation, was a monumental figure in the Muslim world. His story is charted by his long-time photographer, Noor Ali Rashid. Sheikh Zayed’s pact with Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the then-ruler of Dubai, to forge a new sovereign nation was itself a dramatic departure in a region full of internecine strife.
Political events in the 1970s and 1980s shaped the country’s outlook, including the disposition of the current president of the UAE and ruler of Abu Dhabi, Mohamed bin Zayed, better known as MBZ. The assassinations of Saif Al Ghobash in 1977, who was then minister of foreign affairs, and Khalifa Ahmed Al Mubarak, then the ambassador to France in 1984, by Abu Nidal, a radical splinter group of Palestinian militants, have never been forgotten. It is worth noting that Mubarak was the father of Khaldoun Mubarak (CEO of Mubadala) and Mohammed Mubarak (who leads Abu Dhabi Tourism).
MBZ is also acutely aware that the country sits on the borders of two larger powers, which informs his decision-making. Since the UAE’s founding, Iran has occupied part of its territory, the Tunb Islands. Saudi Arabia has never fully demarcated its borders with Abu Dhabi, and before independence, still claimed the emirate as its own.
While Abu Dhabi is the capital of the UAE and holds the federation’s sovereign leadership, there are six other emirates, each with its own ruling system and leader. Sharjah has its own Game of Thrones history and, in recent years, has demonstrated entrepreneurial and cultural dynamism. Dubai, of course, is on its own destiny. Other emirates, often less in the headlines, are worth paying attention to. Ras Al Khaimah, where the casino industry is on the march, was itself the center of Islamist intrigue for many years, a focus for Abu Dhabi for decades. Everything in the country connects over time.
Some of this history and political context may seem taboo for the investor to probe, but it is essential to understand it delicately, layer by layer. A good starting point is Robert Worth’s in-depth interview with MBZ. To date, he stands alone as the journalist who spent the most concentrated time with the leader for a long-form piece.
