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UAE’s Mubadala deployed $15.2 billion in the first six months of 2026 despite market volatility triggered by US-Iran war, making it the most active sovereign wealth fund, Global SWF said.
GCC wealth funds committed $53.9 billion across 108 transactions in H1, creating a new record in terms of value, “and the fourth ever most active semester in terms of volume”, the wealth fund tracker said in a report.
Of the 42 global mega-deals that were over $1 billion in value, 21 of them involved GCC SWFs, “which have become frequent co investors with other leading asset owners”, the 2026 GSR Scoreboard data revealed.
The largest transactions involving GCC wealth funds included the $6 billion sale of gaming studio Shanghai Moonton Technology by Chinese tech company ByteDance to the Riyadh-based Savvy Games Group, owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF).
Other major transactions included Mubadala’s deal with TWG in Clear Channel (via MC), and Qatar Investment Authority’s (QIA) and CalPERS’ multi-billion co-investment with GIP and EQT to take private energy company AES.
Almost half of the capital went to the US, followed by China and the UK, while the most popular sector was technology, fuelled by the funding rounds of artificial intelligence-related companies.
“State-Owned Investors (SOIs) deployed $143.6 billion in 366 deals, with most groups of investors – Canada’s Maple 8, Singapore funds, Gulf SWFs – investing more than in the previous period,” the report said.
While the war in Iran and the subsequent rise in oil prices intensified market volatility, a rapid recovery in markets propelled the industry’s AuM to a total of $62.5 trillion in assets.
“In terms of investment activity, the first half of 2026 saw a sustained, if not higher, dealmaking by most SOIs,” the report said. “If we remove the one-off $28.8 billion investment of PIF in EA in December 2025, the value of deals in the most recent semester was 9% higher than that in the previous one.
The $55 billion public-to-private deal for videogame developer EA set a record for the largest leveraged buyout in history. The deal was financed through a combination of $36 billion in cash along with equity already held by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, as well as $20 billion in debt financed by JP Morgan.
Globally, SWFs deployed $83.3 billion in 188 deals, while PPFs [Public Pension Funds] spent $60.3 billion in 178 transactions, scoreboard data further revealed.
(Writing by Bindu Rai, editing by Seban Scaria)
