Mohammed Al Hardan
Doha, Qatar: The Qatar Investment Authority expects Donald Trump’s return to the White House will lead to a boom in US technology deals, Bloomberg analysts say.
The presence of tech executives including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos at Trump’s inauguration as president this week suggests his government will be supportive of the industry, according to Mohammed Al Hardan, the QIA’s head of technology, media and telecommunications.
“I’ll be amazed if the environment is not pro tech,” Al Hardan said in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos. “For now, it’s probably one of the best tech environments that we’ve ever seen in the US.”
The QIA, which manages $510 billion, is a big investor in US tech and was part of a $6 billion funding round for xAI last year. The fund, which recently appointed its former boss for the Americas as chief executive officer, is set to acquire even more financial firepower in coming years as Qatar ramps up exports of liquefied natural gas.
The fund could be interested in investing in a joint venture like the one announced this week between SoftBank Group Corp., OpenAI, and Oracle Corp. They aim to spend $500 billion on infrastructure related to artificial intelligence.
“We have a funds team that has been spending time with us to understand data centers and to review all these opportunities,” Al Hardan said. “So yes, this could be an opportunity for us.”
The huge capital needed for AI investments create a good opportunity for deep-pocketed funds like the QIA and other sovereign wealth funds, he added. “We’re seeing series A and B round in the multiple billions of dollars and this is really unheard of in venture investing.”
Gas Windfall
The fund was founded in 2005 to handle the country’s revenue from liquefied natural gas, of which Qatar is one of the biggest exporters. It’s currently the world’s eighth-largest sovereign fund, according to consultancy Global SWF.
The fund’s expected to reap a windfall from an enormous expansion of Qatar’s gas output that could add more than $30 billion to state revenues, meaning its size could increase sharply in coming years. At the same time, Doha’s domestic spending needs are winding down after the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
The QIA’s dealmaking is driven by “commercial motives,” the nation’s finance minister said in a separate interview, underscoring an end to the wealth fund’s era of pursuing trophy assets.
“We don’t take positions in companies just for the sake of the company or any other reasons,” Ali Ahmed Al-Kuwari said at Davos. “We do it so that it gives us the return.”
Previously known for a penchant for assets like the iconic Harrods department store in London, the QIA has over the past few years pumped money into sectors like technology and health care.
The wealth fund has sought to invest more in the US, partly to re-balance its portfolio away from Europe. “Most of the QIA allocation in the past few years was in the US because the US economy was the best performing economy in the world,” he said.
Over the past few years, the QIA and other Middle Eastern sovereign investors have emerged as dominant players in global dealmaking. Collectively, five wealth funds controlled by Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Saudi Arabia deployed $82 billion in 2024, accounting for more than 60% of all sovereign wealth fund investments, according to Global SWF.
