Sovereign wealth tops $15T as state investors increase tech exposure

Sovereign wealth funds now hold a record-breaking $15 trillion in assets globally, according to Global SWF’s latest report, which tracked how government-backed investors dumped $66 billion into AI and digital infrastructure in 2025 alone.

The Middle East made the biggest ones too, with Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Investment Company investing $12.9 billion into tech last year. The Kuwait Investment Authority came second with $6 billion, and the Qatar Investment Authority is third with $4 billion in deals. Together, these three accounted for more than a third of all digital investments by state-backed funds the entire year.

Altogether, the top seven Gulf funds dumped $126 billion into global deals, making up 43% of total sovereign wealth fund capital deployments worldwide. That’s the highest percentage ever recorded. Most of that cash went straight into tech, which [no surprise] dominated investor attention amid market recovery and fresh structural demand for AI tools, chips, and data infrastructure.

PIF leads with one massive buy while Mubadala racks up transactions

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) topped the global deal value chart last year with a total of $36.2 billion committed. But nearly all of that came from one big purchase: its buyout of Electronic Arts.

Once that’s removed, the volume crown clearly goes to Mubadala, which notched 40 separate deals totaling $32.7 billion, setting its own internal record for activity in a single year.

While the Gulf states spent aggressively, sovereign investors across the board also expanded their reach into real estate, infrastructure, public equities, and fixed income.

They took full advantage of 2025’s rebound across major asset classes, especially after the S&P 500 bottomed out in April during the tariff panic and then worked its way to fresh highs by the end of December.

On the global leaderboard of who controls what, the United States leads with $13.2 trillion in state-owned investor assets, followed by China with $8.2 trillion, and the United Arab Emirates holding $2.9 trillion.

As for destinations, the U.S. completely dominated 2025 by pulling in $131.8 billion in sovereign capital, nearly double the previous year’s total of $68.9 billion.

U.S. equities regain footing while China investments collapse

China, on the other hand, saw a massive pullback. Sovereign investor flows into the country dropped from $10.3 billion in 2024 to $4.3 billion in 2025. The drop came as geopolitical risk climbed and returns lagged.

By contrast, U.S. assets surged in popularity, thanks in part to the S&P 500’s ability to shake off its largest drawdown since the spring.

After falling around 6% from peak to trough, the index recovered its October 27 high by December, forming a bullish pattern. While not textbook, the structure set a higher low in December, and the market entered the new year holding firm above that level.

Charts from Global SWF show how often the index moved 1% up or down over the last two years. Most of the big swings happened during the deepest selloffs, including spring 2025 and late October.

But once the index regained its old highs, those wild daily moves started to fade. That change in rhythm, paired with ongoing strength, left traders eyeing more gains if volatility continues to calm.

Zooming out, this year’s recovery marks the fourth major breakout in the current bull cycle. It joins the other surges that started in 2012, 2016, 2020, and 2022.

In each case, deep corrections turned into setups for the next rally. So if the current trend holds, markets may still be in the early-to-middle innings of a larger advance heading into 2026.

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