Stakes in 90 US companies
Fund to buy ‘more than double’
Qatar’s $526 billion sovereign wealth fund intends to more than double the value of its investments in the US, CEO Mohammed Al-Sowaidi said this week.
At a conference in the Qatari capital, Doha, Al Sowaidi said the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) will be “probably buying more than double what we’ve been doing for the past five to six years,” Bloomberg and Reuters reported.
The investments are expected to happen over several years.
Al-Sowaidi was speaking the week after President Donald Trump concluded a four-day trip to the Gulf, including a visit to Qatar where he agreed to “economic exchanges” that the White House says will ultimately be worth $1.2 trillion.
During the presidential visit, the QIA pledged to invest $500 billion into the US market in the next decade.
The QIA, the fourth-biggest sovereign wealth fund in the Middle East by assets, has acquired stakes in 90 privately-owned international companies in the past two decades, in particular in technology.
Among other announcements during Trump’s Qatar stop, Qatar Airways said it will buy 160 wide-body jets from Boeing, with an option for 50 more, for almost $100 billion, the largest such order on record for the aircraft manufacturer.
Qatar Airways CEO Badr Mohammed Al-Meer said at the same conference that the purchase will meet the flag carrier’s strategy until 2040, Reuters reported.
Last week, Qatari and US leaders also agreed multi-billion dollar defence deals, and the Gulf state’s Al Rabban Capital partnered with US quantum computing company Quantinuum to invest $1 billion in Qatar and the “region”.
