Global financiers, asset managers and investors who manage $63 trillion in assets are congregating in the UAE capital next week, with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates among those attending Abu Dhabi Finance Week.
“You're dealing with 53 per cent of the global GDP,” said Chris Hughes, editor-in-chief of the event. Mr Gates, one of the world’s most influential philanthropists, will make a major announcement, he added.
“Bill Gates will be on stage at Abu Dhabi Finance Week on day one, along with a whole cast of very, very senior people, and they're there to talk about a very specific investment in humanity,” he told The National.
The multibillion-dollar Gates Foundation's investment pledge will take place in Abu Dhabi and hosted by The Mohamed Bin Zayed Foundation for Humanity, said Mr Hughes, with the goal of bringing global donors together and to make commitments to eradicating polio.
It will involve a major pledge and commitment of new resources to The Global Polio Eradication Initiative – a public-private partnership led by national governments, the World Health Organisation (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) and the Gates Foundation, among others, said Mr Hughes. The investment amount will be released on Monday.
“It is an investment in global health,” he added. “It involves the UAE and is another example of the UAE leadership out in the world in humanitarian issues.”
Abu Dhabi Finance Week this year will highlight that earnings are not measured solely in assets, Mr Hughes said.
“Aspiring to do well and make profits is amazing, but sometimes profits have a different meaning. Sometimes profits can actually be reinvested back into society,” he added. “And it's important to remember that finance has that power, too.”
Engineering tomorrow's capital
Engineering the Capital Network is the broader theme of the event hosted by Abu Dhabi's financial centre ADGM this year.
Held over four days from December 8 to 11, ADFW will bring together key leaders in the financial world, policymakers, regulators and those driving the evolution of newer industries such as digital assets, FinTech and artificial intelligence.
These newer focus areas, said Mr Hughes, are reflected in the speakers. This year 600 of the 800 speakers are new to the event, he said.
“It's about what it is that you can say to help global leaders inform their strategies for the year ahead,” he added. “This is really important and we really are quite fussy about who we put on stage.”
This year, ADFW is placing sharper focus on digital assets and the tokenisation of real-world assets, which Mr Hughes said has moved well beyond historical meme coins.
“Real-world properties, intellectual properties, physical properties. In Dubai, they're now tokenising apartments.”
The shift will be evident on the ground, said Mr Hughes, with major crypto heads from Coinbase, Circle, Cardano, Solana, OKX and Binance attending. The programme also brings together regulators and technology leaders to set new standards on transparency, custody and risk management in the rapidly expanding digital asset sector.
Themes and people
ADFW will have five global leadership forums: Abu Dhabi Economic Forum, Asset Abu Dhabi, Resolve 2025, FinTech Abu Dhabi and Abu Dhabi Sustainable Finance Forum.
The event comes at a time of mounting economic headwinds and simmering geopolitical uncertainty that can affect everything from geographical expansion to investment decisions and how capital flows from one jurisdiction to another.
Mr Hughes said stability, a hallmark of Abu Dhabi in recent years, will attract newer players.
“We've seen a huge uptick in Chinese, [Korean and Japanese] companies coming this year … we've always been strong with European and American companies,” he said. “But you can see now that there's this huge influx from the East coming in.”
Speakers including Suhail Al Mazrouei, Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, Mohamed Alsuwaidi, Minister of Investment and group chief executive of Abu Dhabi sovereign fund ADQ, and Ahmed Al Zaabi, chairman of Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development and ADGM, will take to the stage on day one.
The Abu Dhabi Economic Forum will feature speakers including Khaldoon Al Mubarak, chief executive of Mubadala Investment Company, Alan Howard, founder of Brevan Howard, Hatem Dowidar, chief executive of e&, Samia Bouazza, chief executive of 2PointZero Group (formerly Multiply Group), and Hana Al Rostamani, chief executive of First Abu Dhabi Bank. Timothy Adams, president of the Institute of International Finance, and Jihad Azour, director of Mena at the International Monetary Fund, will touch on the economic outlook and global macroeconomics.
Separately, the Global Markets Summit will explore big-picture shifts, geographical realignments, trade flow disruption and the major growth markets to watch for investors.
The line-up of speakers at the four-day extravaganza includes representatives of global asset management entities and hedge funds, such as Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates; Jenny Johnson, chief executive of Franklin Templeton Investments; David Rubenstein, chairman of Carlyle Group; Dmitry Balyasny, founder of Balyasny Asset Management; Stephen Schwarzman, chairman of Blackstone, and Philipp Hildebrand, vice chairman of BlackRock.
Capital of capital
Organisers are expecting to host more than 5,000 global financial companies from across 100 countries and 40,000 private equity, capital markets, hedge funds, asset managers, venture capitalists, institutional investment houses, investment banks and FinTech participants.
Measures introduced by the UAE to attract foreign investment, combined with its position as a gateway to the broader Middle East, Africa and South Asia, has made both Dubai and Abu Dhabi attract large family offices, as well as institutional wealth, global financial institutions, private banks, hedge funds and asset managers.
Abu Dhabi’s economy is projected to grow by about 6 per cent this year, driven by the easing of oil production cuts and a strong real estate sector, the International Monetary Fund estimates.
In October, Switzerland’s largest bank UBS opened an advisory office in ADGM, while JP Morgan Chase, the biggest US bank, is building its team of private bankers. Trillion-dollar asset managers, including New York-based BlackRock, PGIM, and Chicago investment firm Nuveen, have chosen Abu Dhabi as their regional base.
Global investment manager Fortress, backed by the UAE’s Mubadala Investment Company, and Kimmeridge, a New York-based alternative asset manager focused on the energy sector, also opened in ADGM in the first half of the year.
ADGM in September said it is now the region’s largest international financial centre by the market capitalisation of its registered entities. The total value of ADGM-based firms listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange surpassed Dh500 billion ($136 billion) by the end of the first half of 2025.
Culture as capital
Abu Dhabi’s push to become the capital of capital is increasingly visible beyond finance, said Mr Hughes, with its cultural and entertainment projects now a vital factor drawing global investors to stay longer and base operations in the emirate.
“Capital is not just monetary … you’ve got intellectual capital, cultural capital … legal capital.”
The city’s cultural landscape has accelerated with Louvre Abu Dhabi, the growing Saadiyat Cultural District, along with openings such as the Natural History Museum in November and the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, scheduled to open in 2026.
Abu Dhabi’s entertainment offering already includes Warner Bros World, Ferrari World and SeaWorld Abu Dhabi adding weight to what he called the “lifestyle capital”.
Mr Hughes highlighted the draw of coming attractions including Disneyland, projected for the early 2030s.
“You have all the major music artists, sports events … it’s just a good place to be,” he added. “For global financiers, such infrastructure directly strengthens the emirate’s appeal. Some of the smartest money managers from across the world are here.”
Collectively, these museums, theme parks and cultural districts have become strategic assets and highlight Abu Dhabi’s ability to attract trillions in capital, as well as the executives who manage it.
