Gulf wealth funds weather US stock dip, target Amazon, Bitcoin in Q1
We take a look at the region’s exposure to American equities as the US president departs the Gulf.
As President Donald Trump wrapped up a high-profile visit to the Gulf from May 13-16, financial disclosures filed in the United States offered a snapshot of the region’s exposure to American equities at a moment of deepening ties.
On May 15, two of the Middle East’s most prolific sovereign wealth funds — Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund with $925 billion in assets under management and the UAE’s $330 billion Mubadala Investment Company — disclosed their US equity holdings for the first quarter of 2025. Combined, the funds reported $43 billion in US stocks as of March 31, a slight decline from the previous quarter, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
This fresh data arrives after heightened market volatility triggered by the rollout of Trump’s protectionist trade agenda, which rattled global markets in March and April. While both Gulf funds remained active in reshuffling their portfolios — including shifting their bets on US tech, finance and retail — the data show they refrained from significantly increasing their exposure despite recent trillion-dollar pledges to support Trump’s “America First” economic strategy.
Balancing act
