A Changing Sovereign Landscape
The sovereign investment world is shifting — structurally, politically and strategically.
IFSWF’s latest article, “A Changing Sovereign Landscape,” offers a valuable snapshot of how long-term capital is adapting to a more uncertain global order.
Well worth your time to read:
February has been a busy month for the sovereign wealth fund community, and IFSWF Direct is delighted to bring you the highlights. New funds are taking shape on three continents, mandates are evolving in response to shifting national priorities, and multi-country co-operation vehicles built by and for our community are moving from paper to practice. We map each development below and reflect on what it means for sovereign investment as a whole.
Indonesia: A Two-Tier Sovereign Model Takes Shape
We are thrilled to welcome Danantara to IFSWF as an Associate Member, confirmed at the January board meeting following introductions at our Abu Dhabi annual meeting. Indonesia's newest state investment vehicle has hit the ground running, launching a series of natural resources processing projects worth around $7bn across bioaviation fuel, aluminium smelting, ethanol production, and integrated poultry facilities.
Dr Ridha Wirakusumah, INA
Danantara's arrival also reshapes the role of our longstanding member, INA, the Indonesia Investment Authority, which has been part of the IFSWF family since 2021. Following the transfer of most state-owned enterprise assets to Danantara, INA is pivoting toward private-sector co-investment with global partners — an exciting evolution in mandate. Outgoing chief executive officer Dr Ridha Wirakusumah set out the new direction before stepping down on 15 February, with chief financial officer Eddy Porwanto taking over as acting CEO. We wish Dr Wirakusumah well and look forward to working closely with Eddy and the INA team.
The division of labour emerging between the two institutions is compelling: INA orienting toward private markets and international partnerships, Danantara executing state-directed industrial priorities. Indonesia now has two distinct sovereign vehicles pulling in complementary directions.
New Sovereign Vehicles on the Horizon
One of the most encouraging trends in global finance right now is the growing number of governments choosing to establish sovereign wealth funds as tools for long-term resilience and prosperity. Three new developments this month illustrate just how diverse that ambition has become.
St Kitts and Nevis: the Santiago Principles® in law
Prime Minister Dr Terrance Drew introduced the Saint Kitts and Nevis Sovereign Wealth and Resilience Fund Bill in the National Assembly on 12 February, and it is a proposal the whole IFSWF community can take pride in. The fund is designed to protect the federation from natural disasters and economic shocks, finance critical infrastructure, and build long-term wealth for future generations. Revenue would flow from the Citizenship by Investment programme, the Geothermal Energy Authority, and other sustainable income streams.
What makes the bill particularly meaningful for IFSWF is its governance architecture. The legislation explicitly enshrines the Santiago Principles® as the framework for the fund's investment mandate, requiring quarterly reporting to Parliament and public disclosure of current investments and financial data. St Kitts and Nevis joins Sarawak, which became an IFSWF Associate Member in 2025, in writing the Principles directly into national law. Every time a government does so, it affirms that the governance standards our community built in 2008 have become a genuinely global benchmark. That is something worth celebrating.
The Turkic Investment Fund: Regional Co-operation Goes Operational
The Turkic Investment Fund is beginning active operations in the first quarter of 2026, making it the first dedicated international financial institution jointly established by Turkic states. Headquartered in Istanbul, the Fund brings together Azerbaijan, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Türkiye, and Uzbekistan behind an authorised capital of $600m, with scope to grow to $1.5bn. Financing activities across infrastructure, renewable energy, agriculture, and digital connectivity are rolling out through the first quarter, alongside co-investment arrangements with regional and international partners.
The Fund is a model worth watching. Rather than a single national vehicle, it is a shared institution built to finance cross-border priorities that no one member could advance alone. As the sovereign investment universe grows more geographically diverse, platforms of this kind point toward an exciting future for collaborative capital.
Missouri: sovereign investment as a route to zero taxes
A bill introduced in the Missouri Senate by Republican Senator Adam Schnelting proposes the 'Show-Me Prosperity Fund', a state investment vehicle with a boldly ambitious long-term objective: to generate enough returns to eliminate all state taxes. The fund would draw on legislative appropriations, invest primarily in equity index funds, and receive constitutional protection. Once the fund reached sufficient scale, the state would draw down up to 2% of its five-year average value annually to replace tax revenues, beginning with personal income tax.
The proposal is at an early stage and faces real questions from fiscal policy analysts about the funding model and the political durability of a 100-year investment horizon. But the underlying instinct is one the sovereign investment community will recognise immediately: patient capital, compounding over time, as the foundation for public financial resilience. It is a compelling sign of how far sovereign investment thinking has travelled beyond its traditional home in resource-rich states and nations.
Abu Dhabi: consolidating under L'IMAD
Abu Dhabi made a landmark move in late January, bringing ADQ under the newly established L'IMAD Holdings through a resolution of the Supreme Council for Financial and Economic Affairs. The combined platform, chaired by Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, unites more than 25 investment companies and over 250 subsidiaries, including TAQA, Etihad Airways, PureHealth, McLaren, and Abu Dhabi Ports. ADQ alone managed $263bn before the merger; analysts estimate the combined platform could reach $500bn.
The consolidation places some of Abu Dhabi's most strategically significant holdings under a single, unified governance structure at a moment of intensifying geopolitical and economic competition. Sheikh Khaled now chairs an investment platform that sits alongside ADIA and Mubadala at the very centre of Abu Dhabi's economic architecture. It is a major structural development, and one that will be closely watched across the sovereign investment world.
Member spotlight: Mubadala’s The Exchange
Abu Dhabi's sovereign investment story is not only one of structural transformation — it is also one of enduring conviction. We encourage everyone in the network to make time for the second episode of Mubadala's The Exchange series, in which host Mustafa Alrawi sits down with Khaled Al Shamlan Al Marri, CEO of Real Assets, for a conversation that speaks directly to what long-term sovereign investing is really about.
Al Marri opens with a clear-eyed articulation of why real assets occupy such a distinctive place in any long-term portfolio. Ports, pipelines, and buildings are not just physical — they are essential. That essentiality, he argues, is what makes the asset class a natural home for patient, long-term capital. But the conversation quickly moves beyond the familiar. Al Marri describes how forces like decarbonisation, digitalisation, and ageing infrastructure are fundamentally reshaping what it means to be a real asset investor today. The discipline, he insists, lies in staying grounded in fundamentals precisely when the hype around a mega-trend is loudest.
One of the most memorable ideas in the episode is what Al Marri calls 'risk casting': the deliberate work of structuring every term, every agreement, and every protection before an investment is made, rather than focusing energy on optimistic scenarios. Return, he says, is the outcome of structured risk — and the best investors spend more time understanding what could go wrong than imagining what will go right. Data informs that process, but data is always incomplete. What fills the gap is judgement, refined through experience, and embedded in an investment process that continues to evolve.
The conversation also takes a more personal turn. Al Marri reflects on 20 years at Mubadala, and on formative periods living and working in the United States and Singapore — each offering a different kind of learning about culture, directness, and how organisations function across the world. When Alrawi asks about testing personal limits, Al Marri describes climbing Kilimanjaro: four days, 5,800 metres, a summit push beginning at midnight in freezing conditions. Every five to ten minutes, he says, the conversation with yourself turns to giving up. What carries you through is not motivation but preparation — and that lesson, he makes clear, applies just as directly to leading investment teams through difficult moments.
The episode closes with a reflection on what Mubadala was created to do: to be a force for economic diversification, to build industries that endure, and to leave something meaningful for the generations that follow. Twenty years in and $330bn in assets under management, the conviction that drove the fund's founding remains very much intact. A thoroughly worthwhile watch.
