New Qatar Wealth Fund Division Targets Growth in Domestic Investments
Qatar’s prime minister announced Sunday the creation of a new division within the Qatar Investment Authority dedicated to developing domestic investments, signaling a shift for a sovereign wealth fund that has long focused primarily on building wealth overseas.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani unveiled the new division, called Doha Investment, at a special edition of the Qatar Economic Forum in New York, saying the aim is to expand the role of the private sector in driving Qatar’s economic growth. He said the division will support the country’s strongest companies, help emerging businesses scale, deepen capital markets, and draw in international capital and expertise to support that effort.
The new division will serve as the dedicated manager of QIA’s local portfolio, initially overseeing 45 state-owned enterprises that together represent roughly a third of the fund’s total assets, according to Sheikh Faisal bin Thani Al-Thani, Qatar’s minister of commerce and industry, who will serve as Doha Investment’s managing director and vice-chairman. Sheikh Faisal described the move less as an entirely new creation and more as a consolidation of existing efforts, noting the step had been under consideration for more than a decade.
The Qatar Investment Authority, estimated by research firm Global SWF to manage around 580 billion dollars in assets, was established in 2005 with a charter originally centered on deploying capital abroad. In recent years, though, it has steadily built up its domestic footprint, helping scale companies that have grown into national leaders, including Qatar Airways, lender QNB, telecom operator Ooredoo, developer Qatari Diar, and hotel owner Katara Hospitality.
According to Sheikh Faisal, the new division’s mandate extends beyond managing existing assets to building new national champions, supporting privatization efforts, widening private sector participation, and helping diversify Qatar’s broader economy. That push comes as Qatar’s non-hydrocarbon economy grew 4.8 percent in 2025, outpacing overall real GDP growth of 2.9 percent, with non-hydrocarbon activity accounting for 65.5 percent of real GDP in the third quarter of this year, according to the Qatar Central Bank and National Planning Council.
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