A new wave of global investment firms is flocking to Abu Dhabi despite the regional war, not just to raise money from sovereign wealth funds but to invest alongside them and buy stakes in their portfolio companies.

The shift is particularly visible in the booming private-asset secondaries market. EQT AB, Pantheon and Eurazeo, have all opened offices in the emirate since mid-September, joining early movers Ardian and HarbourVest Partners as they chase a slice of an industry forecast to reach $250 billion this year.

No single deal better illustrates Abu Dhabi’s increasingly central role in the market than Ardian’s record $30 billion raise for the largest-ever secondaries platform last year. Abu Dhabi Investment Authority put in $2 billion with rights to make additional co-investments, according to people familiar with the matter, in one of the largest such commitments on record. Representatives for ADIA and Ardian declined to comment on the deal.

Once considered niche, secondaries have surged in popularity as higher interest rates make it harder to sell assets and return cash. As Gulf sovereign investors’ private market portfolios grow, the strategy offers a way to rebalance exposures and recycle capital into new investments.

Ardian’s scale makes it a “natural partner for large or complex transactions providing local investors with liquidity solutions,” said Yacine Zarrouk, co-head of Ardian Ltd. and senior managing director for investor relations.

The French private equity firm further strengthened its ties with the $1.1 trillion sovereign wealth fund ADIA by partnering with it on a real estate secondaries platform in the early days of the Iran war. Ardian, which also has partnerships with Mubadala Investment Co. on private-asset investments, has been expanding its Abu Dhabi investment team since opening an office in 2023.

Others, too, have benefited. Days after setting up an Abu Dhabi outpost in late September, Pantheon said its latest flagship global private equity secondaries offering surpassed its target, drawing $6 billion in commitments, including significant backing from new Middle Eastern investors.

“We work with investors in a range of ways, including through co-investment and tailored solutions, and a local presence makes it easier to have those conversations,” said Firas Mallah, managing director and head of Middle East at Pantheon.

A local footprint has proved helpful for other firms too, enabling them to establish real-time contact with regional investors and a closer view of their portfolios and liquidity needs.

“This may lead to a secondary transaction if they look to rebalance their exposures via a sale, but it also gives us the ability to partner with them on secondary co-investments,” according to Edward Holdsworth, managing director of HarbourVest’s secondary team.

With secondaries deals for private assets surging to a record $121 billion in the first half of 2026, according to Evercore Inc., Abu Dhabi’s wealth funds are positioning themselves to capture more of the boom.

ADIA has been recalibrating its private equity strategy, while the Abu Dhabi Investment Council, an independently run unit of Mubadala, plans to deploy as much as $10 billion over the next three years.

PGIM, the $1.5 trillion asset manager, recently hired Lucas Radal as head of its Middle East Secondary Investments unit, based in Abu Dhabi. Regional institutions are increasingly turning to secondaries to manage their growing private-market portfolios, said Mohammed Abdulmalek, PGIM’s head of Middle East.

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It’s not all smooth sailing for new entrants, though. Firms flocking to the region in search of so-called silent capital are increasingly finding themselves competing for deals, including with the Gulf state’s own sprawling investment network, people familiar said, declining to be identified discussing confidential matters.

That competition is intensifying as Abu Dhabi reshapes its roughly $2 trillion sovereign wealth complex and expands its direct-investing capabilities. The push spans L’imad Capital, a buyout-style unit of the emirate’s newest wealth fund; MGX, its technology and artificial intelligence investment vehicle; and Mubadala, the $385 billion powerhouse that is ramping up private equity investing.

Still, global firms’ expansion underscores the United Arab Emirates’ long-term appeal to private-markets investors, especially as its wealth funds have remained active dealmakers even during the war.

At the same time, some of Abu Dhabi’s own investment firms are also turning to outside investors for capital, most recently Mubadala’s asset management arm, which sold a nearly 10% stake to Apollo Global Management Inc. The Apollo deal was the culmination of its long-standing partnership with Abu Dhabi.

Ardian’s Zarrouk said its relationships in the Gulf have also been reciprocal.

“Many of the large portfolios we acquired were sourced through relationships we built on the ground, here in the region,” he said. “Together, they’ve put several billion dollars of liquidity back into the hands of investors in the region.”