Inside Mubadala's Infrastructure Strategy

So thank you for joining me in this conversation and thank you esteemed guests uh for for attending. Uh as Georgia said uh this is a very interesting conversation to get insight. So uh we have 15 minutes. I will get right to it to uh learn as much as we can. So if you had to make one important move with Mubadla at the moment, can you describe what uh what move is what is the most important move that Mubadla is making right now to strengthen Abu Dhabi's position and if there's anywhere uh that serves as a gap that still needs to be closed?

Sure. Uh first of all, thank you very much uh for inviting me. Welcome to our uh guests today and uh in line with what was said in the previous panel I lost my voice in Formula 1 um and I was not attending Metallica so I'm not sure what happened um uh the question is very relevant actually um you know today if we look at the global economy there is some movers and some catalysts that are actually uh helping the world economy to continue to prosper and ev evolve as we today as we speak and maybe it's I'm a little bit biased but I think infrastructure in general is a very very critical component to the world economy. Uh Moubadala is a firm believer in investing further and further in infrastructure and we will continue to do so uh to the for the foreseeable future. Um the market has seen tremendous uh growth.

the market has seen a lot of GPS uh and private equity infrastructure funds doing a lot of work. Uh we've seen these GPS grow. We've seen those GPS evolve and the industry evolving accordingly. Um plus us as investors and as sovereign wealth funds, we are also evolving. We are also growing and we're going to make sure that we take a piece of the cake i.

e. infrastructure and help evolve everything going forward. And the UAE of course with all of its ecosystem is part of that game as we go forward.

And do you see anything in particular for example to uh with investing in infrastructure to attract capital and such do you see like a particular move that you'll be working on for 2026 for example to say this is our priority

from a mobile perspective?

Correct.

Yeah. So look again um as I said in the infrastructure side we have we have been working on this for some time and we have this we've just bucketed everything in six buckets um and this is no ranking order uh but infrastructure for us is technically uh energy transition which would include renewables and net zero initiatives uh digital infrastructure and technically being uh being pushed uh by data centers and the AI requirements performance as we go forward. Transport will continue to be a very important aspect of infrastructure. Um power and utilities again a very relevant uh point of discussion and a sub sector mainly to continue driving the uh digitization of the world. And as the world continues not only from a data center perspective, don't forget that we also need to power uh grids, we need to power uh facilities.

uh the middle class around the world is growing. We continue to evolve as a human race and you know we're like 8 point something billion billion people and that's going to continue to grow. Uh we see also the infrastructure envelope uh expanding in definition. So today for example in Mubar we have something called industrial infrastructure where we actually invest in industries that their revenue stream and their resources are technically infrastructure have infrastructure characteristics and hence we help with the industrialization of the of certain economies as we go forward.

That's interesting. Can you give an example of that? I mean what that actually looks like.

Um so for example we've invested with one of our partners in a ura plant in Australia. Now somebody would say well the underlying asset URIA plant what does that have to do with infrastructure but if you look at it from a different perspective high barriers to entry um critical product or critical produce for food security um we have an offtake of 20 years and we have a gas gas uh what do you call it incoming that is also contracted for 20 years. So if you look at it as an as an overall value chain, it is actually like a toning uh kind of system and it's very limit sorry it is very um uh critical for any economy to have some kind of food security and ura ura as we know today is something that is very very uh it's it's a critical component for any agricultural community. No definitely and I think that's a really critical point because with all the hype around AI of course it's valid but the idea is you know what are the backend infrastructure supportive aspects that people are neglecting and that's how a lot of companies there were reports you know recently saying that companies are using AI wrong and also investments are being done wrong so with talking about AI you mentioned energy which has been mentioned at ADIPC already power uh power is knowledge you know the reverse of knowledge is power showing the importance of energy to be able to do all the things we're talking about around AI So with Mubala, how is it looking to invest in AI and uh in data centers and such and to and what is the right approach to do that?

Sure. So so as you might already know uh we have two components of data centers. One of them is the cloud computing which is technically your day-to-day storage, your day-to-day um search engines and so on so forth. And then we have this AI thing that is actually uh growing so quickly uh and gaining a lot of momentum and air time from everybody. So if you look at that component, this is something that is going to continue to grow.

I mean there's there is no limit for it at this point in time. All we see is that there is more and more demand coming in from hyperscalers wanting data storage, wanting uh uh wanting capacity to be able to function and to be able to generate that income. uh for for us at Moubadela as as as as some of us some of the people that uh review Mubadala and what it does you know we've created MGX which is a uh which is a subsidiary or an affiliate that actually focuses on investing in AI

we within Mubadala we will continue to support the digitization of the world we will continue to support it not only from a data center perspective also from a fiber optics perspective uh telecom towers from time to time uh telos if the right opportunity presents itself. So we're very much indulged into that particular segment of the infrastructure universe as mentioned earlier.

Mhm. And we're seeing also that geopolitics is reshaping global supply chains and I wanted to know from your perspective which regions are becoming more attractive and which ones are becoming less attractive as a result of what we're seeing on the global stage. So um as everybody uh would expect the US continues to take a decent chunk of uh of investment from a global perspective.

Um we see Asia that is actually growing and growing at a accelerating pace. Uh and that's going to continue. Uh of course Asia um is is is playing catchup and at the same at the same time it's trying to be relevant,

right? So they have to like double down every single year. So that's that's interesting. Um on the on the European front, we see that there is a little bit of a um not a slowdown, but it is slower than the other geographies. Um it's interesting that we talk about infrastructure and geographies is because you know every economy has its own cycle of growth, right?

So if you talk about for example Asia 5 to 10 years ago they need power they need transport they need this and that. If you talk talk to certain countries in Asia today now data centers is part of the conversation. It wasn't five or 10 years ago but it was in the US it was in Europe to some extent. So again depending on the economical uh trajectory of each country each geography you would actually try to um help them continue that growth accordingly and to to actually cater for their needs

and that's again a really good point of how do you anticipate what is going to grow as you said with data centers we didn't know what that was going to look like you know this year you know last year and it seems like it's just shot up we've heard the term but then now it has a whole different meaning so how do you really make a decision for this is the time to invest in this because tomorrow it's going to yield that

um I have a terminology within within the team I just say follow the money uh and wherever the money is going we will go and run after it u but that of course is easier said than done you have to be always careful and be uh cautious with how you actually follow the money now to if you tell me s shall we shall we go ahead and invest everything in data centers because that's where uh that's where the money is going I would say well at decent chunk of it should go into data centers but we need to be very careful and to actually have a portfolio construct strategy that helps us deliver to our shareholder the anticipated returns. So in a nutshell what I'm trying to say is you know there are trends these trends differ from one geography to the other. Um, and second of all, as an investor, you have to be very careful with how do you actually construct your portfolio and make sure that you are meeting the targets that you need to meet to your shareholder or to whomever you're reporting to.

Mhm. And you mentioned that you're working with different partners globally differently. Correct. Because you know they are in different stages. And can you identify for example like which sectors you're looking at for the US, for Europe, for Asia?

I mean that was a very interesting point that they're at different stages and there probably different benefits from investment with them. Yeah, I think today um the US actually needs everything, right? So they continue to be the biggest economy in the world. They continue wanting to grow now with this AI thing and and and and digital infrastructure that's going to continue to the foreseeable future. At the same time, in the US, uh power is a big requirement.

Um if if the US is not careful, it might find itself in a in an awkward position where power is is is becoming very scarce.

Uh also in the US they are big producers and uh and exporters of LG which we are also participating in.

Um in Asia as I said they need everything they need. Of course we're talking about certain pockets in Asia because I don't want to Asia is a huge continent right? So Japan and South Korea is different than Indonesia and Vietnam. Um but in areas such as Indonesia and Vietnam, they would need power, they would need water, they would need transport, uh digital infrastructure, telecoms and the list goes on and on. Um Europe again is a well well balanced continent but from time to time you see that they follow a particular trend and we would like to be part of that trend and as we speak to some of our partners which I had the privilege of talking to them today in the morning um we're looking at how do we actually play a role in in in European infrastructure um and cater to a requirement that is very vital for them at this point in time and this is more of a next generation utility power or utilities in general in the European continent

and you mentioned it in the answer to my first question about what's mo most important to mobile at the moment and you mentioned energy transition. So with what you're talking about investments in the US and such is enough in your view being invested into energy transition to be able to sustain the future demand that we're seeing growing exponentially in the short term already.

It's it's a it's a very good question. I look in the energy stack, let's talk about power. We're not talking about the oil and gas sector. We're just talking about power. In the energy stack or the power stack, you have multiple components that are going to play a role.

So, you'll have renewables. Um, you will have gas fired power plants, coal and oil power plants are most probably going to phase themselves out. Um, but they're still working actually, but they will phase themselves out. And then you will have a slither if not even a bit bigger than a slither of nuclear power.

Now you once you put all of that together with oil and coal going out of the ecosystem, you will going to see more gas coming in in order to power stuff. You're going to see more battery storage. So you will see more batteries kicking in and you will have we will have a totally different energy stack or a power stack from what we had 10 years ago to what we're going to have 10 years down the line. So it is it is a it's it's a game that everybody's playing and everybody's trying to catch up. Energy transition, renewables is going to gain momentum.

Storage is going to gain momentum. Nuclear is going to gain momentum and gas is going to gain momentum. Literally we're doing that or the globe is doing that is just because the demand from the globe is much higher

all of a sudden. Correct. Exactly.

Exactly. And then you go back to say okay but how do we actually meet our net zero initiatives? And of course everybody has their own net zero targets at this point in time in terms of date or in terms of something. Um but we all work towards that end goal i.e.

people are looking for their net zero net zero targets within certain time frames but this is the new stack of power that's coming into the ecosystem as we go forward.

Definitely being an early investor will make you an early mover when the time actually comes and usually by the time that when that time comes it's usually too late to just start. So again thank you so much. We're out of time but this is very insightful. I have so many more questions for you. But uh yeah, really informative.

Thank you so much.

Perfect. Thank you guys. Thank you very