How has capital deployment in the Gulf evolved over the last 10 to 15 years?
Historically, Gulf capital was deployed by the public sector into hydrocarbon-based infrastructure, and cross-border investments were used as a hedge against oil revenue dependency — a mechanism to preserve wealth for future generations. Over the last decade, that logic reversed: capital is now being directed inward, with the explicit goal of reshaping domestic economies. Non-oil GDP has become the primary benchmark of progress, replacing the old portfolio diversification mindset entirely.
The shift happened in two identifiable phases. In the first phase — spanning roughly the last 8 to 10 years — sovereign vehicles took the lead. Entities like Saudi Arabia's PIF (Public Investment Fund), Abu Dhabi's Mubadala, and Qatar's QIA deployed capital domestically to kickstart economic growth and build the foundations of diversification before opening the door to foreign investors. The strategy was deliberate: establish credibility and scale at home before inviting outside capital to co-invest.
The second shift is now underway. In countries like Saudi Arabia, the focus over the last 12 to 24 months has moved from deploying capital to harvesting it — generating returns from investments already made. This is significant: it signals that the Gulf is no longer just a source of capital but increasingly a destination for it. The region's inclusion in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index made Gulf markets a mandatory allocation for global emerging market investors, and the dollar-pegged structure of Gulf economies removes FX risk entirely — a structural advantage that most other emerging markets cannot offer.
This evolution is well documented in the Beyond the Deck episode with Eyad Faraj, where the full mechanics of this transformation — and what it means for international investors entering the region today — are laid out in detail.
"This is a private business where CEOs never had to answer to anybody but himself and his family members who sit on the board. And all of a sudden, you have an international investor who says, I love what you've done with the business, but these are my ideas."
— Eyad Faraj, Partner, Roland Berger · Beyond the DeckAbout Eyad Faraj
Eyad Faraj is a partner at Roland Berger, specialising in transaction and investor services across the GCC. Based in Bahrain and originally from the country, Faraj has built his career at the intersection of capital markets, investment banking, and strategy consulting — a combination that gives him a distinctly 360-degree view of Gulf investment dynamics, one that few pure consultants or pure financiers can claim.
Having worked both inside and outside the region, Faraj brings a dual perspective that is particularly relevant when discussing how Gulf capital has evolved: he has observed these shifts from within regional institutions and from the vantage point of international market participants. His expertise spans the full transaction lifecycle — from understanding how sovereign vehicles like PIF and Mubadala structure domestic deployments, to advising on the dynamics of attracting foreign capital into markets now tracked by the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. On this episode of Beyond the Deck, that breadth of experience makes him one of the most credible voices available on how the Gulf's capital logic has been fundamentally rewritten over the last decade.