Oct 15, 2026 · 6 min · 10 segments
The Qatar Investment Authority, which manages around $580bn, says the war has not slowed its deployment. Its head of funds told Semafor that no new fund deals are on the radar; instead QIA expects a…
On Wednesday, its head of funds, Mohsin Pirzada, told Semafor that the war hasn't impacted our progress.
In Pirzada's words, "We continue to invest, we continue to deploy." That would be unremarkable if Qatar's finances were normal.
They are not.
Semafor reports that government revenue fell forty-two percent in the first half of the year.
Qatar's own finance ministry reported deficits of about ten billion riyals in the first quarter and twenty-one billion in the second.
So how does a fund keep spending when the state surplus is shrinking? The answer is in the detail.
Pirzada said there are no new fund deals on the radar.
Instead, QIA expects a handful of strategic platform arrangements with institutions like JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs.
Those platforms already exist on paper, a twenty billion dollar partnership with J.P. Morgan Asset Management announced in September and a twenty-five billion dollar memorandum with Goldman Sachs from January.
Why does that matter to you? Because it changes who gets Gulf money.
According to Global SWF, Middle East sovereign investors deployed a hundred and two billion dollars in the first nine months of this year.
QIA put in about ten.
The money is still flowing, but it is flowing through fewer, larger relationships.
If you are a pension fund or an endowment, expect more competition for the big bank-led deals and more room at the mid-market fund close where a Gulf anchor used to set the terms.
There is a counter case.
Platform agreements are targets, not deployed capital.
Kuwait has already opened its future generations fund to government borrowing, and if the war drags on, the next move for Gulf funds may be to send money home, not abroad.
On Wednesday, its head of funds, Mohsin Pirzada, told Semafor that the war hasn't impacted our progress.
In Pirzada's words, "We continue to invest, we continue to deploy." That would be unremarkable if Qatar's finances were normal.
They are not.
Semafor reports that government revenue fell forty-two percent in the first half of the year.
Qatar's own finance ministry reported deficits of about ten billion riyals in the first quarter and twenty-one billion in the second.
So how does a fund keep spending when the state surplus is shrinking? The answer is in the detail.
Pirzada said there are no new fund deals on the radar.
Instead, QIA expects a handful of strategic platform arrangements with institutions like JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs.
Those platforms already exist on paper, a twenty billion dollar partnership with J.P. Morgan Asset Management announced in September and a twenty-five billion dollar memorandum with Goldman Sachs from January.
Why does that matter to you? Because it changes who gets Gulf money.
According to Global SWF, Middle East sovereign investors deployed a hundred and two billion dollars in the first nine months of this year.
QIA put in about ten.
The money is still flowing, but it is flowing through fewer, larger relationships.
If you are a pension fund or an endowment, expect more competition for the big bank-led deals and more room at the mid-market fund close where a Gulf anchor used to set the terms.
There is a counter case.
Platform agreements are targets, not deployed capital.
Kuwait has already opened its future generations fund to government borrowing, and if the war drags on, the next move for Gulf funds may be to send money home, not abroad.
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