Asset manager BlackRock says Gulf economies are redirecting a $2.1 trillion investment cycle running to 2030 towards resilience — and identifies the UAE as one of the main beneficiaries.
Research from the BlackRock Investment Institute argues that conflict and disruption around the Strait of Hormuz and Red Sea shipping gateways have raised the value GCC states place on keeping energy and trade flows moving. That reprices capital towards digital infrastructure, logistics redundancy, power and trade security rather than oil output expansion alone.
Regional coverage of the research highlights the UAE''s position: established ports and re-export capacity, data centre and AI infrastructure build-out, and a financial system used by regional and international investors to route capital.
The framing is structural rather than cyclical, which matters for anyone planning multi-year projects: demand for data centres, grid capacity, warehousing and cyber resilience is being underwritten by state and sovereign capital across the decade.
As always with sell-side and asset-manager research, the figures are projections of a capital cycle, not committed spending.