A Giant Sovereign Wealth Fund Aims to Create its Own Data Research Center
Posted on 10/18/2022
Global sovereign wealth funds are major investors in tech and data companies. The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) wants to create its own advanced data research center. The research center will be an independent entity within the sovereign fund with goals not linked to investment applications. Other sovereign funds have tinkered around creating their own research initiatives such as Singapore’s GIC Private Limited and Temasek Holdings.
The center will be launched on December 2, 2022 and will be called ADIA Lab. The creation of the lab is part of the Abu Dhabi’s government plans to promote digitalization and advanced technological applications. ADIA Lab will be headed by Simon Horst as director, who was previously at Berkeley Lab and at the U.S. Department of Energy.
The lab’s launch will bring together global experts in the data and computational science fields “while helping to embed a scientific mindset throughout its organisation,” ADIA said in a statement.
Research applications will focus on areas such as climate change and energy transition (away from fossil fuels), blockchain technology, financial inclusion and investing, and cybersecurity among others.