Africa’s energy future is taking shape through Gulf capital and new alliances

The Gulf’s search for influence beyond oil now runs through Africa. Sovereign wealth fund the Qatar Investment Authority is investing $500 million in Ivanhoe Mines, a Canadian company that produces copper and other key minerals in Africa. The deal is part of Qatar’s effort to secure the resources needed for the global shift to clean energy, batteries and electric vehicles.

It is one example of a wider pattern. Through their sovereign funds, countries including Saudi Arabia and the UAE are extending their reach into Africa’s renewable energy and mineral sectors, as they seek to diversify their economies and strengthen their influence beyond oil.

The implications are significant: access to clean power is becoming a new source of global leverage as artificial intelligence drives energy demand. China, Europe and the US are competing to control the supply chains behind it.

Gulf investments tie into that race, with these nations looking abroad to broaden their economies, which still depend heavily on income from hydrocarbons.

Among the Gulf powers, Saudi Arabia, especially, is looking to a future where global oil demand is expected to eventually peak, even as estimates suggest that will happen later than expected. By investing in renewables, the kingdom also frees up more oil to export today.

Sheikh Khaled arrives in South Africa for G20 summit 00:30

And after investing in large renewable energy projects at home, Gulf funds are now backing similar efforts in African economies.

They make natural economic partners: many African nations have the potential to generate relatively cheap renewable power, given the abundance of sunshine and wind. However, they lack the money and infrastructure to produce and distribute it to their fast growing populations.

By contrast, Gulf economies have plenty of power but rely heavily on oil and gas to generate it. Their search for energy security is therefore leading sovereign wealth funds deeper into Africa’s resource sector. And for good reason: the continent holds large reserves of minerals – such as lithium, cobalt and copper – which are key to the global energy transition .

Access to these rich deposits is becoming even more of a priority, because the growth in use of AI is fuelling a surge in demand for electricity worldwide.

Advantage Africa

Africa may not host the data centres that run AI any time soon, but its vast solar potential and mineral wealth make it essential to producing the clean power and technology on which those systems depend. That is partly why the Gulf, China and Europe are competing to invest there.

These suitors are advantageous for Africa, as many of its countries want to build digital economies but lack the data infrastructur