The focus on innovation has paid off in more than one way and across Mubadala’s business platforms. A case in point is the £800m equity commitment made by Mubadala Digital Infrastructure team to support the accelerated growth plans of CityFibre, the UK’s largest independent full fibre platform. That commitment has enabled CityFibre to connect 2 million homes in the UK to the advanced fibre network. The major milestone marks the completion of 25% of its announced nationwide rollout to 8 million premises. Once the full rollout is completed, the network will address approximately one third of the UK market. Over a 15-year period, CityFibre’s rollout will bring Full Fibre to 285 cities, towns and villages, 8m homes, 800,000 businesses and 400,000 public sector sites, and over £38bn of economic benefits.

Mubadala’s investment in CityFibre is an inherent part of the UAE-UK Sovereign Investment Partnership (SIP) agreement, signed last year between the two nations. This partnership, which Mubadala oversees for the UAE and the Office for Investment in the UK, serves as a platform for boosting bilateral investment relations and opening up opportunities in a wide range of areas.

A new research study by the consultancy Hatch (Economic Impact of Full Fibre Infrastructure from CityFibre’s Network) and commissioned by CityFibre has highlighted the extent to which the delivery of Full Fibre networks by CityFibre will support the Government’s nationwide levelling-up programme, by unlocking economic growth and reducing the digital divide in different areas of the country which currently experience vast differences in both coverage and service quality.

Being the lead investor in a capital raise into CityFibre will allow Mubadala to also be part of a large scale, ambitious infrastructure development project to roll out to millions of homes, enabling faster and reliable connectivity solutions across the UK.

Digital Infrastructure is a vital enabler of social and economic progress, and a priority growth sector for Mubadala. The ultimate goal of the Digital Infrastructure team is to seek investments that offer long term stable financial returns across business cycles. This is consistent with the role of the Real Estate & Infrastructure (RE&I) Investments platform that acts as a stabilizer for the Mubadala portfolio.

Looking ahead, the Digital Infrastructure team is focusing on investment opportunities that will support the continued acceleration of global digital transformation.