Abu Dhabi Global Market, the emirate’s international financial centre, is on track to see its workforce cross the 50,000 mark, continuing a remarkable multi-year expansion that has firmly established the free zone as one of the fastest-growing financial hubs in the Middle East and Africa region.
The milestone builds on a growth trajectory that has accelerated sharply over the past several years. At the end of 2025, ADGM’s total workforce stood at 44,339 individuals, a 51 per cent increase from the 29,338 employed at the centre just a year earlier. With that pace of expansion continuing into 2026, the financial hub is now approaching the 50,000-employee threshold, a figure that would have seemed ambitious even a few years ago.
A decade of accelerating growth
ADGM marked ten years of operations in 2025, and the anniversary year proved to be one of its strongest yet. Assets under management within the centre rose 36 per cent over the course of the year, while the total number of active licences climbed 30 per cent to reach 12,671, cementing ADGM’s position as the largest international financial centre by this measure anywhere in the Middle East and Africa region. The centre issued 3,769 new licences during 2025 alone.
Ahmed Jasim Al Zaabi, Chairman of ADGM, has described the milestone year as a defining chapter for the centre, pointing to the sustained confidence shown by global partners and the strength of the jurisdiction’s investment ecosystem as key drivers behind the growth. Officials have stated a clear ambition to push ADGM into the ranks of the world’s top five international financial centres in the years ahead.
Asset managers keep arriving
A key driver behind the workforce surge has been the steady arrival of global asset managers and fund houses setting up operations in Abu Dhabi. By the end of 2025, ADGM was home to 171 asset and fund managers collectively overseeing 244 funds, figures that have grown consistently year after year as major international names establish a regional presence on Al Maryah and Al Reem islands.
Some of the world’s most recognisable financial institutions have chosen ADGM as a base in recent years, including BlackRock, Morgan Stanley, PGIM, Nuveen, General Atlantic, Lone Star Funds and AXA Investment Managers, alongside a growing roster of fintech, digital asset and crypto-focused firms. In a notable regulatory first, Binance became the first crypto exchange to secure a formal global licence from ADGM’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority in December 2025, a development that has helped further cement Abu Dhabi’s reputation as a serious hub for digital asset regulation.
What’s driving the momentum
Officials have repeatedly pointed to Abu Dhabi’s broader appeal, its safety, quality of life, tax environment and status as the only jurisdiction in the region applying English Common Law directly, as key reasons behind the continued influx of global talent and institutions. The centre’s expansion to Al Reem Island, completed at the end of 2024, has also given ADGM significantly more physical capacity to accommodate its growing tenant base.
The financial sector’s growing weight within Abu Dhabi’s broader economy reflects this momentum too. As ADGM has expanded, financial services have become an increasingly significant contributor to the emirate’s non-oil economic output, part of a broader diversification strategy that has seen Abu Dhabi invest heavily in positioning itself as a global financial and technology hub rather than relying primarily on hydrocarbon revenue.
What comes next
With the workforce approaching 50,000 and assets under management continuing to climb, ADGM’s next major test will be sustaining this pace of growth while continuing to build out the infrastructure, regulatory frameworks and talent pipelines needed to support an increasingly sophisticated and internationally diverse financial community. For now, officials appear confident the momentum built over the past decade shows little sign of slowing.
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