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Retired General Petraeus to chair KKR Middle East

15 April 2025

US-headquartered investment firm KKR has appointed retired US Army general David Petraeus as chairman of the firm's Middle East operations as part of its regional expansion plans.

Petraeus, who is also a former Central Intelligence Agency director and US Central Commander, is a KKR partner.

Julian Barratt-Due, a managing director at the firm, will lead KKR's dedicated investment team in the region.

The firm said these appointments build on KKR’s "ongoing strategic commitment to the region, including having local offices since 2009 and deploying capital directly since 2019".

KKR recently agreed to invest in the UAE-based Gulf Data Hub, an independent data centre platform, which operates seven data centres in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, and has plans to build additional data centre facilities in the rest of the GCC states, including Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman.

"Building on 16 years in the region, KKR has also strengthened and grown its global client solutions team based across KKR’s offices in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, with directors Patricia Bandeira Vieira and Michael de Freitas moving to the region last year to focus on strategic partnerships and client engagement across the Middle East," the firm said.

In addition to the strategic partnership with Gulf Data Hub, KKR’s prior investments in the region include a strategic partnership with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) in 2019 to create Adnoc Oil Pipelines, which marked the first midstream infrastructure collaboration between a global institutional investor and a national oil company in the Middle East.

KKR also acquired a portfolio of commercial aircraft from Etihad Airways in 2020 through aircraft leasing investment platform Altitude Aircraft Leasing, which was established by KKR’s credit and infrastructure funds in 2018 to acquire aircraft serviced by Altavair.

In January, Gulf Data Hub and KKR announced that funds affiliated with KKR will acquire a stake in the data centre operator.

In a statement, KKR said the two firms "have committed to support over $5bn of total investment to grow GDH's market-leading position and to support its international growth plans through organic and inorganic strategies".

The investment will require customary approvals and is being made through KKR's global infrastructure strategy.

GDH said at the time that it aims to deliver the infrastructure required to meet hyperscale demand across the region to support increasing data consumption driven by the growing trends in digital connectivity, cloud and artificial intelligence (AI).

Data centre construction boom

The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have a booming data centre market, thanks to their governments’ drive to set up regional AI hubs, increase digital adoption and improve efficiencies in line with their economic diversification agendas. 

The Middle East data centre construction market is projected to reach $4.39bn by 2029, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 10.99%. 

According to GlobalData, total investment in data centres globally reached $70.6bn in 2024 and is projected to grow by 5% to $74.3bn in 2025.

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Jennifer Aguinaldo

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