Leading global fund managers and private equity firms are quietly lining up for a chance to manage another new and significant pool of money in the Middle East – an endowment for a new Saudi university with at least $10bn in assets.

The King Abdullah University of Science & Technology will not open until 2009 but it is already holding talks on its endowment with fund managers such as BlackRock and private equity firms including Bain Capital, people familiar with the matter say.