The paper examines the rise of Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) as a new source of financing investment worldwide and, more specifically, tries to get a better understanding of SWFs from Middle East which accounted in 2013 for 35 percent of overall assets managed by them, with the bulk of them focused on Developed countries, and in particular on Europe. The paper is descriptive and informative. It is based on an original database set up from different sources of information. The idea is to advance the main characteristics of these new investors, and also to assess the primary consequences of their operations on European economies. The role of the states as important arbiters of market economies is emphasized as well as the shift of power in favor of the emerging economies.