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World's largest sovereign wealth fund's bets on Big Tech and banking drive gains
Norges Bank Investment Management manages the world's largest sovereign wealth fund.
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World's largest sovereign wealth fund's bets on Big Tech and banking drive gains
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Key Points
- Norway's gigantic sovereign wealth fund generated a 15% annual return last year, powered by strong gains in global equity markets, as well as major positions in renewables infrastructure.
- Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), which manages the fund, has started using AI to screen investments for ethical issues.
A view of Bryggen, the historic Hanseatic Wharf in Bergen, Norway, on Sept. 16, 2024.
Manuel Romano | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Norway's $2 trillion oil fund, the largest of its kind, generated an annual profit of about $248 billion last year, with strong gains in global equities driving a 15.1% return.
Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) manages the fund, which was set up in the 1990s to invest revenues from Norway's oil and gas industry, on behalf of the Norwegian population. It's an investor in more than 7,200 companies across 60 countries and has stakes in around 1.5% of the world's publicly listed stocks.
The fund's value stood at around $2.2 trillion at the end of 2025, up from about $2.08 trillion a year earlier.
The fund generated a 2.36 trillion Norwegian kroner, or $248 billion, gain last year, or 15.1%. That was 0.28 percentage points, or 50 billion kroner, lower than its benchmark index's performance.
In a statement, NBIM CEO Nicolai Tangen highlighted a "strong upturn" in global equities, with U.S. technology the biggest contributor, along with financials, as the portfolio weathered U.S. tariff increases. He also highlighted "positive developments" in renewables infrastructure investments.
Acknowledging that 2025 had been a year of "constant turmoil and surprises," Tangen said solid corporate earnings, optimism around AI and central bank interest rate cuts helped lift its equity investments.
"U.S. technology stocks contributed most to the positive return, driven mainly by the largest technology companies," he said in the report.
Overall, nearly 40% of NBIM's investments are in U.S. equities, with its most valuable holdings including a 1.3% stake in Nvidia, a 1.2% stake in Apple and a 1.3% stake in Microsoft. NBIM also invests in fixed income, real estate and renewable energy infrastructure.
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Its equities investments, which have a market value of about $1.6 trillion and make up more than 71% of the fund, returned 19.3% last year.
That was followed by its unlisted renewable energy infrastructure portfolio, which generated an 18.1% gain. Last year, the fund made several renewable power investments, including in Germany's largest electricity grid.
Fixed income assets, which make up more than 26% of the fund's assets at $594 billion, advanced 5.4%, while its unlisted real estate investments rose 4.4%
On Thursday, NBIM said it was now using AI to screen investments for ethical issues, a process that began in late 2024 when it introduced Anthropic's Claude model to its ESG process.
Late last year, the fund suspended its usual ESG assessment processes after the White House criticized its decision to divest a holding in American firm Caterpillar over its ties to the conflict in the West Bank.
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