The Norges Bank, Norway’s central bank, in Oslo, Norway, on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Norway’s massive sovereign wealth fund on Wednesday posted first-half profit of 1.48 trillion kroner ($138 billion), primarily driven by robust returns on its investments in technology stocks.
The so-called Government Pension Fund Global — the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund — said it had a value of 17.75 trillion kroner at the end of June.
The fund’s overall return for the six-month period was 8.6%, which was 0.04 percentage points lower than the return on its benchmark index.
Nicolai Tangen, CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management, said on Wednesday that equity investments gave a “very strong” return in the first half of the year.
“The result was mainly driven by the technology stocks, due to increased demand for new solutions in artificial intelligence,” Tangen noted.
One of the world’s largest investors, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund was established in the 1990s to invest the surplus revenues of the country’s oil and gas sector. To date, the fund has put money in more than 8,700 companies in over 70 countries around the world.
This breaking news story is being updated.