Norway’s sovereign wealth fund last year returned 13%, or $222 billion, but missed its self-imposed target for the second year in a row despite gains from the booming U.S. technology sector.
Norges Bank Investment Management — the official name of the $1.8 trillion fund — saw investments in equities gain 18% in 2024, it said in a statement on Jan. 29. After the value of real estate holdings fell, the fund missed the benchmark it measures itself against by 45 basis points, it said.
The relative return was the third worst year in percentage terms, Chief Executive Officer Nicolai Tangen said at a press conference. The fund’s real estate portfolio underperformed relative to the stock market and the fund was also underweight equities, in particular the biggest U.S. tech stocks, he said.
Even so, NBIM ended 2024 with a tech-heavy portfolio, with companies including Apple, Microsoft and NVIDIA among its top-10 holdings. In recent days, the sector has been in turmoil after Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek raised questions over valuations.
Speaking on Bloomberg TV from the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, Tangen underscored the value he places on contrarian thinking. President Donald Trump’s plans to reduce regulation could boost U.S.-based companies, he said, though tariffs and restrictions on the free flow of labor pose inflationary risks. The executive also voiced concern over high levels of government debt.
Though NBIM is largely an index tracker that invests according to a strict mandate overseen by Norway’s finance ministry, it seeks to make most of its limited leeway. It owns, on average, 1.5% of all the world’s listed companies.
Founded in the early 1990s, NBIM is tasked with thinking long-term and investing Norway’s oil and gas revenues abroad. Having started with seed capital of about $300 million, the fund is today the world’s biggest single owner of equities, with the bulk of its capital in publicly listed stocks. It measures itself against a bespoke benchmark based on the FTSE Global All Cap Index for equities and Bloomberg Barclays indexes for fixed income.
The fund gained 1% on its fixed-income investments. Its unlisted real estate holdings fell 1%, while the return on unlisted renewable-energy infrastructure was down 10%.
The Norwegian government deposited 402 billion ($35.6 billion) kroner into the fund in 2024.
