Norwegian sovereign wealth fund thanks technology for $138 billion, but worries about stocks
The Norwegian sovereign wealth fund is celebrating a profit of 138 billion dollars in the first half of the year, but has put the champagne on ice.
The $1.6 trillion fund attributed the returns to investments in technology. Driven by rising demand for AI, technology stocks surged in early 2024.
The Norwegian sovereign wealth fund – the largest in the world – benefited from this. Its stock portfolio rose 12% in the six months to June.
NVIDIA provided the largest cash injection. Microsoft, Google, Amazon and TSMC also contributed large sums.
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More than a quarter of equity investments (26%) are now active in the technology sector. But fears about their financial future are growing.
Technology stock prices have fallen sharply in recent weeks. The fund’s CEO, Nicolai Tangen, expects things to get worse.
Tangen has several concerns about the market. One of them is the rising national debt, which could lead to price crashes.
“The death toll has reached unprecedented levels, it continues to rise and there seems to be very little willingness worldwide to actively try to reduce it,” he told Reuters.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Tangen also raised concerns about global tensions, citing the wars in Ukraine and Gaza as significant risk factors for the fund’s investments.
“There is a lot of uncertainty in the world and we are in a completely different geopolitical situation,” he said.
