Norway wealth fund posts $247 billion profit amid tech, banking boom
A view of Oslo seen from the roof of the Oslo Opera House in Oslo, Norway, on Thursday, Oct. 21, 2021.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Norway’s $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund made $247 billion in 2025, its management team said Thursday, thanks to rallying tech, financial and mining stocks.
The fund posted annual profit of 2.36 trillion kronor, or $246.9 billion. By the end of last year, the fund’s total value stood at 21.27 trillion Norwegian kroner Over the course of 2025, the fund returned 13.5 trillion kronor — its highest annual return since the fund’s inception in the nineties.
The overall return was 0.28 percentage points lower than the return on its benchmark index.
Equities, which make up about 71% of the fund’s investments, returned 19.3% last year.
Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) manages the fund on behalf of the Norwegian population. Set up in the 1990s to invest excess revenues from Norway’s oil and gas industry, the fund is currently an investor in more than 7,000 companies across 60 countries.
Its most valuable investments include a 1.3% stake in Nvidia, a 1.2% stake in Apple and a 1.3% stake in Microsoft.
“Stocks in technology, financials and basic materials stood out, making a significant contribution to the overall return”, Nicolai Tangen, NBIM’s CEO, said in a statement on Thursday.
NBIM’s holdings in the basic materials sector include mining giant Fresnillo — the best-performing stock on London’s FTSE 100 last year, which surged 452.5% amid a silver boom and its acquisition of Probe Gold.
In the financial sector, NBIM holds significant stakes in Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs. The fund also has various holdings in global lenders, including European banking giants Santander, UBS, HSBC and UniCredit. Europe’s banking sector has been a source of major returns for investors in recent years.
Outside equities, NBIM’s fixed income investments returned 5.4% in 2025, while unlisted real estate returned 4.4%. Its renewable energy infrastructure holdings returned 18.1% last year.
The fund increased in value by 1.53 trillion kroner — around $159.9 billion — in 2025.
White House clash
While the fund’s returns were positive in 2025, some of its decisions drew criticism — notably from the White House.
In September, the U.S. State Department told CNBC it was “very troubled” by fund’s decision to exit positions in American machinery manufacturer Caterpillar and five Israeli banks, citing “unacceptable risk” that the companies were contributing to rights violations in Palestinian territories.
A spokesperson argued NBIM’s Caterpillar exit “appears to be based on illegitimate claims against Caterpillar and the Israeli government.”
Norway’s finance minister, Jens Stoltenberg, later said the divestment was “not a political decision.”
American equities account for 38.8% of all the fund’s investments.
Stoltenberg told Bloomberg last week that he saw no reason for the fund to exit the United States.
“Our presence in the United States reflects the size of the U.S. market. And I think that’s the best way for a very long-term fund,” he said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Correction: The headline and text of this article have been updated to correct a conversion error when reporting the fund’s return in US dollars.
