Norway's GPFG Gains 15.1% in 2025
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund saw strong performance in equities and energy infrastructure in 2025. The Government Pension Fund Global, managed by Norges Bank Investment Management, reported a 15.1% return last year, with fund assets reaching 1.526 trillion kroner ($2.228 trillion).
The fund’s return was 28 basis points lower than its benchmark index, according to an NBIM statement released Thursday.
“The fund delivered very strong results in 2025,” NBIM CEO Nicolai Tangen said in a statement. “Stocks in technology, financials and basic materials stood out, making a significant contribution to the overall return.”
The fund allocated 71.3% of its assets to publicly listed equites, 26.5% to fixed income and 1.7% to real estate. NBIM also manages a portfolio of unlisted renewable energy infrastructure, accounting for 0.4% of the total portfolio.
NBIM’s equity portfolio returned 19.3%, while fixed income and unlisted real estate yielded 5.4% and 4.4%, respectively. The fund’s renewable energy infrastructure portfolio—which includes wind and solar farms—returned 18.1% last year.
Within the fund’s equity portfolio, the basic materials sector performed the best, with a 40.9% return, followed by financials (32%), telecommunications (32%), and technology (28.5%). Because of the size of the allocations to different market sectors, technology stocks returned 864 billion kroner to the fund, followed by financials (675 billion kroner), industrials (312 billion kroner) and consumer discretionary (151 billion kroner).
In a press conference announcing the fund’s 2025 returns, NBIM presented several stress testing risk scenarios which could negatively impact the performance of the fund in the future. In one scenario, the fund projected a market correction in the artificial intelligence sector—if the productivity gains of AI were not realized—that could result in a 37% fall in the fund’s value.
Chloe Taylor of CNBC also reports the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund made $247 billion in 2025, driven by tech and banking rally:
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.
Norway's Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) is the world's largest sovereign wealth fund and the most transparent fund in the world, consistently outranking global peers.
Results came out a week ago and I wanted to cover them this week for a couple of reasons.
First, it gives us a glimpse of what a well diversified global fund returned last year and also a glimpse into the performance of its massive unlisted real estate portfolio.
Second, this Fund is as close as you get to 70/30 allocation of global stocks and bonds (in reality its 71% in global listed equities, 27% in fixed income and 2% unlisted real estate and renewable energy).
In this regard, the Fund is heavily exposed to global public markets and has no allocation to private equity.
It gives you a good idea of what Canada's large pension funds would be delivering if they didn't invest in private markets and primarily invested in global public markets.
Canada's large pension funds will be reporting their annual results in the weeks ahead and I don't expect them to deliver anywhere close to 15% for 2025 given they're more diversified across public and private markets.
Still, I expect decent performance across the Maple 8 funds with some issues in private equity mostly but nothing that will detract from the overall performance.
So, keep Norway's 2025 performance in your head but also bear in mind it's a totally different asset allocation and objective function.
Norway's GPFG has a lot more global beta embedded in its portfolio and is a lot more exposed to the US tech sector which is good when these stocks are rallying, not so good when they're selling off (like thus far this year).
Below, CEO Nicolai Tangen and Deputy CEO Trond Grande presents the fund's results for 2025 at the fund's Oslo office Auditorium.
Great presentation, pay attention to their discussion on concentration risk impacting the Fund. I also like the way Nicolai calls upon analysts and portfolio managers to discuss sector performance. Great insights here, take the time to listen.
I wish all our Maple 8 Funds and others did a similar detailed performance analysis of their annual results in a live presentation made public on YouTube.
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