Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, reported a first-quarter profit of 1.21 trillion kroner ($110 billion) driven by robust returns on its investments in technology stocks. The fund’s total value stood at 17.7 trillion kroner at the end of March. Despite good returns on equity and fixed income investments, weak results from real estate led to an overall negative result for the quarter.
The fund’s equity investments yielded 9.1% in the first quarter, while fixed income investments returned -0.4% and unlisted real estate investments returned -0.5%. The return on investments in unlisted renewable energy infrastructure was -11.4%, slightly lower than the benchmark index. Established in the 1990s to invest surplus revenues from Norway’s oil and gas sector, the fund has investments in over 8,800 companies across 70 countries.
Trond Grande, deputy CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management, noted the fund’s strong returns in equities driven by the tech sector in the first quarter. Despite concerns about the recent weakness in some tech stocks, such as the so-called “Magnificent Seven” including Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla, Grande remains optimistic about the fund’s diversified investments. He highlighted Nvidia’s strong performance in the artificial intelligence sector but acknowledged weaknesses in companies like Tesla and Apple as market participants reassess their outlook for these tech giants.