Norway wealth fund credits tech for $138B profit but envisions market crash

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund is celebrating a $138 billion profit from the first half of the year, but has put the champagne on ice.

The $1.6 trillion fund credited the returns to investments in tech. Driven by surging demand for AI, technology stocks surged during early 2024.

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund — the largest in the world — reaped the benefits. Its equity portfolio gained 12% in the six months through June.

Nvidia provided the largest cash injection. Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and TSMC also chipped in big sums.

Over a quarter of its equity investments (26%) are now in tech. But there are escalating fears about their financial futures.

Tech stocks have plummeted in recent weeks. The fund’s CEO, Nicolai Tangen, expects that worse is still to come.

Tangen has several anxieties about the market. One is the rising levels of sovereign debt, which can cause markets to plunge.

“It’s at a level we haven’t seen [before], it is continuing to increase, and there seems to be very little willingness anywhere in the world to actively try to reduce it,” he told Reuters.

At a news conference on Wednesday, Tangen also raised concerns about global tensions. He cites 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.