The world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global, reported a first-quarter profit of 1.21 trillion kroner ($110 billion) driven by robust returns on its investments in technology stocks. Despite good results from equity and fixed income investments, weak returns 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%. Unlisted real estate investments returned -0.5%, and the return on investments in unlisted renewable energy infrastructure was -11.4%, slightly lower than the benchmark index. The fund has over 8,800 companies across 70 countries as part of its diversified portfolio.
Trond Grande, deputy CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management, highlighted the strong returns in equities driven by the tech sector in the first quarter. Although there are concerns about recent weaknesses in some tech stocks, including companies like Tesla and Apple, Grande remains optimistic about the fund’s diversified investments and believes that companies like Nvidia will continue to perform well in the artificial intelligence sector.
