Norway’s Sovereign Wealth Fund Posts Record $184 Billion Profit, Discloses SpaceX Stake
The $2.34 trillion fund officially declares a 0.05% holding in Elon Musk’s rocket company, marking a departure from its passive index strategy while contrasting sharply with the active approaches of Gulf sovereign wealth funds.
Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), the steward of Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, has reported a record profit of $184 billion for the first half of 2026. The return represents a 9% gain for the period, surpassing the previous high of $156 billion set in 2023. The fund, which manages assets valued at $2.34 trillion derived from Norway’s oil and gas revenues, cited strong performance in Asian technology stocks, particularly among chip manufacturers, as the primary driver of these results.
In a significant disclosure, the fund publicly declared a 0.05% stake in SpaceX, valued at $1.22 billion as of 30 June 2026. This marks the first official confirmation of the holding, which stands in contrast to the fund’s established mandate of investing in stable, public, and liquid index funds. The stake in the privately held rocket company is negligible compared to NBIM’s major positions in established technology giants, including a 1.28% stake in Nvidia worth $62 billion and a 1.24% holding in Apple valued at $52 billion.
NBIM also maintains significant positions in Alphabet, Microsoft, and Tesla, with stakes ranging from 1% to 1.27%. Despite the fund’s substantial exposure to Musk’s enterprises, relations have not been without friction; NBIM voted against Musk’s $56 billion pay package for Tesla in 2024, and Musk subsequently declined an invitation to a private dinner hosted by NBIM’s chief executive, Nicolai Tangen, in Oslo.
Tangen attributed the strong returns to the concentration of Asian tech stocks, acknowledging the concentration risk this poses to the fund’s passive index strategy. The top 10 companies in the portfolio now account for 20% of the fund’s total value. While NBIM adheres to a passive tracking model, other sovereign wealth funds have adopted more active strategies. Gulf funds, including Saudi Arabia’s PIF and Abu Dhabi’s ADIA, participated in SpaceX financing rounds as early as 2023 and at its initial public offering, with Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala investing $29.2 billion across 52 deals in 2024 alone.
The divergence in investment philosophies highlights a potential shift in sovereign capital allocation. A study of 90 wealth funds indicates that 17% plan to reduce their exposure to listed equities in favour of private markets this year. This trend suggests that the active, strategic approach favoured by Gulf sovereign wealth funds may be gaining traction over Norway’s traditional passive index model, which currently avoids private equity and infrastructure investments.
