How Sovereign Wealth Funds Invest in Financial Services

At a glance

• 127 deals by 63 sovereign funds in our tables.
• 51 carry an amount we can show in USD; 25 are USD 1 billion or more.
• Most active fund: Kuwait Investment Authority with 10 deals.
• Main structure: direct investment.

Key findings

1. Our profile tables list 127 financial services deals across 63 funds, 11% of all deals we track.
2. Most active: KIA (10), GIC Private Limited (6), SAFE Investment (Huaan) (5).
3. Most common structure: direct investment (85 deals, 67%). Co-investments and joint ventures: 18. Fund commitments: 0.
4. Biggest amount in our tables: USD 8.9B, Mubadala in CI Financial (2025).
5. By fund home region: Asia 40, Middle East 35, Europe 24.
6. 118 operating funds name financial services as a focus sector on their profiles.
7. 46 of these deals are dated 2024 or later.
8. Top stages: public markets (47), growth (20), credit (19).

Most active funds

Biggest deals in our tables

Structures and stages

Regional patterns

Most common target countries: United States (19), United Kingdom (11), China (11), Turkiye (6), Canada (4), Malaysia (4).

Mini case studies

The 2014 shift from bonds to stocks (GPIF)

• Cut the Japanese bond target from 60 percent to 35 percent and raised Japanese equities from 12 percent to 25 percent.
• When: 2014 / Size: Policy change across the whole reserve
• Why: Low yields on Japanese bonds could not deliver the return pension finance needs.
• Outcome: Returns over the 10 years to FY2025 averaged 7.69 percent a year, against 4.67 percent since FY2001.
• Src: S11, S9

Central Huijin: the domestic anchor (China Investment Corporation)

• Central Huijin holds the state's stakes in major banks, insurers and brokers, and took on seven more institutions from 2025.
• When: 2007 to 2025 / Size: CNY 6.87 trillion of state financial capital at end 2024
• Why: The state uses CIC to hold and steward its financial sector equity at arm's length from management.
• Outcome: Stakes in 19 institutions at end 2024, rising as transfers complete.
• Src: S1, S3

Hedge funds: USD 30B over three years (GIC Private Limited)

• GIC plans to add about USD 30B to hedge funds over three years, mainly global macro, quantitative and multi-strategy managers.
• When: Announced July 2026 / Size: About USD 30B
• Why: The Group CIO said hedge funds add diversification at a time of concentrated equity markets; GIC has tripled its hedge fund book in a decade.
• Src: S6

What this means for founders, managers and family offices

• Know the stage. Public markets is the most common stage here (47 deals), then growth (20). Seed deals: 0.
• Many rows here are fund commitments, so this is the main door for managers. Lead with track record, fees and co-investment rights.
• For domestic lenders, guarantee funds and SME funds, development funds are the natural counterpart.
• Fund commitments are 0% of deals here. Most money goes direct, so managers should lead with co-investment rights.
• Family offices: 18 co-investments and joint ventures in our tables. Sitting beside a sovereign fund is more realistic than raising from one; start with the funds listed above.

Data notes: Counts come from the investment, case study and size tables in our fund profiles. They cover the deals each profile lists, not every deal a fund has done, so read them as a guide, not a full census. USD figures marked approx are either stated in USD in the profile or converted at the exchange rate implied by a fund profile headline in the same currency. Amounts are as the profile states them, so some are the full deal size and some are the fund's own ticket. Sector is the tag on each deal in our tables.

Sources

Every figure on this page comes from the fund profiles linked in the tables. Source ids such as S3 refer to the numbered sources on each fund's own profile page, where the original document is listed with its date.