Start here: a plain guide to sovereign wealth funds

New to sovereign wealth funds? This page walks you through the basics in about five minutes, then points you to the right part of the site for what you want to know.

1. What they are

A sovereign wealth fund is money owned by a government and invested for the long term. It usually starts with a surplus: oil and gas revenue, a budget surplus, foreign exchange reserves, or the value of state companies. Instead of spending all of it now, the state invests it in shares, bonds, property and private companies.

Our full explainer is What is a sovereign wealth fund?.

2. How many there are

We track 231 entities in 108 countries and territories. The count depends on what you include, so we show each layer:

• 78 core national funds, such as Norway's fund or the Kuwait Investment Authority.
• 56 sub-national funds, such as the Alaska Permanent Fund.
• 67 state holding companies and development funds, such as Temasek.
• 5 central bank reserve arms.
• 25 funds that are proposed or not yet operating, such as the Canada Strong Fund.

3. How to read a size figure

This is the part most people get wrong, so it is worth a minute.

• Check the basis. Is the number the fund's own report, our reading of that report, or an outside estimate? We label every figure. Some of the largest funds, including ADIA, KIA, QIA and GIC, do not publish their size at all.
• Check what it measures. A fund portfolio, a group balance sheet that includes operating companies, and an announced target are three different things. PIF, for example, reports both assets under management and a larger consolidated total.
• Check the date and currency. Many funds report in their own currency. Converting to dollars on different days gives different results.
• Do not add them up. A total built from different bases does not mean anything, so we never publish one.

Our study Why published sizes of sovereign funds differ explains the four usual reasons with examples.

4. How to read a transparency score

Every profile has a score out of 10. It checks whether the fund publishes 10 things: total assets, annual return, long-term returns, asset allocation, a geographic or sector split, holdings, audited statements, governance documents, named leaders and a regular reporting schedule. Each item is backed by a cited source in the profile.

The score measures what is public. It is not a rating of how well a fund is run, and it is our own rubric, not someone else's index. Details are on the methodology page.

5. Where to go next

A note on what we do not do

We report facts with sources. We do not rate funds as good or bad investors, we do not give investment advice, and we never suggest that a fund accepts approaches it has not invited. If you spot an error, tell us through the contact page and we will check it and correct it.