Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages the sovereign wealth fund of Norway, surpassed the Government Pension Investment Fund of Japan to become the world’s largest asset owner at the end of 2024, according to WTW’s Thinking Ahead Institute.
The institute’s Asset Owner 100 gathers data on the total assets of the world’s top 100 asset owners. Though not included in the ranking, the study also presented the total assets for the 10 largest insurers and the 10 largest foundations and endowments.
According to the study, the world’s 100 largest asset owners are now responsible for $29.3 trillion as of the end of 2024. It also determined that alternatives represent 28.4% of total assets of the largest portfolios, with private equity standing out as the dominant allocation across all regions.
The study also found that outsourced CIOs and master trusts were responsible for 9.7% of total AUM through the end of 2024 and that foundations and endowments, tracked in the ranking since 2023, accounted for 0.5% of total AUM.
As of the end of 2024, the GPIF managed $1.6 trillion, second among global asset owners, according to WTW. NBIM, which manages the Government Pension Fund Global, took the top spot at $1.7 trillion in assets.
Norges Bank has maintained the top spot so far this year. As of the second quarter of the GPIF’s fiscal year, which ended September 30, the GPIF managed 282.535 trillion yen ($1.826 trillion), according to its website. As of September 30, NBIM managed 20,440 billion kroner ($2.025 trillion), according to its website.
The spot of the largest asset owner fluctuated between NBIM and GPIF last year, largely as a result of currency fluctuations. NBIM had took over the top spot in March 2024.
Strong Year for Sovereign Funds
In 2024, according to WTW’s data, sovereign wealth funds saw the strongest growth among all categories of asset owners. SWF assets rose 16.7% last year, with the average sovereign fund reaching $543 billion, compared with the overall average of $293 billion for all asset owners.
In total, sovereign fund assets comprised 40.8% of those managed by the 100 largest asset owners, as of the end of 2024. Their presence was strongest in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, among whom sovereign fund assets accounted for 73% of all assets.
In North America, pension funds accounted for 70% of all assets, while they accounted for 52% in the Asia-Pacific region. According to WTW, pension funds had the worst performance of all asset owners in 2024, with growth of only 6.5%, and pension funds now—for the first time—manage fewer than half of all assets held by members of WTW’s 100 largest asset owners.
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Tags: Japan Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), Norges Bank Invesment Management, sovereign wealth funds