Nicolai Tangen, CEO of NBIM, at the Norges Bank climate conference in Oslo, Norway, on October 21, 2025.
Naina Helén Jåma | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund – the world’s largest – said on Thursday that its investment portfolio posted a loss of $30 billion in the third quarter as rising interest rates squeezed yields on its bond holdings.
Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), which manages the $2.3 trillion fund, said its accounting return for the period was a loss of 278 billion crowns ($29.7 billion). Around 70% of NBIM’s fixed income portfolio is invested in government bonds, with the remainder invested in corporate bonds.
The global bond market experienced a slump in the third quarter. Treasury yields rose as major central banks, including the U.S. Federal Reserve, initiated cycles of interest rate hikes and concerns grew about inflation and government debt.
NBIM’s fixed income assets delivered a negative return of 3.5%, with fund management saying this was a key reason for the overall downturn.
“The fund’s return remained almost flat and ended slightly negative as rising interest rates led to weaker results from our fixed income investments,” Trond Grande, deputy CEO of NBIM, said in a statement.
Just over a quarter of the fund’s total portfolio is made up of fixed income securities, with NBIM invested in 1,664 bonds from 51 countries.
Last month, NBIM said it planned to reduce its holdings of U.S. Treasury bonds as part of broader plans to reduce its allocation to Treasuries.
Stocks, which make up 72% of the sovereign wealth fund’s investments, returned 0.5% for the fund in the third quarter.
The fund holds small stakes in around 7,100 companies in most countries. With stakes in 1.5% of all listed companies worldwide, it is the world’s largest single investor.
In the three months to September there was turbulence on the stock markets. Wall Street’s major averages ended the third quarter in mixed territory. The S&P 500 index gained 2.03%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.9% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite ended the quarter 2.2% higher.
The average change across the three indexes was just 0.6%, marking a slowdown in the rally that saw double-digit gains in the previous quarter.
NBIM is an investor in America’s largest companies. His largest holdings include a $65.4 billion stake Nvidiaas well as positions in Apple, alphabet And Microsoft.
Because of its positions in the world’s largest companies, NBIM is influential in both voting rights and setting investment trends.
“Stock returns were also near zero, but there were wide differences across sectors. Energy companies rose the most, while interest rate-sensitive sectors such as utilities and real estate fell,” Grande said Thursday.
Energy stocks benefited from rising oil prices in the third quarter as the war between the U.S. and Iran continued, said NBIM, which holds stakes in several major energy companies including Exxon Mobil, sleeve And Chevron.
Over the summer, NBIM CEO Nicolai Tangen told CNBC that investors shouldn’t expect a continuation of the stock market’s record gains in the first half of this year.
“Of course, we should not expect the same returns in the future as we did in the last six months,” he said at the time.
The fund posted a first-half return of 12.95% and a record first-half profit of nearly $185 billion. The company also invests in real estate and renewable energy infrastructure, which returned 0.4% and 7.5%, respectively, in the third quarter.
Norway set up its sovereign wealth fund in 1998 to invest the country’s oil revenues.