When Norway struck black gold in the North Sea in 1969 its economy grew rapidly. Such was the extent of the newly tapped oil and gas reserves, the Scandinavian nation found itself with more money than it knew what to do with.
In the 1990s, the Government Pension Fund Global was established – with the first deposit being made in 1996. It invests in almost 9,000 companies worldwide and owns hundreds of buildings.
Currently valued at close to €1.8 trillion, it is the largest of its kind – and carries significant clout. Just last week it made headlines after it voted against a proposed Tesla pay deal for Elon Musk which stood to make the electric car boss the world’s first trillionaire.
As the seventh-largest shareholder, the fund said it was “concerned” at the size of the award.
Its sheer scale dwarfs any ambitions Ireland might have for its fledgling sovereign wealth funds, but it provides the model the State wants to emulate.
With tens of billions of euro in corporation tax rolling in every year, the Government last year signed off on plans to start putting some of it away in two funds – the Future Ireland Fund (FIF) and t
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