What to know about sovereign wealth funds after Trump signs executive order
President Donald Trump on Monday made good on a campaign promise by signing an executive order to establish the first-ever U.S. sovereign wealth fund.
He then said that the fund could be used to keep TikTok operating in the United States, though he did not offer details.
"I think it's about time that this country had a sovereign wealth fund," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday. "I think in a short period of time, we'd have one of the biggest funds."
Sovereign wealth funds are investment funds owned by a national government as a way to stabilize the country’s economy through diversified investments and to generate wealth for future generations.
They are a way for countries to invest excess capital into markets or other investments and are most common in non-Western, oil-rich countries, including Abu Dhabi, China, Norway, Singapore and Saudi Arabia.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, "We're going to stand this thing up within the next 12 months," but he did not specify wherefrom the money for a sovereign wealth fund would originate.
Most are capitalized using budget surpluses, something the U.S. has achieved only five times in the past 50 years, most recently in 2001, according to data from the Treasury Department.
Trump hinted that TikTok may be the fund's first purchase, saying, "We're going to be doing something perhaps with TikTok and perhaps not."
The president has previously talked about the government potentially orchestrating a sale of the Chinese-based social media app to an American entity so that it can continue to operate in the U.S.
On the campaign trail, Trump said he would build the fund using revenue from his planned tariffs and “other intelligent things.” He also said it would be used to invest in medical research and infrastructure projects including highways, airports and manufacturing hubs.
Former President Joe Biden's administration had been working for several months on the design of a similar fund that would have provided money to advance strategic interests such as technology startups to help the U.S. better compete with China.
