A sovereign wealth fund, or SWF in short, is a fund that manages the savings of a state or state organization for the purposes of investment. The largest sovereign wealth fund in the world is the Government Pension Fund Global of Norway (GPF) which was established in 1990 to invest the surplus revenues of the Norwegian petroleum sector. As of December 2017, it held US$1.03 trillion in assets, including 1.3% of global stocks and shares.

Top SWFs by Region. With the exception of the Government Pension Fund of Norway (GPF),  the top 10 sovereign wealth funds in the world hails generally from Asia and the Middle East. By region, the top sovereign wealth funds of Asia manage a combined total of US$3.195 trillion in assets while the top sovereign wealth funds of Middle East manage a combined total of US$3.094 trillion in assets.

Some countries may have more than one sovereign wealth funds. Examples are China with 4 SWFs (CIC - China Investment Corporation, SAFE, NCSSF - National Social Security Fund, CADF - China-Africa Development Fund) managing a total of 1.5 trillion USD in assets, and Singapore with 2 SWFs (GIC - Government Investment Corporation, TH - Temasek Holdings) managing a total of 556 billion in USD in assets.