$1.4 trillion Norwegian sovereign wealth fund’s CEO says it is using AI to deploy capital

The fund invests the Norwegian state’s revenues from oil and gas production in equities, bonds, property and renewable projects abroad.

It is the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, holding stakes in more than 9,200 companies globally and owning 1.5% of all listed stocks.

“We are using it (AI) now in how we deploy the capital,” Tangen said.

“We use it to reduce the trading we do, because we are an index-near fund, and sometimes we have to make adjustments to the portfolio and these type of models can help us trade less.”

Tangen said he had set the fund an internal target to boost productivity by 10% over the next 12 months by using AI, and had discussed the move recently with Sam Altman, the CEO of artificial intelligence company OpenAI.

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“I asked Altman: ‘I think we can increase our productivity by 10% in the next 12 months … what do you think?’,” Tangen said, adding that he had plucked the 10% figure “straight out of the air”. He said Altman told him: “I think 20%, you can do.”

The fund is also urging the 9,200 companies it invests in to engage with AI but to do so responsibly, unveiling a set of expectations on the issue in August.

The fund has said it would concentrate particularly on the healthcare, finance and large tech sectors, because their use of the technology will have an especially strong impact on consumers.

Companies must also be able to explain why they are developing particular AI systems and how they have been designed, trained and tested, the fund has said. There should also be effective human oversight and control.