Norway
Norway exhibits resource storage like a hibernating bear: $1.9T sovereign wealth fund (2025) equals 1.5% of global listed equity, generating more income than oil extraction itself.
Norway solved the resource curse by treating oil wealth like a hibernating bear treats summer abundance: storing everything for future survival rather than consuming it immediately. The Government Pension Fund Global—commonly called the Oil Fund—reached $1.9 trillion by June 2025, equal to 1.5% of all listed companies worldwide and over $340,000 per Norwegian citizen. In 2024 alone, the fund earned a record $222 billion profit (13% return), primarily from US technology stocks that now dominate its top holdings: Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia.
The fund's governance resembles biological immune systems, with mechanisms for excluding harmful elements. By end of 2024, 67 companies had been dropped for conduct violations (including Adani Ports), and 104 more for prohibited products like tobacco, coal, and cannabis. In August 2025, the fund terminated Israeli asset managers and divested related holdings. This ethical filtering is possible because the fund generates more income than oil production itself—transfers now fund 20-25% of Norway's national budget.
Yet the system faces evolutionary pressure. Q1 2025 brought a $40 billion loss (0.6%) as Trump tariffs roiled markets, sparking debate about protecting the fund from geopolitical volatility. Oil and gas revenues are projected at NOK 656 billion for 2025, down NOK 46 billion from 2024. Norway's 5.6 million people must navigate a paradox: the fund's success came from hydrocarbons, yet climate transition threatens both future extraction and the carbon-intensive investments that generated historic returns. Like an organism that evolved perfectly for conditions now changing, Norway must adapt or find its advantages becoming vulnerabilities.