Global SWF 2026 GSR Scoreboard Best Practices among Sovereign Investors

 

 

I am delighted to pass along the Press Release announcing the availability of the Global SWF 2026 GSR Scoreboard: Best Practices among Sovereign Investors, along with the Executive Summary and main conclusions from the Report, which follows below. 

 Here is the Press Release: 

Happy July!

Global SWF was born eight years ago today, out of a small apartment in New York City, with the mission of contributing to a better understanding of, and connectivity into Sovereign Investors. We celebrate the milestone with the launch of the seventh edition of our GSR Scoreboard, which assesses every July 1 the efforts of Sovereign Investors around Governance, Sustainability, and Resilience.

The annual assessment has become the yardstick for the industry’s best practices as it is independent, quantitative, objective, and dynamic. This year’s main takeaways include:

The average GSR score of the 200 funds assessed slightly increased to 60%. Sustainability and Resilience scores improved, while Governance including transparency stayed flat. Nine institutions achieved a perfect score of 100%: Canada’s La Caisse, BCIand OTPP, Norway’s NBIM, Nigeria’s NSIA, Singapore’s Temasek, Australia’s Future Fund and Rest, and NZ Super. Three elements were modified to account for the increasing importance of relative financial performance, carbon emission statements, and adoption of and/or investment in AI. Two thirds of the assessed funds are already adopting and/or investing in artificial intelligence; and half of those, reported their first interaction with AIduring the past 12 months. Governments around the world, several from deficit economies, continue to establish new strategic vehicles, which makes it paramount to promote role models and best practices in the industry.

The report also includes a market update of what we saw during the first half of 2026, in our normal fashion: plenty of data to digest, naming names, and with absolutely no lag in time.

The War in Iran and the subsequent rise in oil prices intensified market volatility; however, the rapid recovery propelled the industry’s AuM to historical levels: a total of US$ 62.5 trillion in assets. State-Owned Investors deployed US$ 143.6 billion in 366 deals, with most groups of investors (Canada’s Maple 8, Singapore funds, Gulf SWFs) investing more than in the previous period. Gulf SWFs committed US$ 53.9 billion in 108 transactions, a historical record. Almost half of the capital went to the USA, followed by China and the UK, while the most popular sector was tech, fueled by AI. The ranking of most active funds was topped once again by Mubadala, which invested US$ 15.2 billion at group level, and the rest of Gulf 7 funds showed no sign of slowdown either. There is increased activity in the establishment of new SWFs and offices all around the world, but also a concerning amount of funds and offices being shut down due to cost-cutting efforts.

Attached to this email you will find an Executive Summary with the main conclusions of the report. The full 44-page document can be accessed by our subscribers at https://globalswf.com/reports/2026gsr. And our team will provide a discussion on it at a webinar next Tuesday, July 7 at 8am ET – register now at https://bit.ly/gsr26.

Please do not hesitate to reach out if you would like to discuss any of the topics in detail.

Best wishes,

The Global SWF Team