US President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order to create a sovereign wealth fund. It was unclear where the funds to run it would come from, but Mr Trump had said revenue received from tariffs could be used.
Mr Trump first raised the idea of establishing a sovereign wealth fund in October, saying at the time said it could be used to build motorways and airports, as well as funding medical research and other projects. Creation of the fund would require congressional approval.
Sovereign wealth funds, as defined by the 2008 Santiago Principles, have three characteristics: they must be owned by a general government; hold investments in foreign financial assets; and invest for a government's financial objectives, such as achieving macroeconomic stability.
There are more than 100 sovereign wealth funds globally that manage more than $12 trillion in assets, according to the Global SWF tracker.
Sovereign wealth funds are more common in commodity-rich nations that run surpluses, such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Norway. Mr Trump has said he wants the US fund to pass that of Norway. But the US has a large amount of debt and one of the deepest capital markets in the world, and last ran a surplus in 2001.
Mr Trump also said the fund could buy TikTok, the short-form video app whose future remains in doubt after the Supreme Court upheld a law that would ban it in the US unless Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance can find a buyer. Mr Trump offered the social media company a lifeline on his inauguration day, signing an executive order that granted a 75-day extension to the law's enforcement.
He has said he would want the US to have 50 per cent ownership of the platform.
