A Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) is an investment vehicle owned and controlled by a national government. SWFs are typically funded by foreign exchange reserves, commodity export revenues (particularly oil and gas), or budget surpluses. Their mandates range from stabilisation (smoothing government revenues) to savings (growing national wealth for future generations) to development (driving domestic economic goals).
SWFs are among the largest institutional investors in private markets globally. Major SWFs relevant to Southeast Asia and Australia include GIC (Singapore), Temasek (Singapore), Khazanah (Malaysia), the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, and the Future Fund (Australia). Due to their size and long-term orientation, SWFs are frequently sought as anchor investors in large private equity and infrastructure funds, and increasingly make direct co-investments.