Norway’s $2 Trillion Wealth Fund Has Become an Election Football

Keeping Norway’s sovereign wealth fund out of politics has been a central tenet of the Nordic nation since the fund — the world’s biggest — was set up in the early 1990s to manage the surplus revenue from North Sea oil production.

That strategy is unexpectedly in question as the $2 trillion fund’s investment choices run into contentious territory over divestments relating to Israel’s war in Gaza — which began after fighters from Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organization by the US, launched a deadly attack in October 2023 — drawing domestic criticism over the fund’s politicization during an election campaign and attracting unwanted ...