President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday (Feb. 3) that creates an American sovereign wealth fund and said the fund could invest in TikTok.
“As an example, TikTok, we’re going to be doing something perhaps with TikTok, perhaps not; if we make the right deal, we’ll do it, otherwise we won’t,” Trump said in a video posted on social platform X by the White House’s official “rapid response” account, Rapid Response 47. “…And we might put that in the sovereign wealth fund, whatever we make.”
? WATCH: President Donald J. Trump signs an Executive Order creating America’s first Sovereign Wealth Fund. pic.twitter.com/FuD4mGDMm0
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 3, 2025
This will be the country’s first sovereign wealth fund, according to the post.
The executive order charges Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary nominee Howard Lutnick to work to create the American sovereign wealth fund, per the video.
Bessent said in the video that they aim to create the fund within 12 months.
“We are going to monetize the asset side of the U.S. balance sheet for the American people,” Bessent said. “We are going to put the assets to work, and I think it’s going to be very exciting.”
Bessent and Lutnick will study best practices from around the world, Bessent said.
Trump said later in the video that the American sovereign wealth fund could be one of the world’s biggest within a short time.
Lutnick said in the video: “The extraordinary size and scale of the U.S. government and the business it does with companies should create value for American citizens. If we are going to buy 2 billion COVID vaccines, maybe we should have some warrants and some equity in these companies and have that grow for the health of the American people.”
Sovereign wealth funds like those in China, Norway and Saudi Arabia invest in everything from stocks and bonds to infrastructure and technology, Bloomberg reported Monday.
Twenty U.S. states have sovereign wealth funds, with the largest being the Alaska Permanent Fund that was started in 1976 and now manages about $82 billion, according to the report.
Trump floated the idea of an American sovereign wealth fund during the campaign, saying money from tariffs could go into such a fund and invest in manufacturing hubs, defense and medical research, per the report.