Canada is launching a sovereign wealth fund — a year after Trump ordered one to cut taxes and build national wealth. So where is the American version?

"This will be a Government of Canada fund, but more importantly, this will be a people's fund. It will be your fund," Carney told reporters at a press conference on April 27 in Ottawa (3).

The Canada Strong Fund would be Canada's first national sovereign wealth fund, with an initial government endowment of $25 billion (4). It'll invest in strategic country projects including energy, infrastructure, mining, agriculture and technology, alongside private investors. Canadians can also buy into it directly through a retail investment product, like a government bond.

Meanwhile, it's now been 15 months since Trump directed the Treasury and Commerce secretaries to develop a plan for an American sovereign wealth fund (SWF) within 90 days (5). There is no fund, no launch date and there isn't even yet a confirmed plan.

What a sovereign wealth fund is, and why countries want one

A sovereign wealth fund is a state-owned investment vehicle that holds and deploys government money into financial assets like stocks, bonds, real estate, infrastructure and private equity, with the goal of generating long-term returns for the public.

There are more than 100 of them worldwide, according to the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds, worth over $16 trillion in assets, including the Norway Government Pension Fund Global worth over $2 trillion, and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority worth over $1 trillion (6).

The appeal of these sovereign funds is that governments that sit on natural resources, trade surpluses or large asset bases can invest that wealth rather than spend it, to build a cushion against future deficits and generate returns that benefit citizens over time.

What Trump ordered and what happened next

The White House executive order says the purpose of the fund is to "promote fiscal sustainability, lessen the burden of taxes on American families and small businesses, establish economic security for future generations, and promote United States economic and strategic leadership internationally (5)."

Bessent told reporters the administration would "monetize the asset side of the U.S. balance sheet for the American people (7)." The White House Fact Sheet announced that the federal government has $5.7 trillion in assets that could be used to fund the SWF (1).

Treasury and Commerce submitted a plan within the 90-day deadline, but according to CBS News, the White House pushed back on Treasury's approach. "Details on the mechanics of the fund continue to be debated, and no announcement is imminent," a source told CBS (8). The White House confirmed the plan had been submitted but said "no final decisions have yet been made."

That was May 2025. Nothing public has happened since then.

The Peterson Institute for International Economics, a nonpartisan Washington think tank, called the initiative (9) "a confused solution to an undefined problem." Its researchers noted the administration had yet to explain what type of fund it wanted and that the U.S., running a roughly $2 trillion annual deficit, lacks the fiscal surplus that most sovereign wealth funds are built on.

What Canada is building, and the criticism it's facing

Canada has the same problem. The Canada Strong Fund is being seeded with borrowed money, unlike other countries like Norway funding their SWF through budget surpluses.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said the fund was built on a flawed premise. "Putting another $25 billion on the national credit card to pad a Liberal slush fund will not change that," he told reporters on Parliament Hill, according to CBC News (3).