I remember the first time I sat down with an investor. I was young, ambitious, and convinced that working hard was the only way to build wealth. He shook his head and told me something I never forgot: “You’ll never get rich trading your time for money. You have to make your money work for you.” That lesson changed everything for me. I stopped thinking about survival and started thinking about ownership. I learned that the people who build real wealth don’t just earn money, they invest it.
The U.S. government has never learned that lesson.
We are sitting on $37 trillion dollars in national debt, and Washington’s only response is to tax more, spend more, and borrow more. The cycle repeats, decade after decade, while the debt climbs higher. But what if we stopped treating government like a struggling household and started treating it like an investor?
President Donald Trump’s recent executive order to create a U.S. sovereign wealth fund could be the boldest economic decision of the modern era. Done right, it could be a way to transform America’s financial future, invest in the country’s most promising industries, and reduce the tax burden on working people. But it also comes with risks, and if we aren’t careful, it could blur the lines between the public and private sectors in ways that create more problems than it solves.
Sovereign Wealth Funds have long been tools for nations to manage surplus revenues, ensuring economic stability and fostering growth. Historically, countries like Kuwait pioneered this approach in 1953, establishing the Kuwait Investment Authority to invest oil revenues for future generations.
The biggest criticism is obvious: we don’t have the money to do this. Other countries that have created sovereign wealth funds—Norway, Singapore, China—did so with surplus revenues or resource wealth. The U.S. has neither. If we are going to launch a national investment fund, we will have to borrow even more money to seed it. That makes fiscal conservatives nervous, and for good reason. But here’s the reality: we are already borrowing trillions every year just to pay the bills. The difference is, that money is spent, not invested.
The concept of a sovereign wealth fund isn’t radical. State-level models already exist, such as Alaska’s Permanent Fund, which collects and invests oil revenues, returning annual dividends to residents. America has the largest, most sophisticated financial markets in the world. We lead in technology, advanced manufacturing, agriculture, real estate, infrastructure, energy, and private equity. No country has a stronger foundation for an investment fund
Every year, the U.S. government pours billions into the private sector through grants, loans, and subsidies. We fund clean energy startups, biotech research, semiconductor production, and AI development. But when those industries take off, the profits go to private investors, not the taxpayers who funded the innovation in the first place.
In 2010, Tesla received a $465 million-dollar loan from the Department of Energy to help keep the company afloat. That money helped build what is now one of the most valuable companies in the world, but taxpayers didn’t see a return. Moderna received over $2 billion dollars in federal support to develop its COVID-19 vaccine, but when the company’s stock price exploded, the government didn’t profit. If we are going to continue funding private sector innovation, why aren’t we taking an ownership stake instead of giving away free capital?
A U.S. sovereign wealth fund would change that. Instead of just handing out money, the government could invest in the industries it already supports. The fund could take equity in companies that receive public funding, ensuring that taxpayers benefit from the upside instead of just footing the bill. It could act as a joint venture partner in projects that are critical to America’s future. The explosion of artificial intelligence and cloud computing has created a massive need for data centers, which are being built at a breakneck pace across the country. A sovereign wealth fund could co-invest in that infrastructure, helping to maintain American dominance in technology while generating long-term revenue. The government is already spending tens of billions on reshoring semiconductor production, but right now, the profits will go to private shareholders. If the government had an investment stake in those facilities, that revenue could be reinvested into future projects instead of disappearing into corporate balance sheets.
There are, of course, serious risks to consider. When the government starts investing in private industry, it creates the potential for political interference, favoritism, and corruption. A sovereign wealth fund would need to be run by independent financial experts, not politicians, with strict rules to prevent conflicts of interest. The last thing America needs is a system where lobbyists and government officials pick winners and losers in the marketplace. President Trump should consider making the national investment fund an independent agency with a similar structure to the Federal Reserve.
There is also the question of government ownership. If a sovereign wealth fund starts buying stakes in major companies, does that give the government too much influence over the private sector? Does it create an unfair advantage for the businesses that receive investment while others struggle to compete? These are real concerns that would need to be addressed through clear guidelines and careful oversight.
But the bigger risk is doing nothing. For too long, the U.S. government has relied on outdated economic thinking. It taxes businesses and individuals at ever-increasing rates, spends those dollars on programs that provide no return, and borrows to cover the difference. That approach has left us drowning in debt with no clear path forward. We need a new model, one that treats government finance the way successful investors build wealth.
A sovereign wealth fund will not solve all of our problems overnight. It won’t instantly wipe out the debt or eliminate the need for taxation. But it could be the first real step toward breaking our addiction to endless borrowing. It could be the beginning of a shift away from taxation as the government’s primary source of revenue. If managed well, it could eventually eliminate corporate income taxes altogether, making the U.S. the most attractive business environment in the world. It could one day lead to a tax system based on consumption rather than income, allowing Americans to keep every dollar they earn instead of seeing a chunk of their paycheck disappear.
This is a bet on America. It is a bet that we have the strongest economy, the best investment minds, and the deepest capital markets in the world. It is a bet that we don’t need to rely on oil revenue like Norway or manufacturing surpluses like China, because our financial system itself is an untapped resource. The opportunity is there. The only question is whether we have the vision to take it.
