How the Swiss central bank built a $167bn tech-led US stocks portfolio

Unlike most central banks, the SNB is not owned by the national government. Keystone / Gaetan Bally

Switzerland’s conservative central bank has quietly become one of the world’s biggest tech investors, amassing a stock portfolio that is equivalent in value to nearly a fifth of the national economy’s annual output.

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) has US equity holdings amounting to $167 billion (CHF132 billion), spread across more than 2,300 positions, according to SEC filings from June.

More than $42 billion is invested in just five companies – Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft and Nvidia – making it a major Silicon Valley investor. Its stake in Apple alone is worth nearly $10 billion and its stake in Nvidia is more than $11 billion.

Though not a sovereign wealth fund, the SNB’s $855 billion balance sheet of assets, including its tech holdings, puts it in a similar league as some of the world’s largest state investment vehicles, including those of Singapore and Qatar.

“Switzerland doesn’t need a sovereign wealth fund when we have the SNB,” said Arturo Bris, professor of finance at IMD Business School. “But they don’t want to take any role in these companies – it is purely a tool to manage the currency.”

The SNB is a conservative institution, but it is highly unconventional in how it operates. No other central bank holds such large equity positions as the SNB. The Bank of Japan, which also has a large known equity exposure, has its holdings mostly in domestic stocks via equity index exchange traded funds, according to IMD.

But the SNB’s vast holdings have sparked increasing calls for the portfolio to be managed more actively to drive returns. Its high exposure to US tech stocks comes as others, such as the European Central Bank (ECB), have warned of a bubble in the sector.

The Swiss franc is seen globally as a safe haven due to the country’s political and economic stability. During crises – from the global financial meltdown to the Eurozone debt crisis – investors have parked money in Switzerland.

Persistent challenge

But the franc’s strength poses a persistent challenge. It is the top-performing currency over the past 50, 25, ten and five years, and has already appreciated more than 13% against the dollar this year amid US President Donald Trump’s tariffs shock. That strength risks causing a deflationary slump, which the SNB would have to react to. It also more broadly affects the country’s export competitiveness.

To counter this, the SNB regularly sells francs and buys foreign currencies, mostly US dollars and euros, to weaken the franc.

This approach is a fundamental departure from how other central banks operate, said Karsten Junius, chief economist at Safra Sarasin, the Swiss private bank.

While the US Federal Reserve and ECB use newly created money to buy their own government bonds – reducing interest rates and weakening their currencies – the SNB cannot do the same, he said. Switzerland’s bond market is too small for its huge balance sheet.

Instead, by buying foreign currency to weaken the franc, then investing that money in overseas bonds and equities, the SNB is conducting what some analysts call “foreign” quantitative easing. Over the past decade, that strategy has led it towards one of the world’s biggest and best-performing asset classes: US tech stocks.

Today, about 87% of the SNB’s balance sheet is held in foreign currency assets, according to its own data. Roughly two-thirds of that is in government bonds, 10% in corporate bonds, and 25% in equities. Its US stock holdings are publicly disclosed through SEC filings.

Not a static holder

Unlike most central banks, the SNB is not owned by the national government. About half of its shares are held by Swiss cantons and cantonal banks, while the rest are owned by private individuals. It is also listed on the Swiss stock exchange.

“You can see why the SNB gets compared to a sovereign wealth fund – it owns so much and has such a large balance sheet,” said Stefan Gerlach, chief economist at EFG Bank in Zurich. “But unlike a sovereign fund, which seeks returns through active investment, the SNB has a different mindset.”

The SNB does not exercise its voting rights in the US. Though passive in philosophy, however, it is not a static holder. IMD data from SEC filings show that in 2023, the bank held no Berkshire Hathaway stock. By 2025, it had built a position worth more than $2 billion.

It also significantly increased its exposure to Nvidia, multiplying its shareholding more than sixfold over the same period. The value of its stake rose by more than 175%, reflecting both buying and a surge in the chipmaker’s stock price.

It has reduced its positions in Meta and Netflix over the past two years – although those smaller holdings have gained sharply in value. Similarly, even though it now holds fewer shares in Palantir Technologies, the data analytics company’s surging price boosted the value of its stake eightfold.

But the SNB avoids some sectors entirely. One is banking and some financial stocks, said Christel Rendu de Lint, co-chief executive of investment firm Vontobel.

“The SNB does not invest in systemically important banks globally to avoid any conflict of interest it could be seen as favouring them,” she said.

The bank also avoids investments in companies involved in internationally condemned weapons, according to its sustainability report.There are risks to its investment approach. A sharp downturn in equity and currency markets can quickly erase the SNB’s earnings. In 2022 and 2023, the bank posted billions in losses in part due to falling asset values and currency volatility.

No plans to change the system

The bank reported a loss of CHF15.3 billion ($19.3 billion) in the first half of 2025, as the slumping US dollar hit its foreign currency portfolio.

US tech stocks have also sold off this year as warnings that the hype surrounding artificial intelligence could be overdone.

Such losses have triggered periodic calls by analysts and politicians for the SNB to rethink how it invests its reserves, says Gerlach. Some have proposed outsourcing a portion to external managers to generate higher returns. The SNB’s bank council, whose members include people with business, government and academic backgrounds, oversees the investment strategy.

But for now, there are no plans to change the system, economists say.

The SNB declined to comment. Its website says the “assets in a sovereign wealth fund would be exposed to the same exchange rate risk as the SNB’s currency reserves; even a much higher proportion of ‘real’ investments such as equities would offer no protection against value fluctuations”.

Safra Sarasin’s Junius warned that doing so could undermine the bank’s flexibility.

“Outsourcing would reduce liquidity. The assets wouldn’t be available for monetary policy use as quickly or discreetly,” he said.

For example, after the coronavirus pandemic, the SNB was able to quickly sell foreign currencies and buy back francs to help ease inflationary pressure.

“It simply isn’t a good idea [to change that],” Junius said.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025