The market value of the Nobel Foundation’s total invested capital amounted to SEK 6,797 m (6,233) at the end of 2024. Excluding the value of the Foundation’s directly owned properties, investment capital amounted to SEK 6,600 m (6,041). This generated a return of +11.6 (+10.7) per cent during 2024. During the past five years, investment capital rose by 9.2 per cent annually. During the past ten years, investment capital rose by 8.3 per cent annually.
“As the newly appointed Executive Director of the Nobel Foundation, I am fascinated by how ‒ for nearly 125 years ‒ the Nobel Prize has been an inspiring reminder of humanity’s ability to solve the great challenges of our era,” says Hanna Stjärne, Executive Director of the Nobel Foundation. “A long-term perspective is also important in our task of managing the legacy and fortune of Alfred Nobel, and it is gratifying to be able to present strong earnings for 2024. For more than a century since the prize was established, there has been no shortage of challenges. Given the turbulent situation we are seeing today in world markets, the focus of our management is on good liquidity and a well-diversified portfolio.”
The institutions that Alfred Nobel designated in his will to select laureates also choose the trustees of the Nobel Foundation. The trustees, in turn, is to appoint the Nobel Foundation’s Board of Directors and to examine the Nobel Foundation’s financial statements. At the meeting of the trustees on Friday, 25 April 2025, the Nobel Foundation’s 2024 financial statements were presented.
The objective of the Nobel Foundation’s investment activities is to achieve a sufficiently high return over time to maintain the financial base of the Nobel Prize and guarantee the independence of the work of the Prize Committees in selecting the laureates. In addition, the Nobel Foundation aims to manage its assets in a way that considers long-term sustainable development and to otherwise follow good ethical principles in its investment activities.
Investment capital exposure was 56 (52) per cent equity funds, 9 (9) per cent property and infrastructure funds, 12 (17) per cent fixed income assets and cash, 24 (20) per cent alternative assets and -1 (2) per cent accrued currency hedging gains.
At the meeting of the trustees Kristian Berg Harpviken was elected as a new member of the board of the Nobel Foundation.
Kristian Berg Harpviken serves as the Director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, and as secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, since 1 January 2025. He was previously a Research Professor at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), and he was the institute’s Director from 2009-2017. Harpviken has devoted his entire career to the study of peace and conflict and has extensive experience serving on boards both in Norway and internationally.
Board of the Nobel Foundation
Astrid Söderbergh Widding, Professor, Chair
Hanna Stjärne, Executive Director, The Nobel Foundation
Kristian Berg Harpviken, Professor, Secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee
Hans Ellegren, Professor, Secretary General of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Mats Malm, Professor, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy
Sven Nyman, MSc, Hon. Doctor of Business
Thomas Perlmann, Professor, Secretary of the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet and of the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine
Deputy members
Peter Brzezinski, Professor, Secretary of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry
Ulf Danielsson, Professor, Secretary of the Nobel Committee for Physics
Read more
The Nobel Foundation’s guidelines concerning responsible investments.
The Nobel Foundation’s annual report for 2024 and an annual review.