Exclusive interview with Winston Ma, CFA Esq., Executive Director/Adjunct Professor, Global Public Investment Funds Forum New York University School of Law
Global Investment Insights
with Prof. Winston Ma, CFA Esq., GPIFF Executive Director and Adjunct Professor, NYU School of Law; Former MD, China Investment Corp (CIC)
Winston Ma, CFA & Esq., is an investor, attorney, author, and adjunct professor in the global AI-digital economy. He is a partner of Dragon Global, an AI-focused family office (founding member: Dragon.AI), and he is also the Executive Director of Global Public Investment Funds Forum and an Adjunct Professor (on Sovereign Investors) at New York University (NYU) School of Law. He has been a member of NYU President's Global Council since its inception.
Most recently for 10 years, Winston was Managing Director and Head of North America Office for China Investment Corporation (CIC), China’s sovereign wealth fund. Prior to that, he served as the deputy head of equity capital markets at Barclays Capital, a vice president at J.P. Morgan investment banking, and a corporate lawyer at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP. Winston is one of a small number of native Chinese who have worked as investment professionals and practicing capital markets attorneys in both the United States and China.
In this exclusive interview with Global Investment Institute, Winston discusses the proposal by the US federal government to create a United States Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF), including how it would differ from a traditional SWF, the US Government’s strategic objectives in establishing a SWF, its role in public-private investment partnerships, the types of strategic investments it may attract and how the SWF’s asset allocation might differ from a traditional SWF.
Q. If established, how will the United States Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) proposed by the U.S. Federal Government differ from a traditional SWF?
A. Since President Donald Trump announced the establishment of a US sovereign wealth fund in February 2025, it has fuelled both expectations and controversies. Many experts are calling for a formal, legislatively grounded US sovereign wealth fund like Norway’s Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), which, as a traditional SWF, manages Norway’s export surplus derived from its natural resources.
But the unique situation here is that the US SWF is a SWF from a trade deficit country, driven by the executive power, not legislature. As such, the Trump Administration is carving an alternative SWF path – one that is distinctly bottom-up, ad hoc and industrial strategy-driven, using sovereign capital not for national savings but as an instrument for strategic investments.
Q. What strategic objectives will the U.S. Government be aiming to achieve with the establishment of a SWF?
A. The US-China race for technological supremacy is on, and the US SWF fund probably is the best tool for the US to secure American leadership in such critical technologies as artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductor microchips, and quantum computing.
To put this in the global context, the US is joining a powerful trend where SWFs – whether China or emerging economies – are the new, powerful tech investors, aggressively investing in AI and data technologies for both financial returns and strategic objectives.
For example, Gulf states have leveraged their oil wealth strategically with funds such as Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala investment fund and Riyadh’sPublic Investment Fund (PIF), which aims to position the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, respectively, as a global AI hub. Not surprisingly, Trump’s US SWF is connected with the White House’s AI Work Plan recently released.
Q. What role is there for the United States SWF to act as a catalyst for public-private investment partnerships?
A. With its long-term capital, the US sovereign wealth fund could alter the balance between state and private capital by de-risking strategic projects and attracting global co-investment into critical industries.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the Department of Defense’s (DoD) US$400 million equity investment in MP Materials, the only rare earth producer in the United States. The Pentagon is becoming MP Materials’ largest shareholder, with a potential 15% stake and long-term offtake agreements to buy 100% of the magnets made at the company’s new facility.
This investment enables the US to secure critical mineral flows, countering China’s dominance in this space. The DoD’s commitment has attracted US$1 billion in private financing from JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs to build MP’s new “10X” magnet manufacturing facility in Texas. Wall Street followed because the US investment de-risked the project by guaranteed procurement and revenue certainty.
Q. What types of strategic investments and partnerships do you expect to attract capital from the United States SWF?
A. The US SWF is emerging as a platform for co-investment in politically sensitive areas, guided by governance protocols. Stargate, the US$500 billion AI data infrastructure initiative led by OpenAI and SoftBank, could find the US sovereign wealth fund a crucial partner. The White House’s “Winning the AI Race” plan calls for fast-tracking permits for large-scale data centers and energy supply, and the US SWF could provide long-term capital for those projects to mobilise more private capital.
The Intel case happened just days ago is a perfect example.Intel, the only American company capable of making advanced chips on US soil, made an equity-for-grants transaction with the Trump Administration. Intel would receive a total US$8.9 billion awards from the US CHIPS Act and additional programs, which gives the US government a 10% stake in the struggling chipmaker. Encouraged by the US participation, Japan’s SoftBank announced its US$2 billion investment into Intel.
Q. Looking ahead, how might the United States SWF’s asset allocation differ from that of a traditional SWF in pursuing its unconventional objectives?
A. Unlike a traditional SWF, the US SWF has no formal, top-down asset allocation plan, because it has started with a “decentralised” architecture based on the Executive Branch power. That’s why in the months following Trump’s US SWF executive order, the US SWF appeared first as an ad hoc collection of US stakes in business sectors, such as Bitcoin, TikTok, and golden share of Nippon Steel-US Steel merger.
Meanwhile, from MP Materials to Intel Corporation, the US SWF’s direct, active equity participation in strategic sectors of national security consideration is an increasingly clear and focused strategy. The MP materials deal includes price floors, offtake commitments, and revenue-sharing mechanisms, integrating financing with industrial policies. The grant-for-equity play in Intel means similar deals may occur with US companies who are a regular recipient of subsidies or grants from the US. Such active, strategic positions may become a major part of the US SWF’s asset allocation going forward.
For further details, watch Winston Ma’s recent Bloomberg TV Interview: US Pursuing Unconventional Sovereign Wealth Fund.
Prof. Winston Ma, CFA Esq., GPIFF Executive Director and Adjunct Professor, NYU School of Law; Former MD, China Investment Corp (CIC)
Winston Ma, CFA & Esq., is an investor, attorney, author, and adjunct professor in the global AI-digital economy. He is a partner of Dragon Global, an AI-focused family office (founding member: Dragon.AI), and he is also the Executive Director of Global Public Investment Funds Forum and an Adjunct Professor (on Sovereign Investors) at New York University (NYU) School of Law. He has been a member of NYU President's Global Council since its inception.
Most recently for 10 years, he was Managing Director and Head of North America Office for China Investment Corporation (CIC), China’s sovereign wealth fund. Prior to that, Mr. Ma served as the deputy head of equity capital markets at Barclays Capital, a vice president at J.P. Morgan investment banking, and a corporate lawyer at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP. He is one of a small number of native Chinese who have worked as investment professionals and practicing capital markets attorneys in both the United States and China.
Mr. Ma has served on the boards of multinational listed and private companies. Most recently he was the board Chairman of Nasdaq-listed MCAA, a European tech SPAC (which entered into a merger with the digital media unit of Football Club Barcelona) and an advisory board member of Capgemini, the global IT consulting giant. In 2020-2022 he was the chairman of advisory board at Open Mineral, the first Fintech B2B metal marketplace. In 2017-2018 he was a board member of Singapore-listed Noble Group (SGX: CGP).
Formerly a nationally certified software programmer, Mr. Ma is the author of more than 10 books on SWF funds, digital economy, and global geopolitics, including The Hunt for Unicorns: How Sovereign Funds are Reshaping Investment in the Digital Economy and most recently “Blockchain and Web3” (among and 2023 and 2024 “six must-read blockchain books” by TechTarget). He has been frequently interviewed by CNBC and Bloomberg TV and quoted by major financial media including WSJ, Reuters, and Financial Times. He was selected a 2013 Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum (WEF), and in 2014 he received the NYU Distinguished Alumni Award.
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