The Alaska Permanent Fund reached a new milestone last week, closing at an all-time high of $83,384,400,000 on Thursday. The figure, published by the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation, surpasses the fund’s previous record of $82.1 billion set on Dec. 7, 2021.
The Permanent Fund, managed by the APFC, is a state-owned sovereign investment fund established in 1976 by a constitutional amendment approved by Alaska voters. Its purpose is to invest a portion of the state’s oil revenues to benefit current and future generations of Alaskans.
The fund receives a constitutionally mandated deposit of at least 25% of all mineral lease royalties collected by the state, and its earnings have become a major source of revenue for both the state government and the annual Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) paid to Alaska residents, since Alaskans are not able to own the subsurface mineral rights on their own properties.
Despite the record-high fund value, Alaskans can expect a relatively small dividend in 2025 of $1,000. While the Permanent Fund has grown through long-term investment strategies and market gains, most of the annual draw from the fund’s earnings reserve, set by a statutory percent of market value formula, is being drained off for government spending this year after the Legislature opted to allocate the bulk of the earnings to balance the state budget, leaving only a modest amount for Alaskans.
This year, the Legislature took 85% of the available earnings from the fund for government spending, whereas before 2016, when former Gov. Bill Walker first vetoed half of the Permanent Fund dividends, the split was 50-50, an formula that is still on the books in statute, but that has not been honored since 2016.
The Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation operates independently under a board of trustees tasked with managing the fund’s investments across a portfolio that includes public equities, private equity, fixed income, real estate, infrastructure, and other alternative assets. The principal and earnings reserve account vary from day to day but has generally remained over $80 billion for the past year.
The fund’s record high comes amid the public debate over the size of state government and the future of the PFD itself.
