FT ranks Azerbaijan second among world’s largest gold buyers

The Financial Times has identified Azerbaijan as one of the world’s largest buyers of gold, ranking second only to China, after reviewing British export statistics.

According to the newspaper, Azerbaijan took second place in an informal global ranking of so-called “golden whales,” a position held by a country not usually associated with massive gold purchases.

FT explained that Azerbaijan’s State Oil Fund (SOFAZ), which manages assets estimated at about $70 billion, has been pursuing an extensive diversification strategy in recent years, significantly expanding its holdings of gold. At the same time, the fund has continued to invest in high-profile real estate assets abroad, including 78 St James’s Street in London, 8 Place Vendôme in Paris, and the Gallery Actor building in Moscow.

The Financial Times placed particular emphasis on the growing role of gold in SOFAZ’s portfolio. The share of the precious metal increased from 20.6% at the end of 2024 to 38.2% by the end of 2025. This surge was driven not only by a sharp rise in global gold prices, but also by an increase in physical holdings. The fund’s gold reserves rose from 146.6 tonnes at the end of 2024 to 200 tonnes by the close of 2025.

The article noted that for many years, SOFAZ has been regarded as one of the world’s most transparent sovereign wealth funds in terms of asset disclosure and the reporting of management companies.

The author added that revised estimates calculated by the Financial Times appear far more striking, to the point that they could even surpass the performance of Norway’s Pension Fund or New Zealand’s Sovereign Wealth Fund, also known as the New Zealand Super Fund.

According to FT’s assessment, when gold is included in the calculations, the overall return on SOFAZ’s investment portfolio stood at 5.3% in 2020 and exceeded 20% in 2025.

As a result, the Financial Times concluded that Azerbaijan’s aggressive expansion of its gold reserves has proven to be among the most effective strategies pursued by sovereign investors in recent years, even if these results are not yet fully reflected in official financial reports.

SOFAZ data, meanwhile, show that excluding gold, the fund’s investment portfolio generated returns of 2.82% in 2020 and 6.2% in 2025.

By Tamilla Hasanova