The Swiss National Bank's holdings of US-listed equities climbed by about 3% in the first quarter, reaching $173.8 billion at the end of March, according to a filing the central bank submitted to US securities regulators.
That total represents the SNB's largest tally in four years and its second-highest level ever. The central bank's peak holding was recorded in March 2022, when the value of its US stock positions was slightly over $177 billion.
The SNB maintains stakes across a broad swath of the US equity market, reporting ownership interests in more than 2,300 US-listed companies. Equities make up just over a quarter of the SNB's foreign-currency reserve portfolio, and a portion of that equity allocation is dedicated to American stocks.
Among the individual names, the three largest holdings in the SNB's US stock portfolio are Nvidia Corp, Apple Inc, and Microsoft Corp. In addition, the central bank holds a $981 million position in Palantir Technologies Inc, a defense software company, an investment that has attracted protests.
The filing with the US regulator provides a snapshot of how the SNB has positioned its foreign-exchange reserves, underlining the central bank's substantial exposure to US equities and to several leading technology companies. The size of these holdings and their composition highlight the role of American markets within the SNB's broader reserve management strategy.
While the filing shows a modest quarter-over-quarter increase in the dollar value of these positions, it also reflects the variability of reserve valuations over time: the current total ranks just below the March 2022 peak of slightly more than $177 billion.
The disclosure further indicates that the SNB's equity holdings are widely diversified across thousands of US-listed names, even as the largest individual weightings are concentrated in a small number of major technology firms and include a notable position in a defense software company that has faced dissent.