Effectively, it's a government-run hedge fund that invests in assets like stocks, bonds, real estate, and infrastructure. It's a fairly straightforward process: the government provides funds, and the SWF invest it into risky assets to try to earn profits. This is the same as any investment company, only that its sole investor is the government.

The Treasury and Commerce Departments are drafting a plan detailing how a federal sovereign wealth fund might be structured, funded, and managed.

Several U.S. states already have sovereign wealth funds — government-controlled investment funds that enable excess capital to be invested — including those backed by energy and mineral resources, such as the $80.5 billion Alaska Permanent Fund Corp., Juneau, the largest in the U.S.