Alaska Permanent Fund ends FY26 at $91.9 billion after 12.42% return

The Alaska Permanent Fund sent $3.8 billion to the state treasury this year, money that covers roughly two-thirds of the unrestricted revenue Alaska uses to pay for schools, troopers, ferries and the annual dividend check. The transfer came after the fund closed fiscal year 2026 on June 30 with a total value of $91.9 billion, up $6.8 billion from the year before, according to the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation's audited year-end results.

For a household watching the state budget fight each spring, the number that matters is the $3.8 billion draw itself. It is not new money the Legislature found — it is a fixed share of the fund's value, 5% of the average market value over five of the past six years, that state law requires the corporation to send to Juneau every year regardless of how lawmakers argue over the rest of the budget. That draw, known as the Percent of Market Value transfer, is split by lawmakers between state services and the Permanent Fund Dividend each Alaskan receives. The exact per-person dividend amount for 2026 is set separately by the Legislature and was not confirmed through a state agency source for this story.

The fund itself earned a 12.42% net return for the year, beating the board's own inflation-plus-growth target of 8.54% but falling short of a separate performance benchmark tied to market indexes, the corporation's board reported when it approved the audited financial statements on Sept. 2. The result pushed the fund's realized statutory net income to a record $8.2 billion, all of which was deposited into the fund's Earnings Reserve Account, the pool of money lawmakers can tap for dividends, state spending or savings.

One number did not move this year: inflation proofing. The Legislature did not appropriate any money to protect the fund's principal against inflation in fiscal 2026, an amount the corporation estimates at $1.5 billion. Skipping that step does not shrink the fund today, but it means the $73.8 billion in principal — the permanently invested core that by law cannot be spent — loses a measure of its real purchasing power for future Alaskans compared with a year in which lawmakers fund inflation proofing. The corporation's board has pushed for years for a constitutional change that would make inflation proofing automatic rather than optional.

The fund's growth now rests heavily on markets outside Alaska. Public stocks were the single largest source of revenue in the audited results, and the corporation's asset mix is weighted toward equities, bonds, private equity and real estate spread across dozens of countries. That diversification is also why the swings in global markets now flow more directly into the state budget than they did decades ago, when the fund was smaller relative to Alaska's overall finances. The $3.8 billion draw this year, by the corporation's own accounting, now supplies about two-thirds of the state's unrestricted general-fund revenue — a dependence that has grown steadily since oil production and oil-tax revenue declined from their peak.

The fund traces back to a $734,000 deposit of oil royalty money on Feb. 28, 1977, following a 1976 constitutional amendment that set aside a quarter of the state's oil, gas and mining royalties for long-term investment. The corporation's 2026 annual report marks the fund's 50th anniversary and notes the fund has generated $119.8 billion in total earnings since inception, with $51.4 billion of that already paid out to the state and dividend recipients and $68.4 billion still invested.

For most of its history, the annual dividend check came directly from a statutory formula tied to fund earnings. A 2017 Alaska Supreme Court ruling, followed by legislative action, made the dividend subject to annual appropriation like any other line in the state budget, even though the old formula remains in statute. That change is why the size of each year's check is now a political decision made in Juneau every spring rather than an automatic calculation — and why the fund's strong investment year does not by itself guarantee a larger payment to any individual Alaskan.

The corporation's Board of Trustees met in Nome on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 for its annual meeting, where trustees adopted an updated investment policy and reelected Jason Brune as board chair and Ethan Schutt as vice chair, according to the corporation's annual report materials. The board also advanced a proposed fiscal year 2028 budget for the corporation itself, which now goes to the governor's budget office for review ahead of the next legislative session.