• The Biden administration appears to be exploring the possibility of a sovereign wealth fund.

• Last week, Donald Trump proposed a similar idea.

• The fund could support technology, energy, and supply chain initiatives or even ease national debt.

Bipartisanship in the United States is unusual, especially during election time.

So it is noteworthy that Democratic and Republican leaders both appear to want to establish a sovereign wealth fund to help the United States pay for stuff.

Top aides to President Joe Biden, including National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and his deputy, Daleep Singh, have been quietly developing plans for a sovereign wealth fund over the past several months, Bloomberg reported.

The details, including the structure, funding, and investment strategy, remain unclear, but planning documents are making the rounds through the White House and Biden hopes to make it happen before he leaves office.

News of Biden's effort came not long after former president Donald Trump called for a similar state-owned investment fund to finance "great national endeavors" during a campaign stop at the Economic Club of New York last week.

Sovereign wealth funds are an old idea that many other countries — particularly ones that generate vast wealth from their natural resources, like Saudi Arabia or Norway — have long used to pay for big things. Countries park their cash reserves in the state-owned fund so it can grow.

Norway's $1.6 trillion Government Pension Fund Global, the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world, for instance, reported in January that it made $213 billion in profit last year driven by returns on investments in tech stocks, Reuters reported. The Norges Bank Investment Management, the branch of Norway's central bank that oversees the fund, said the fund is supported by investment returns on equities, fixed income, real estate, renewable energy infrastructure, and revenue from oil and gas production.

Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, which manages about $925 billion in assets, reported a $36.8 billion profit for 2023, according to Reuters. The PIF says it is funded through four avenues — capital injections from the government, government assets transferred to PIF, loans and debt instruments, and retained earnings from investments. That money is being used to invest in everything from Uber and Blackstone to Heathrow and LIV Golf. It's also using it to finance Vision 2030, a huge initiative to transform the country's economy and reduce its reliance on oil.

It is unclear how an American fund would be, well, funded, or how it would operate. But people familiar with the Biden administration's plans told Bloomberg that if the United States launched a fund, it could invest in national security interests like technology, energy, and supply chain initiatives.