GB News co-owner ‘cashing in on climate chaos’ after leap in fossil fuel investments, critics say
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- Marshall Wace nearly tripled its fossil fuel investments to $2.8bn (£2.1bn) in Q1 2026, with its Chevron stake surging from $196m to $864m — the single largest increase
- Marshall Wace opened new positions in ConocoPhillips ($163m), Shell ($72m), Devon Energy ($35m) and oilfield services firms SLB and Halliburton, the latter increasing 500-fold
- Marshall Wace cut its renewable energy and battery holdings by 30% over the same quarter, leaving them at $415m
- GB News broadcast 953 attacks on climate science during the 2024 general election period, and Ofcom is investigating whether the channel breached impartiality rules in a Trump interview where he called climate change "a hoax"
- Marshall told the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship conference on 23 June that net zero was "an ideology of fear and destruction" and that human-caused heating was "still subject to debate"
- Marshall Wace sold roughly 60% of its ExxonMobil stake (to $47m) during the quarter, and overall SEC-declared investments fell from about $110bn to $100bn — though fossil fuel share counts themselves also grew by at least 50%
- Marshall Wace retains $909m in EV manufacturers — 85% of which is Tesla — even as its dedicated renewable-energy positions shrank
- A Marshall Wace spokesperson called the analysis "partial and inaccurate" and declined to provide alternative figures, saying public filings "give a completely misleading picture" because they exclude short positions
Why it matters: Marshall's £950m personal fortune is tied to a $90bn hedge fund whose largest new bet was a fund he also owns — GB News — using its airwaves to attack the same climate policies his portfolio profits by opposing. Ofcom is already weighing whether GB News breached impartiality rules, putting the regulator on a collision course with the channel's ownership structure.
