Investor AB holds approximately 9.9% of Ericsson's shares and casts approximately 24.8% of its votes. The wedge is 14.9 percentage points, and it is the least interesting thing about this company's control.
A tenth of a vote
As of 31 December 2025 Ericsson had 3,371,351,735 shares issued: 261,755,983 Class A shares carrying one vote each, and 3,109,595,752 Class B shares carrying one tenth of a vote each. Both classes have the same rights of participation in the net assets and earnings.
The Swedish ratio is 10:1, not the 20:1 or 100:1 that US founder classes reach for, and the modesty is deceptive. Our arithmetic: the Class A shares are 7.8% of the capital and 45.7% of the votes. Every Class A share is worth ten of the shares that 92% of the capital consists of.
Two houses, 39.8% of the votes, 12.5% of the capital
The company names three largest shareholders at year-end:
| Holder | Votes | Shares |
|---|---|---|
| Investor AB | ~24.8% | 9.9% |
| AB Industrivärden | ~15.0% | 2.6% |
| AMF Tjänstepension and AMF Fonder | ~5.1% | 3.2% |
Industrivärden's wedge is 12.4 points on a stake of one fortieth of the company. Investor and Industrivärden together vote roughly two fifths of Ericsson on an eighth of its capital.
They are not disclosed as acting in concert, and we do not assume it. They do both sit on the same committee.
The committee of owners
This is the part with no American equivalent, and it matters more than the share classes.
Under the Instruction adopted by the Annual General Meeting, Ericsson's Nomination Committee consists of representatives of the four largest shareholders by voting power at the end of the month of the AGM, together with the Chair of the Board. It proposes the board members and the board fees that the AGM then votes on. Its members are paid nothing.
The current committee:
- Johan Forssell, appointed by Investor AB — Chair of the Nomination Committee
- Helena Stjernholm, appointed by AB Industrivärden
- Anders Oscarsson, appointed by AMF Tjänstepension and AMF Fonder
- Christer Gardell, appointed by Cevian Capital
In a US company, the nominating committee is a committee of the board, staffed by independent directors, and a shareholder who wants a different board fights a proxy contest against the slate. In Sweden it is a committee of the owners, seated in order of voting power, and it writes the slate before the contest can begin.
Investor AB does not need to win a vote to shape Ericsson's board. It chairs the body that decides what shareholders will be asked to approve. Jacob Wallenberg was re-elected to the Ericsson board at the 2025 AGM.
What turnout does to 24.8%
At the Annual General Meeting held on 25 March 2025, 3,254 shareholders were represented, accounting for approximately 72% of the votes.
The following is our arithmetic, not a disclosure. Against votes actually represented rather than votes outstanding, Investor AB's 24.8% becomes roughly 34%, and Industrivärden's 15.0% becomes roughly 21%. The two together approach 55% of the votes in the room — a majority — on 12.5% of the capital. This assumes both vote their full holdings at a meeting where turnout matches 2025's, which the filing does not state.
The published percentage understates the position, as published percentages usually do when turnout is not 100%.
Why this profile does publish a Control Wedge
Ericsson is the clean case, and it is worth saying why after Swatch, where we declined.
There is one economic class of stock in substance: Class A and Class B differ in votes and in nothing else, and the company says so directly. A share is a share for the purpose of measuring economic ownership, so voting power minus economic ownership means what our definition intends it to mean. 24.8 minus 9.9 is a real number about a real divergence.
What the wedge does not capture is the second layer. Investor AB is itself an investment company controlled through a comparable Swedish structure, and the foundations above it are where the durability of all of this actually lives. Ericsson's filing does not describe that arrangement, and we do not cite documents we have not read.
What is not established here
Investor AB's own ownership and control. It sits in Investor AB's filings, not in Ericsson's, and a profile of the layer above belongs in its own entry.
Whether Investor AB and AB Industrivärden coordinate their votes. Both hold Nomination Committee seats and have done for years; neither is disclosed as a party to any agreement with the other.
The split of Investor AB's own holding between Class A and Class B shares. It is roughly inferable from the two published percentages, but the company reports both as approximate, and an inference drawn from two rounded figures is not a disclosure.