CalPERS, the largest U.S. pension fund, increased its investments in Coinbase, Palantir, Nvidia and Robinhood in the second quarter. The fund's returns have lagged the industry average in recent years. Despite the fact that shares of public companies brought it the highest yield last year, CalPERS managers bet on another asset class.

Details

The largest U.S. pension fund by assets, California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), restructured some of its investments slightly in the second quarter, according to a report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The fund increased its stake in cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase by 42% by buying 98,827 shares. At the end of the second quarter, CalPERS had 332,791 shares of Coinbase in its portfolio.

In AI developer Palantir and artificial intelligence chip maker Nvidia, the pension fund increased its investments by about 10% to 3.6 million and 64.7 million shares, respectively.

CalPERS also purchased another 186,687 shares of Robinhood, bringing the stake to 1.26 million shares at the end of June and increasing its stake by 17.4 percent.

Context

CalPERS is the largest U.S. public pension fund, managing about $570 billion in assets and paying pensions for 2.3 million current and former California public employees.

The fund, when asked by Barron's, declined to comment on individual positions and trades for the second quarter, noting that it focuses on indexes in its investments and uses systematic and quantitative strategies without being tied to specific events. The second quarter for which the fund reported began with a major collapse in stocks due to the trade war, which caused CalPERS' asset values to plummet.

In addition, in June, former public employees who receive pensions from CalPERS initiated an independent review of the fund's performance. Over the past five years, its portfolio of stocks, bonds, real estate and private equity has returned an average of 6.6 percent a year, while the average pension fund has shown a return of 7.15 percent, according to the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems association.

CalPERS said shortly thereafter that it intends to increase its investments in private equity despite the risks, the FT wrote. The fund has already raised the target private equity share of its portfolio from 13% to 17%, while the actual share at the end of June 2025 was close to 18%, the newspaper said. Some former CalPERS board members have expressed concerns that it poses undue risk to retirees, but Calpers CEO Marcy Frost said that in the long run, private equity will outperform the stock market.

Last fiscal year, ending June 30, 2025, CalPERS posted a return of 11.6%, its best result in four years, and the funded status of its liabilities rose from 75% to 79%, the FT reported. The private equity portfolio returned 14.3%, but the most profitable asset was still public company stocks, which returned 16.8%.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor

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