Public pension fund holdings of AI-related companies continue to grow. In a new Equable brief, we estimate that state and local pension funds had between $578 billion and $707 billion invested in AI-related companies as of Q2 2026. That’s 9%–11% of public pension assets tied to both the upside and the downside of concentration in AI companies. We built this estimate by starting with 13F filings from public pension funds that report their holdings, extrapolating to funds that don’t (because they use external asset managers), and then adding estimated AI investments held through private equity and corporate debt (which collectively lack transparency). Pension funds could provide much more transparency about their AI investments. equable.org/report/brief-pen…

So... @LAFPP LA Fire and Police Pension is an investor in Vista Foundation Fund IV, the private equity pool used to buy ESO, the company that's been accused of creating financial stress for rural and small public safety departments. xitter.cf/anthonyrandazzo/status…

This story from @ByMikeBaker about a venture-backed company potentially financially squeezing rural fire departments is interesting. The PE fund used to back ESO — Vista Foundation Fund IV — is heavily financed with public pension dollars. At least 20 LPs are state ret. systems.

CalPERS is shifting its internal approach to measuring investment success by adopting a "total portfolio benchmark." This approach has pros/cons, but what shouldn't be lost is that CalPERS has always had a single benchmark it should hit—the assumed rate of return. There is value in having a benchmark for investment performance relative to peers, or relative to what was possible in the market. In practice, though, many public plan investment benchmarks are soft targets that can be gamed by investment managers. Plus the heavy media attention on portfolio benchmarks often obscures the most important target— what actuaries assumed returns would be when calculating contribution rates. Public plans aren't the same as other institutional investors when it comes to how we should think about their success. Beating the market, or beating other investment managers doesn't always mean a pension fund is appropriately funded. And when investments underperform the assumed return, the price is paid for by taxpayers (higher govt employer contributions) and public employees (higher member contributions, lower pay, or both).

📈New: We published State of Pensions 2025 today, an 80 page financial analysis of state and local plans. Toplines: - national funded ratio is ⬆️ to 81.4%, this is still very fragile - investments returned 5.4% for FYE 6/30 on ave, below assumptions Here's a quick summary 🧵

🗞️NEW TODAY: 1 in 3 school districts are cutting classroom priorities because teacher pension costs are devouring K-12 budgets. Survey data reveals reports from school board members and district admins on what they are cutting explicitly because of growing pension costs. 🧵

🧵 NEW: Chicago's big four pension funds have lost ~$1.58 billion since the start of 2025. $938 million of that came in just the past 7 trading days since the "Liberation Day" tariff announcement. Here's why this is a particularly serious problem.

UPDATE: When markets closed Friday, the top 25 public pension funds had lost an estimated $140.7 billion in 2025, of which $67b was since the 4/2 global tariff policy. This is less than the "pre-pause" market bottom, but still a significant problem. Let's see what today brings.

Prediction: CalPERS will report in the coming days that their preliminary investment return for 2024 is 8.64%. Next week we publish State of Pensions 2024, which reveals actual reported funded status for 2023 and forecasts financials for this year. Here's a preview:

#CalPERS just announced it underperformed it’s 6.8% assumed rate of return again. But at least they didn’t lose money this year. Here’s how the nation's largest pension fund's performance tracks against broader U.S. pension fund trends in 2023…

Unfortunately, not all of the dollars intended for the classroom wind up making it there to support learning. @jessgartner and I noted schools spend 2x on pension debt costs compared what was received in ESSER support. That exacerbates these problems. blog.allovue.com/10-for-10-p…

This is an important step for states where all pension costs are paid by the legislature. In practice, that's a subsidy and the distribution of that effective subsidy still needs to be factored into k12 funding formulas.

Pension funds don't even have to hold actual crypto assets to be exposed to this regulatory fight over global financial services platforms. Just holding stock in a well known, publicly crypto platform means that public employee retirement funds are caught up in this too. 6/6

There is meaningful debate as to whether the #binance fraud claims should be categorically related to Coinbase listings and what counts as a "security." Without wading into that fight, its notable that this Coinbase fight isn't just an issue for #cryptobros. 5/