How Pension Funds Invest: CalPERS, GPIF, CPP Compared

Pension funds hold more than shares and bonds. CalPERS, California's public pension fund, held 19.4% of its fund in private equity on 30 June 2026. Private equity means ownership of companies that are not listed on a stock exchange. Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) held 1.74% of its portfolio in alternative investments on 31 March 2026. That wider group includes private equity, infrastructure and real estate.

Pension funds invest contributions today to pay retirement benefits later. This post sets the published asset mixes of CalPERS and GPIF side by side. It then adds the returns of CPP Investments, which invests the Canada Pension Plan (CPP). Every figure comes from the fund's own report.

Equities are shares in companies. Public equity is shares listed on a stock exchange, while private equity is ownership of companies that are not listed.

Bonds are loans to governments or companies that pay interest. Credit is lending to companies, including loans that do not trade on a market. Our post on bond prices and yields explains how bonds work.

Real assets are property and infrastructure, which means assets such as roads and power networks. A fund's asset mix is the share of the fund held in each kind of asset. Our post on asset classes covers the wider list.

We take each mix from the fund's own report. CalPERS's Trust Level Review, its year-end report on the whole fund, gives its mix at 30 June 2026. GPIF's results overview gives its mix at 31 March 2026. CPP Investments' year-end results release gives its returns and assets at the same date.

The funds use different labels, so we group them into the kinds above. For CalPERS, bonds and credit adds its fixed income (bonds), US Treasury bond and private debt lines. Private debt is loans made outside public markets.

GPIF reports no separate private equity line. It files its alternative investments inside its four classes.

Source: CalPERS, GPIF and CPP Investments reports

We do not rank the funds on returns. Their years end on different dates. GPIF reports before fees, but CalPERS and CPP Investments report after costs.

The chart shows public equity as the largest group at CalPERS, while bonds are the largest at GPIF. CalPERS holds 38.0% in public equity. GPIF holds 48.61% in equities and 51.39% in bonds. Both figures include its alternative investments, which GPIF counts in all four of its asset classes.

GPIF splits its fund about 25% across four classes. CalPERS puts 19.4% into private equity. GPIF's overview gives no private equity share, only the 1.74% for all alternative investments.

CalPERS is the California Public Employees' Retirement System, with 2.4 million members. Its main fund held $635.4 billion on 30 June 2026. Its funded status was 85.1%, which compares the fund's assets with the pension benefits it owes.

The fund returned 14.8% in the year to 30 June 2026, after investment expenses.

CalPERS reports eleven lines. Active public equity is 20.4% and indexed public equity is 17.6%, which makes public equity 38.0%. Active means managers pick the holdings. Indexed means the fund copies an index. Private equity is 19.4%.

The eleventh line is financing, at minus 8.8%.

Financing means raising money to hold more assets than the fund's own money buys. The report shows financing as a negative share because it is borrowed money.

Derivatives are contracts whose value follows another asset. The report puts the financing and derivatives activities that create recourse to the fund at 11.2% of the fund, against a policy limit of 20%. The 11.2% is the 8.8% plus 2.4% from positions inside the other lines.

The chart compares each line with 30 June 2025. Indexed public equity fell from 25.1% to 17.6%, while active public equity rose from 13.8% to 20.4%. Private equity rose from 17.7% to 19.4%.

CalPERS reports returns for five asset classes. Public equity returned 24.1%, income 5.8%, private equity 17.0%, real assets 6.3% and private debt 11.0%. CalPERS values the last three one quarter late, so their returns run to 31 March 2026.

CalPERS's reference portfolio, its yardstick, is 75% global equities and 25% US Treasury bonds. The 60/40 portfolio is the classic version of that split.

GPIF invests Japan's public pension reserve. Its assets were ¥293.6 trillion at 31 March 2026.

GPIF's policy mix is 25% in each of four classes: domestic bonds, foreign bonds, domestic equities and foreign equities. A policy mix is the target the fund aims for. Each class has a deviation limit, which is how far it may drift from target: 6 percentage points of the total fund, or 5 for foreign bonds.

At 31 March 2026 the actual mix was 26.91% domestic bonds, 24.48% foreign bonds, 23.81% domestic equities and 24.80% foreign equities. Alternative investments were 1.74% of the portfolio, against a maximum of 5%.

GPIF returned 16.47% in the year to 31 March 2026, before fees. Domestic bonds lost 5.11%, while domestic equities gained 34.62%.

The chart shows domestic bonds as the only class that lost money. Foreign bonds gained 12.33%, while domestic equities gained 34.62%.

Rebalancing means trading to bring a mix back toward its target. GPIF's report lists net rebalancing of ¥14.8 trillion into domestic bonds and ¥10.7 trillion out of domestic equities.

CPP Investments manages the money of the CPP, which has more than 22 million contributors and beneficiaries. Its net assets were C$793.3 billion at 31 March 2026, up C$78.9 billion in the year. Net income was C$56.9 billion. Net transfers from the CPP added C$22.0 billion.

The fund's net return was 7.8% in the year to 31 March 2026. Its 10-year net return was 8.8% a year. Net means after costs.

The chart shows net returns by asset class over the five years to 31 March 2026. Private equities returned 9.1% a year and public equities 8.9%. Government bonds returned 0.5% a year, the lowest of the five classes. The total fund returned 6.6% a year.

Bonds can lose money. GPIF's domestic bonds lost 5.11% in the year to 31 March 2026. CPP Investments' government bonds returned only 0.5% a year over five years.

Borrowing raises both gains and losses. CalPERS's financing line is minus 8.8% of its fund, which means it holds more assets than its own money buys.

Private assets are valued late. CalPERS reports private equity, real assets and private debt a quarter behind its public assets.

A fund can trail its own benchmark. CPP Investments returned 7.8% net in the year to 31 March 2026, while its benchmark portfolios, built from public market indexes, returned 13.2%.

Pension funds invest contributions across equities, bonds and private assets to pay benefits later. The funds here hold them in different shares. CalPERS reports borrowing, while GPIF reports a small share in alternatives.

Our post on real money investors covers the wider group of long-term investors that pension funds belong to.

The Academy is free to read, here on the web. The Long Trend, our free weekly letter, comes by email.

This explainer is part of the YX Insights Academy. Each one takes a single idea and checks it against real data.

The same approach runs through everything else we publish:

Good places to start on the website:

Yes. Public equity, meaning shares listed on a stock exchange, was 38.0% of CalPERS on 30 June 2026. GPIF held 48.61% in equities, both domestic and foreign, on 31 March 2026. GPIF counts its alternative investments inside its four asset classes. Both funds also hold bonds and other assets.

Yes. CalPERS holds private equity, which is ownership of companies not listed on an exchange, as a separate line: 19.4% of the fund on 30 June 2026. GPIF reports 1.74% in alternative investments, a group that includes private equity, at 31 March 2026.

CalPERS does. Its asset mix shows financing of minus 8.8% at 30 June 2026, which means it holds more assets than its own money buys. Its report puts the financing and derivatives activities that create recourse to the fund at 11.2% of the fund, against a policy limit of 20%.

It needs enough to pay the benefits it owes. The CalPERS board assumes its fund earns 6.8% a year on average. The fund returned 14.8% in the year to 30 June 2026, after investment expenses. Over ten years it returned 8.6% a year.

It comes from contributions and investment returns. CalPERS's year-end value reflects employer and employee contributions, payments to retirees, fees and returns. CPP Investments' assets rose C$78.9 billion in the year to 31 March 2026. Net income was C$56.9 billion. The other C$22.0 billion was net transfers from the CPP.

DISCLAIMER: This article is intended for educational purposes only. Any information or analysis in this note does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. Nothing in this note is intended to be investment advice, nor should it be relied upon to make investment decisions. Any opinions, analyses, or probabilities expressed in this note are those of the author as of the note's date of publication and are subject to change without notice.