The Largest Pension Funds in the World

The four largest pension funds run very different mandates. Two invest almost entirely in public markets; two are pooled national systems that index or outsource most of what they hold.

The Government Pension Fund Global is the world's largest pension fund and its largest sovereign wealth fund, built from Norway's North Sea oil revenue and run by Norges Bank Investment Management. It returned 15.1% in 2025 and ended the year near NOK 21.3 trillion, about $2.0 trillion, per NBIM's 2025 annual report. The fund stays in listed markets: 71.3% equities across 7,201 companies, 26.5% fixed income, and small unlisted real estate and renewable-energy sleeves. It holds no private equity. In 2024 Norway's Ministry of Finance again declined NBIM's proposal to add unlisted equity, a 3-5% allocation worth $40 billion to $70 billion, per IPE. For managers, Norway is a public-markets investor, not a private-fund LP.

The Government Pension Investment Fund is Japan's national pension reserve and, for more than two decades, was the world's largest pension fund until Norway passed it in the Thinking Ahead Institute's 2025 ranking. GPIF held ¥293.4 trillion, about $1.9 trillion, at the end of December 2025, per GPIF. Its policy portfolio splits evenly across domestic and foreign stocks and bonds, roughly a quarter each. Alternatives are capped at 5% of assets and sat near 2% in 2025, so the fund has room to grow into private markets. GPIF reaches alternatives through fund-of-funds gatekeepers rather than direct GP commitments, and in 2025 it built an alternatives database as the first screen in manager selection, per Pensions & Investments.

The Thrift Savings Plan is the defined-contribution plan for US federal employees and the uniformed services, run by the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board. It closed 2025 at $1.073 trillion across about 7.3 million accounts, up $109.8 billion on the year, per FedWeek, having crossed $1 trillion at midyear. The plan offers a short menu of index funds: its C Fund tracks the S&P 500 and returned 17.85% in 2025, and its I Fund, an international index, returned 32.45%. The TSP holds no private markets and hires no outside active managers. For fund managers, it is scale without a door.

The National Pension Service is South Korea's national pension and the third-largest single retirement system. It ended 2025 at ₩1,458 trillion, about $1.02 trillion, after a record 18.8% return, per NPS. Public equities passed 50% of the fund for the first time in 2025, and alternatives reached about 16%, split across private equity, real estate, and infrastructure. NPS is extending its private-markets reach: it opened a San Francisco office in 2024, its fourth overseas branch, as a US West Coast hub for alternatives and direct technology deals, per KED Global. It is among the more approachable large Asian LPs for managers with scale.

Below the four giants sit the funds that shape private-markets fundraising most directly, through fund commitments, co-investments, and in-house teams.

CPP Investments manages the Canada Pension Plan and is the largest of the "Maple 8," Canada's eight big public funds whose direct-investing "Canadian model" is now copied worldwide. Net assets reached C$793.3 billion, about $575 billion, at the fiscal year ending March 31, 2026, per CPP Investments. The fund runs roughly 85% of its assets in-house and credits private equity with 52% of its returns over the past five years. It invests three ways: fund commitments to external GPs, direct stakes, and co-investments alongside partners, with direct and co-investment a growing share. For managers, CPP is both an LP and a competitor, screening for co-investment partners as much as for blind-pool funds.

The California Public Employees' Retirement System is the largest US public pension. It reached $637.1 billion at June 30, 2026 after a preliminary 14.8% return, its best year since 2014, with private equity up 17%, per CalMatters and Pensions & Investments. In 2024 CalPERS raised its private-assets target to as much as 40% of the fund, from 33%, and a 2022 strategy overhaul added co-investment and grew the private equity book from about $60 billion to $100 billion in three years. Its funded ratio improved to 85%. CalPERS is among the most consequential LPs in private markets, and its investment committee agendas are public.

The California State Teachers' Retirement System is the world's largest educator-only pension, at roughly $382 billion in late 2025 after an 8.5% net return in fiscal 2024-25, per CalSTRS. Its Collaborative Model, run since 2017, keeps 75% of global equities and 85% of fixed income in-house and leans on co-investment to cut fees. It saved more than $550 million in 2024 and over $2 billion cumulatively, running at 43.8 basis points of cost against a 63.1-point peer benchmark. CalSTRS is now raising its co-investment target from 20-25% to 35% of the private-markets portfolio, per Institutional Investor. For managers, that means more deals shared directly and fewer plain fund commitments.

Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP is the pension for Dutch government and education workers and Europe's largest fund, at €533 billion, about $626 billion, at the end of 2025, per ABP. Its funded ratio rose to 123.5%, among the healthiest of any large plan. ABP is preparing for the Netherlands' new pension system under the Future Pensions Act, which converts Dutch schemes from defined benefit to defined contribution; its administrator, APG, plans to move ABP into the new system by 2027, per Top1000funds. The shift is pushing Dutch capital toward higher-returning assets. ABP invests globally through APG across public and private markets.

Two more systems round out the ten. Malaysia's Employees Provident Fund, a national provident scheme for more than 18 million members, ended 2025 at RM1.41 trillion, about $350 billion, with 39% of assets invested abroad, per the EPF. New York State's Common Retirement Fund, the third-largest US public pension, closed its fiscal year at a record $295.4 billion on March 31, 2026 after an 11.94% return, per New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

The largest pension funds write some of the biggest checks in private markets. A single public-plan commitment to a fund commonly runs from $50 million to several hundred million dollars, and the largest plans commit billions a year across managers. That scale makes a large pension an anchor limited partner, though rarely the first one in.

Allocation splits between fund commitments and direct or co-investment. Norway's GPFG stays in listed markets and commits to no private funds. GPIF reaches alternatives only through fund-of-funds gatekeepers. The Canadian and Californian plans, by contrast, blend fund commitments with heavy co-investment and, at CPP Investments, direct deals.

Sector preferences have converged on private equity, private credit, infrastructure, and real estate. Public plans screen for fit against a board-approved asset allocation, manager track record, fees, and co-investment rights, not quarterly performance. Their edge is duration: a multi-decade horizon lets them hold illiquid assets that shorter-lived investors cannot.

Decision cadence is slow, committee-driven, and unusually public. US plans such as CalPERS, CalSTRS, and New York State route commitments through investment committees whose agendas, consultant memos, and commitment amounts are published in board materials. Diligence on a single fund commitment can run several quarters.

Not every large pension hires external managers. CalPERS, CalSTRS, New York State, Korea's NPS, and Japan's GPIF are active fund investors and co-investors. Norway's GPFG commits to no private funds, and the Thrift Savings Plan is index-only, so neither is an LP despite its size.

For the plans that do allocate, the consultant is the gate. Most US public plans lean on a private-markets consultant, and getting onto that consultant's recommended list matters more than any single meeting. Large plans layer specialists such as StepStone, Hamilton Lane, Aksia, Albourne, and Cambridge Associates alongside a general consultant.

The gatekeeper reality favors established managers. Public plans prefer long track records and the capacity to absorb large tickets, which makes a first-time fund a hard sell without a differentiated strategy or a warm institutional introduction. Plans that co-invest, such as CPP Investments and CalSTRS, screen for deal partners, not blind-pool funds.

Public board materials are the clearest map of a plan's behavior. Investment committee agendas name the asset-class heads who decide, the consultants who advise, and the commitments made, quarter by quarter. Altss maps pension funds within its coverage of 30,000+ institutional investors, RIAs, and family offices, tracking each plan's investment teams, mandates, and publicly observable activity from filings, board minutes, and OSINT-derived signals, with verified decision-makers refreshed on a sub-30-day cycle, in-platform. The data shortens the research, not the relationship: it shows who runs private equity or infrastructure at a plan and what that plan is backing, so outreach reaches the right desk.

Figures are drawn from each fund's own reports and the following authoritative sources.