As per the quarter ending (December 31st) securities filings, The Teacher Retirement System of Texas, the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) and the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System were among the seven pension funds for which bought stakes in the EV startup Rivian. 

Seven state government employee pension funds including CalPERS, the largest U.S. pension plan, took stakes in electric vehicle startup Rivian Automotive Inc in the quarter that ended Dec 31.

As per the data from fund tracker WhaleWisdom, CalPERS, which has approximately $492 billion under management, bought slightly more than 305,000 shares in the zero revenue company, while the $191 billion Teacher Retirement System of Texas fund took a position of about 33,000 shares in the company.

Last week, George Soros was unveiled as a prominent investor in the EV startup, buying 20 million shares and raising the Irvine, California based start-up’s value to more than $140 billion.  

The moves illustrate a greater appetite for risk among U.S. pension funds as they continue to face funding gaps despite U.S. equity market gains since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.