Are New York’s biggest pension funds investing in Elon Musk?

A controversial salute and mass federal layoffs (among many other things) seemed to be enough for New York City Council Finance Chair Justin Brannan to push for New York City to divest from Elon Musk’s companies. 

The city’s pension funds have significant investments in Tesla at the moment, something Brannan – who is running for New York City comptroller – says he wants to change. 

“Musk and his team of unelected oligarchs have been taking a sledgehammer to our government,” Brannan said in a video posted on social media. “I don’t think the city of New York should be doing business with Elon Musk when he’s got New York City in the crosshairs.”

This spurred City & State to look into how invested the city, state and power players within New York are tied to the South African-born billionaire and his six companies: Tesla, SpaceX, X, The Boring Company, Neuralink and xAI. However, research into the investment holdings found not all of it to be transparent. 

The city holds 3,083,386 shares of Tesla worth $1.25 billion as of the end of January, according to the city comptroller’s office. The office could not disclose whether the city held investments in any of Musk’s other companies, which are all privately held.

The state is also heavily invested in Tesla. As of the end of December, the New York State Common Retirement Fund held 3,515,994 shares of Tesla worth $1.42 billion, according to the state pension fund’s most recent SEC filing. The fund also purchased several bonds secured by leases on Tesla vehicles, two of which have been paid back in full with interest. 

The city owns a single Tesla vehicle, a Model 3, which is inactive among its fleet of 30,000 vehicles. In 2021, the city Department of Citywide Administrative Services entered into a contract with Tesla to purchase $12.3 million worth of Tesla Model 3s, but that agreement was never finalized, according to a department spokesperson.

SUNY told City & State that it has no direct investments in any of Musk’s companies. But CUNY declined to comment after nearly a week of multiple inquiries regarding any holdings into Musk-owned companies within their investment pool.  

Unions were similarly opaque. 

Only 32BJ, which represents building services employees, was willing to state that among its $4 billion in pension assets, no direct investments were tied to any of Musk’s companies. 

Queries to other prominent unions and their pension funds in New York, including Teamsters Joint Council 16, New York Taxi Workers Alliance and DC37, went unanswered. A spokesperson for 1199 SEIU’s fund, following a prolonged exchange of emails with City & State, ultimately said that she could not provide any information on the union’s investments.  

Many union funds, including1199 SEIU’s, operate as Taft-Hartley funds, which means that, legally speaking, the fund is separate from the union. Investment decisions are made not by the union members or even the union leaders but by the fund itself, which is typically governed by a board of trustees made up of both union and employer representatives. Fund managers for union pensions typically do not disclose investments. 

Musk drew criticism after creating a super PAC that donated $249 million to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and was brought on to his administration as a “special government employee,” The layoffs of thousands in government jobs followed. Since Musk’s crusade began, Tesla stocks tumbled from over $420 per share to $254.11 per share. 

If the city and state pension systems’ holdings of Tesla shares stayed constant, both funds would have lost $472.2 million and $533 million, respectively, based on their most updated holdings.    

A majority of Americans disapprove of Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency created to carry out his cuts to agencies and spending. A “Tesla Takedown” movement has ripped through Tesla dealerships throughout the country, which have faced protests over Musk and his involvement in government thus far.