By David Randall

NEW YORK (Reuters), Seven U.S. state pension funds, CalPERS being the largest, purchased stakes at Rivian Automobile Inc. in the last quarter ended Dec. 31 according to filings.

Data from WhaleWisdom fund tracker WhaleWisdom shows that the Texas Teacher Retirement System and California Public Employees Retirement System are among those seven, along with the pension funds for Utah and North Carolina, North Carolina, and Wisconsin.

CalPERS has purchased slightly more than 350,000 shares of company while $191 billion Teacher Retirement System of Texas held a position of approximately 33,000 shares.

These moves show a higher appetite for risk by U.S. pension fund managers as they face funding gap despite U.S. stock market gains in the last year. Global SWF, an expert in sovereign investors, reports that overall, pension plans’ funded ratios – which are measures of assets and liabilities – is still below 75%.

Rivian’s shares rose by nearly 10% after learning that prominent investors, including George Soros (billionaire) and Tiger Global (hedge fund manager), had purchased shares of the company in the last quarter.

Rivian’s shares had fallen 43% in the past year as of Friday’s close. Shares of Rivian are trading at $64.75, a 64% drop from their Nov. 16 high of $179.46, less than one week following the most significant stock debut since 2021: $12B in capital raising.

These filings (13-fs) are retroactive and don’t disclose whether the firm has added or sold since December 31st.