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Protesters occupy the entrance to the New York City offices of Palantir. The state pension fund’s investment in the tech giant has become a flashpoint in the race for state comptroller, with two progressive challengers hitting incumbent Thomas P. DiNapoli on the issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Michael M. Santiago\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
ALBANY\u00a0\u2014 Raj Goyle and Drew Warshaw have spent much of their respective campaigns for New York state comptroller<\/a> arguing that stock investments carry ethical obligations.\u00a0<\/p>\n As they vie to become the steward of one of the largest public pensions in the country, the two progressive Democratic candidates believe that duty should involve\u00a0divesting from companies<\/a> that support immigration enforcement, the fossil fuel industry and other business pursuits they disfavor.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n At issue in Thomas\u00a0P. DiNapoli\u2019s first primary fight since taking office nearly 20 years ago is whether the investment power of New York\u2019s nearly $300 billion public pension fund should be deployed to exert political and ethical pressure. Goyle and Warshaw want to redirect those assets to help everyday New Yorkers shoulder the state\u2019s high cost of living into companies that better align with progressive values.<\/p>\n The other path, followed by\u00a0DiNapoli, is to continue the passive, broadly diversified strategy that has guided the fund since the 1970s.\u00a0<\/p>\n One of Goyle and Warshaw\u2019s most visible targets is Palantir Technologies Inc., a multi-billion-dollar analytics company in which the state pension fund has invested millions of dollars. But until recently, Palantir was also part of\u00a0the\u00a0investment portfolios<\/a>\u00a0of the two Democratic challengers.<\/p>\n Make the Times Union a Preferred Source on Google to see more of our journalism when you search.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n In fact, all three of the Democratic candidates competing in the June 23 primary have reported personal investments tied to\u00a0Palantir and other companies that have formed the backbone of President Donald\u00a0J. Trump\u2019s immigration enforcement dragnet.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Raj Goyle, a Democratic challenger for New York state comptroller, has been the most vocal critic of the public pension funds invested in Palantir.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n is interviewed ahead of his primary on Monday, June 8, 2026, at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y. (Will Waldron\/Times Union)<\/p>\n Will Waldron\/Times Union<\/p>\n Those investments also include Amazon, telecommunications giant AT&T and the company that runs Delaney Hall, a New Jersey immigration detention center that has become the most recent flashpoint in Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown.\u00a0<\/p>\n When questioned about their personal investments and how they square them with criticism of the state pension fund\u2019s management, both Warshaw and Goyle told the Times Union they have since dumped their holdings in index funds with investments in Palantir.\u00a0<\/p>\n Both said they had divested from the Palantir-linked funds while DiNapoli had not.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u2018Untested, unfounded\u2019<\/p>\n DiNapoli said the pension fund\u2019s investment decisions should not be driven by the question of whether a company is drawing political scrutiny at the moment; the goal is delivering steady returns, a strategy that has nearly doubled its assets during his nearly two-decade tenure.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhatever strategies they\u2019re talking about are untested, unfounded and run the risk of really undoing and jeopardizing the retirement security of our 1.3 million members,\u201d DiNapoli said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Broad market indexes are a cornerstone of the pension fund\u2019s investment strategy, he said, and excluding companies based on political controversies could undermine performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Rather than divest,\u00a0DiNapoli said the state can use its influence as a shareholder to pressure companies to change their behavior. In 2022, for example, he announced an investigation<\/a> of whether more than two dozen fossil fuel companies were prepared for the transition to a lower-emission economy.<\/p>\n Both Warshaw and Goyle reject DiNapoli\u2019s argument.<\/p>\n They said the comptroller can make investment decisions that could exclude companies, such as\u00a0Palantir or fossil fuel firms, without abandoning the fund\u2019s financial objectives. \u00a0<\/p>\n Candidate for state comptroller Drew Warshaw.\u00a0<\/p>\n Will Waldron\/Times Union<\/p>\n Warshaw, a former affordable housing executive\u00a0and aide to former Gov. Eliot Spitzer<\/a>, said\u00a0DiNapoli has overstated how passive the fund actually is, pointing to hundreds of outside investment managers employed by the retirement system. He said that retirees\u2019 benefits are constitutionally protected and that taxpayers, not pensioners, ultimately bear the cost when the investment returns fall short.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Goyle, a former member of the Kansas House of Representatives,\u00a0said that the comptroller already makes active choices about how the fund is invested. That includes selecting benchmarks and choosing private equity investments.\u00a0<\/p>\n In Goyle\u2019s view, excluding companies such as Palantir would not represent a radical departure from the fund\u2019s current management but rather an acknowledgement that the investment decisions already reflect value judgments.\u00a0<\/p>\n But the debate over divestment often assumes that it is a powerful tool for changing corporate behavior, said Bruce Usher, the co-director of Columbia Business School\u2019s Tamer Institute for Social Enterprise and Climate Change.<\/p>\n In practice, the impact of\u00a0disinvestment is limited: \u201cYou\u2019re simply transferring the shares to someone who says, ‘I don\u2019t care,’\u201d Usher said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Usher noted that it’s shareholders who retain voting rights and can engage with corporate leadership, while investors who sell their holdings surrender those rights and lose a mechanism for advocating change.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rising stock in Palantir\u00a0<\/p>\n Pension fund managers from California to New York City are facing pressure from groups that want them to pull money out of companies associated with the Trump administration’s policies as well as from fossil fuel firms. Palantir, founded by tech billionaire Peter Thiel, has contracted with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for more than a decade.\u00a0<\/p>\n In February, citing concerns about potential civil rights implications, New York City comptroller Mark\u00a0Levine requested an independent investigation of Palantir. But Levine has stopped short of saying he would divest from the company.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n As pressure mounted in opposition to New York City\u2019s investments in Palantir,\u00a0Goyle became particularly vocal on the issue. In April, he rallied with activists outside of Palantir\u2019s Manhattan office.\u00a0<\/p>\n Last month, the Democratic candidates sparred over the direction of the pension fund during a contentious televised debate. Warshaw opened his shirt to show a T-shirt that said \u201cICE Out,\u201d and Goyle lambasted DiNapoli\u2019s use of retirement funds to purchase Israel bonds \u2014 due to that nation’s conduct of the war in Gaza \u2014\u00a0and buy shares in Palantir.\u00a0<\/p>\n Goyle noted that in 2025 New York\u2019s fund significantly increased its investment in\u00a0Palantir. He said the increase demonstrated an active investment decision by DiNapoli\u2019s office and accused him of misleading the public by describing the position as passive.\u00a0<\/p>\n Almost 40% of the fund\u2019s assets are invested in publicly traded equities that attempt to reflect the broader economy. The number of shares the fund owns rose sharply in the last year, increasing in value from nearly $90 million to $339 million in that period.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n A significant portion of the fund\u2019s assets are invested through indices that mirror benchmarks created by a firm called\u00a0FTSE Russell.<\/p>\n That financial company regularly reshuffles its indices by adding, subtracting or reweighting companies based on market performance. The refresh process forces fund managers to adjust portfolios that reflect the new weightings and components.\u00a0<\/p>\n FTSE Russell\u2019s restructuring\u00a0reflected Palantir Technologies’ rapid stock gains in the previous year. New York\u2019s pension fund subsequently adjusted its holding to match the benchmark.\u00a0<\/p>\n So did New York City\u2019s public pension fund, as well as the state and city teacher retirement funds, and others across the country. The total value of shares in Palantir has over the past year risen but then fallen back; it’s currently hovering near its June 2025 price.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Goyle said that while FTSE Russell determines the composition of the state pension fund\u2019s indexes, the comptroller chooses which benchmarks to follow and how the pension fund is structured.\u00a0<\/p>\n Warshaw said the customized indexes that omit companies such as Palantir or fossil fuel producers are commonplace on Wall Street and could be adopted by the state pension fund without abandoning a broader passive strategy.\u00a0<\/p>\n But carving companies out of benchmark indexes risks distorting the portfolio and weakening performance, DiNapoli said.\u00a0 \u201cIt would throw our indexes out of whack to the point that it would be hurtful for our bottom-line return,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n DiNapoli has rejected calls to divest from Palantir, saying such a move would constitute an active investment decision driven by public policy concerns rather than fiduciary obligations to pension beneficiaries.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Rather than divest, DiNapoli said he believes the state can use its influence as a shareholder to pressure companies to change behavior.\u00a0<\/p>\n ‘Continued concerns’<\/p>\n DiNapoli said his office has \u201ccontinued concerns\u201d about Palantir\u2019s relationship with ICE and has been pressuring the company for more information about why it continues to maintain its relationship.\u00a0<\/p>\n He has also sent letters to other companies with ICE contracts \u2014 including Amazon, Microsoft, Motorola and others \u2014 touching on potential financial and reputational risks associated with the contracts.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The state comptroller has also filed lawsuits on behalf of the fund as a shareholder to raise concerns with companies about risks that could affect long-term value, including corporate governance issues, executive misconduct and government contracts.\u00a0<\/p>\n Thomas\u00a0P. DiNapoli has been state comptroller since 2007, when he was initially appointed by the state Legislature to fill the role following the resignation of Alan Hevesi.\u00a0<\/p>\n Times Union\/Rick Karlin<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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