AFT’s Weingarten Calls on Chief Fiduciary Officers to Examine Tesla Investments

NEW YORK—Today AFT President Randi Weingarten sent a letter to more than 75 state and city chief fiduciary officers who oversee most major U.S. public pension funds, telling money managers to urgently review their current holdings in struggling electric-car maker Tesla. Pension fiduciaries are charged with preserving retirement security for millions of AFT members, including teachers, nurses and other workers. Tesla stock makes up a material portion of those funds’ investments.

Tesla’s first quarter production and delivery report, released today, shows a devastating decline in demand for the carmaker’s vehicles in the U.S., in line with disappointing European results released Tuesday. The data point to a larger trend: a share price divorced from the business’ weak fundamentals. Tesla stock has dipped by roughly 30 percent so far this year, a 40 percent drop from its all-time high in December 2024. The firm’s market capitalization has nearly halved, from $1.5 trillion to roughly $800 billion, over the last three months.

The AFT’s letter requests that state treasurers and comptrollers ask asset managers to assess their Tesla holdings and demand the company share information about billions in outstanding corporate loans partly secured by embattled CEO Elon Musk’s 13 percent stake in the company. At the end of 2024, public records showed Musk had pledged more than 230 million Tesla shares as collateral for unspecified loans, with no disclosure over the price at which he would face a potentially ruinous margin call.

The letter was sent to state treasurers and city comptrollers across the country, including stewards of heavy hitters such as the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, the Teachers’ Retirement System of the City of New York and the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund.

In February, Weingarten wrote to leading U.S.-based financial managers BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street, T. Rowe Price, Fidelity and TIAA, warning that her members’ exposure to tens of billions of dollars in Tesla stock in their portfolios presented an unacceptable retirement risk. AFT members participate in pension funds totaling an estimated $4 trillion. To date, none of the managers have replied.

“Today’s precipitous drop in Tesla sales increases the retirement risk to plans that millions of nurses, teachers and other workers are invested in,” said Weingarten. “Our members’ right to retire with dignity and grace after decades of service to families and communities is paramount. It’s why we were bitterly disappointed in the initial lack of response from asset managers, and why today we are urgently asking chief fiduciaries to demand additional and immediate clarity.”

The full letter can be read here.