US public pension funds increased private equity commitments by 24% last year despite continuing pressure from weak distributions, putting $100.9bn into the asset class during 2025, according to new Nasdaq eVestment data.
That was up from $81.2bn committed during 2024, with some of the biggest US retirement systems continuing to deploy heavily into private equity despite the difficult exit environment facing managers.
Commitment activity has been substantially slower so far in 2026, however, with public plans putting $31.9bn into private equity during the first six months of the year, according to eVestment.
That H1 total is equivalent to just under 32% of the amount committed across the whole of 2025, although pension commitments can vary significantly between quarters depending on fundraisings and the timing of investment committee approvals.
The 2025 increase came against a backdrop of continuing pressure on private equity managers to return capital to investors.
The number of global private equity and venture capital exits rose 5.4% to 3,149 last year, according to separate S&P Global Market Intelligence data, but the combined announced value of those exits fell 21.2% to $412.07bn.
Advent International attracted the most public-pension private equity capital during 2025, raising $4.6bn from the investor group, principally through its GPE XI flagship buyout fund and co-investment vehicles.
Thoma Bravo ranked second with $3.8bn, with backing including CalPERS, CalSTRS, New York State Common Retirement Fund, New York City Employees Retirement System and State of Wisconsin Investment Board.
Separate public-pension commitment data compiled by Dakota showed middle-market buyouts taking the largest share of PE allocations during 2025, at $21.6bn.
Large-cap buyout strategies received $13.6bn and growth equity attracted $12bn, while Dakota tracked more than $5bn of commitments to PE co-investments during the year.
Co-investment activity also featured prominently in the eVestment data, which showed 51 private equity managers raising public-pension capital for co-investment vehicles during 2025.
Dakota’s separate analysis found Great Hill Equity Partners IX and Advent GPE XI each secured commitments from more than a dozen pension systems during the year. It said 2025 commitment activity showed an emphasis on established manager relationships, alongside increased use of co-investments, separate accounts and other structures allowing pensions to deploy capital without substantially increasing the number of managers in their portfolios.
Some individual commitments were substantial. Washington State Investment Board, for example, approved $500m for Advent GPE XI alongside a $1bn co-investment in Evergreen Park Investment Fund in April 2025.
Pension Power
The largest public pension systems accounted for a significant proportion of overall PE commitments.
CalPERS was the biggest allocator identified by eVestment, committing $20bn across 93 mandates during 2025. CalSTRS followed with $9bn across 58 commitments, while New York State Common Retirement Fund committed $8.2bn across 46.
Together those three systems accounted for $37.2bn of commitments, equivalent to about 37% of the $100.9bn total recorded by eVestment.
CalPERS alone accounted for almost one-fifth of the total. The scale of its commitments reflects an already substantial private equity portfolio: separate data from S&P Global Market Intelligence put its PE allocation at more than $103bn at the end of 2025, the largest among global public pension funds.
The ten largest public pension PE portfolios tracked by S&P held a combined $445.35bn in the asset class, seven of which belonged to US systems.
The eVestment figures suggest 2025 therefore saw public pensions continue deploying heavily into private equity despite the liquidity constraints created by slower distributions, while the $31.9bn committed in the first half of this year points to a markedly slower start to 2026.
Whether that gap persists through the second half will be important for managers currently fundraising, particularly given the extent to which 2025 capital was concentrated among large pension systems, established managers and co-investment relationships.
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