North Carolina pensioners have a stake in the future of the social media app TikTok in the U.S.
Why it matters: Congress is considering legislation that would force China-based ByteDance to sell the social entertainment app's U.S. operation or shut it down.
State of play: At least 21 state and local retirement funds (including North Carolina) have an indirect investment in ByteDance, according to the Equable Institute, a bipartisan nonprofit that provides research on pensions.
Most of those are via private equity holdings, an asset class that makes up about 17% of public pension assets overall, according to actuarial firm Milliman.
Reality check: In no case do the ByteDance investments represent more than a sliver of each pension fund's overall assets.
"It's not going to make or break anybody," Anthony Randazzo, executive director of Equable, told Axios, noting that each ByteDance exposure would be well under 1% of the fund's overall assets. But "just because it's a small stake doesn't mean it doesn't matter."
