Ohio PERS Q1: Nvidia Leads $30.92B Book

TL;DR: Ohio PERS' 2026Q1 13F shows a $30.92B reported public-equity book led by Nvidia (NVDA) at $1.72B, Apple (AAPL) at $1.58B, and Microsoft (MSFT) at $1.15B. The central signal is not a hedge-fund-style all-in bet; it is a public pension allocator expressing a market-like, equity-heavy policy through a mega-cap technology spine plus a long diversified tail.

PUBLIC EMPLOYEES RETIREMENT SYSTEM OF OHIO filed its Q1 2026 Form 13F-HR for the period ended 2026-03-31, accession 0001007280-26-000009. The filing lists 500 positions and a $30.92B canonical 13F value, with the current holdings sum shown at $27.94B. That makes the useful question for investors narrower than "what did a pension buy?": which listed stocks carry the most policy risk if Ohio PERS' public-equity sleeve is moving with the global benchmark?

OPERS' 2026 investment materials frame the Defined Benefit Fund as an equity-heavy public pension allocator, with public equity split between U.S. and non-U.S. equity while fixed income and alternatives sit beside it as separate risk sleeves. That context matters. A top-heavy NVDA, AAPL and MSFT 13F should be read as the U.S.-listed face of a pension asset-allocation program, not as a standalone tech hedge fund.

Why Nvidia is the headline, but not the whole story

The strongest data point is simple: NVDA is the largest disclosed position at $1.72B, or 6.15% of the holdings-value base used in the brief. It edges out AAPL at $1.58B and sits well ahead of MSFT at $1.15B. For a public pension, that ranking says the AI infrastructure trade is now embedded in the benchmark-like core rather than isolated in specialist managers.

Still, the top-eight chart shows a second layer. Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet Class A (GOOGL), Alphabet Class C (GOOG), iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV), and Broadcom (AVGO) all appear inside the leading group. That mix blends direct mega-cap technology exposure with a broad-market ETF sleeve, which is what an allocator tends to do when policy exposure matters more than single-stock storytelling.

The concentration read: top-heavy enough to matter, broad enough to be pension-like

The concentration chart puts the named top-ten positions beside an 68.01% diversified tail. The largest single line is NVDA at 6.15%, followed by AAPL at 5.64% and MSFT at 4.11%. Those figures are meaningful for a public pension because they show where index-level and active-manager choices concentrate risk. They are not, by themselves, evidence of a concentrated hedge-fund mandate.

The presence of IVV at $680.5M and 2.44% is the clue. A pension that owns both the market wrapper and the dominant platform stocks is effectively combining beta capture with selective overweight or manager-driven exposure. Readers comparing pension peers can use the same lens on Florida SBA's Q1 2026 pension book and SWIB's Q1 2026 portfolio: the question is not whether NVDA appears, but how much it defines the first page of the filing.

The quarter-over-quarter signal is a modest reset after the large-book baseline

The history series needs a careful read. The brief shows $32.06B in 2025Q4 and $30.92B in 2026Q1, a -3.6% quarter-over-quarter move. Earlier quarters in the same exported series show million-scale values, so the clean comparison for this article is the large-book baseline that begins in 2025Q4, not a mechanical multi-year growth claim.

On that comparable basis, Q1 looks like a controlled trim rather than a portfolio rebuild. Holdings count moved from 2351 to 2345, while the top of the book stayed anchored in NVDA, AAPL, MSFT, AMZN and Alphabet. That is consistent with a pension allocator adjusting exposure within policy bands rather than abandoning the equity-heavy framework described in OPERS' 2026 plan.

What the top holdings imply for peer benchmarking

Against pension and sovereign peers, Ohio PERS' 13F is best benchmarked on three dimensions: the size of the top technology cluster, the amount of ETF ballast, and the breadth of the tail. The book's 500 disclosed positions are far broader than a stock-picker's concentrated portfolio, but the first-page dollars still matter because mega-cap platform stocks can dominate returns even inside diversified institutional books.

Signal	Q1 2026 data point	Interpretation
Largest holding	NVDA at $1.72B and 6.15%	AI infrastructure is the first-page risk exposure.
Second holding	AAPL at $1.58B and 5.64%	Platform durability still matters beside the AI trade.
Core software	MSFT at $1.15B and 4.11%	The portfolio keeps enterprise software in the top tier.
Beta sleeve	IVV at $680.5M and 2.44%	Broad-market exposure tempers single-name interpretation.

The practical takeaway: Ohio PERS' Q1 2026 filing is a pension allocator's public-equity snapshot, not a signal to clone line by line. The article's investable read is that NVDA-led AI exposure has become a benchmark-scale pension risk, while the diversified tail still does most of the risk-budget smoothing.

FAQ

What does Ohio PERS hold in Q1 2026?

Ohio PERS' Q1 2026 13F lists 500 positions with a $30.92B canonical value. The largest disclosed holdings are NVDA at $1.72B, AAPL at $1.58B and MSFT at $1.15B.

Is Ohio PERS a hedge fund or a public pension?

Ohio PERS is a public pension allocator. Its 13F should be read as the U.S.-listed public-equity slice of a broad retirement system, not as a concentrated hedge-fund portfolio.

Why is Nvidia important in the Ohio PERS 13F?

Nvidia is important because it is the largest disclosed position at $1.72B and 6.15%. That makes AI infrastructure the clearest first-page exposure in the Q1 2026 filing.

Did Ohio PERS cut its 13F book in Q1 2026?

The brief shows $32.06B in 2025Q4 and $30.92B in 2026Q1, a -3.6% move. Holdings count was nearly stable, moving from 2351 to 2345 positions.

How should investors use the Ohio PERS 13F?

Investors should use the filing as a benchmark read on pension-scale public equity exposure. It is most useful for comparing technology concentration, ETF ballast and breadth versus other public pension filings.