NZ Super was told off for its ‘unlawful’ rules when investing in Airbnb. Activists are now targeting another company

Thursday, 11 June 2026

An activist group is urging the NZ Super Fund to get rid of its shares in US tech company Palantir because of its role in foreign wars.

The Guardians of the NZ Super Fund say the company does not break any of its rules for ethical investing.

It comes after the fund’s investment policies were found to be ‘unlawful’ when investing in four companies operating in the Middle East.

An activist group is asking the NZ Super Fund to divest its shares in US tech giant Palantir. The group’s campaign comes on the back of a court ruling which found the fund acted unlawfully when investing in a group of companies in Occupied Palestine.

The NZ Super Fund’s $140 million investment in Palantir Technologies is being targeted by New Zealand activists who are opposed to the company’s reported role in Israeli and US military conflicts.

Anti War Aotearoa has written to the Guardians of the New Zealand Super Fund to urge it to divest from Palantir, saying the investment made New Zealanders complicit in “illegal wars of aggression”.

It comes after the $86 billion Super Fund was found to be operating under “unlawful” rules when investing in companies in Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT): Airbnb, Expedia, Booking.com and Motorola.

The fund was not ordered to drop those investments. But the High Court decision in April has emboldened activists to push the fund to exclude other companies involved in international conflicts.

NZ Super’s most recent disclosure shows that it has $140 million invested in Palantir Technologies’ software. Palantir is a US company co-founded by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Peter Thiel, a New Zealand citizen.

Anti War Aotearoa said the Super Fund had increased its Palantir shareholding at the same time that the company had expanded its role in Israel’s military actions in the Gaza Strip. In 2024 and 2025, Palantir’s shares rose by more than 1000%, the group said.

“We are concerned that this substantial capital gain has been made off the back of a company complicit in gross violations of international law and human rights,” Anti War Aotearoa’s letter to the fund said.

In September, a United Nations Independent Commission of Inquiry concluded Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli Government dismissed the findings (which are not legally binding) as biased and false.

In its letter, Anti War Aotearoa cited a report by the United Nations Special Rapporteur in July 2025, which said there were reasonable grounds to believe Palantir had provided technology to the Israeli military for its activities in Gaza, including real-time battlefield data for automated decision-making.

Last year, Palantir’s CEO Alex Karp responded to accusations that Palantir had killed Palestinians in Gaza by saying: “Mostly terrorists, that’s true”.

Anti War Aotearoa also highlighted the US military’s adoption of Palantir’s technology for its operations in Iran, which has been reported in US and British media.

Palantir did not respond to a request for comment from Stuff before deadline. In response to claims of human rights abuses in media reports last year, the company rejected any role in AI targeting software used in Gaza. It also said the company had a “longstanding commitment to the preservation of human rights”.

A Guardians spokesperson said the NZ Super Fund excluded some defence and military companies based on their products, such as cluster munitions manufacturers.

The fund’s policies were based on indices which excluded “controversial weapons makers and did not make eligible any companies with “a red flag for ESG [Environment Social and Governance] controversies”.

“Palantir is not captured by any of these exclusion criteria,” the spokesperson said.

Furthermore, the tech company was not subject to any sanctions, and its shares were widely held by institutional and sovereign investors in many countries, they said.

The NZ Super Fund is required by law to be managed in a way that avoids “prejudicing New Zealand’s reputation as a responsible member of the world community”.

In April, High Court judge Simon Mount ruled the fund had failed to meet this legal duty. He found the Guardians had “reduced content” in their policy documents in 2022, removing specific references to the UN Global Compact and direct links to human rights standards.

The ruling was in response to a legal challenge by Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) which challenged the fund’s investments in four companies which operated in Occupied Palestinian Territories: Airbnb, Booking.com, Motorola and Expedia (around $200 million in total).

“They really did a huge service to New Zealand by actually showing that the Super Fund had quietly moved away from its commitment to following best international practice,” said Anti War Aotearoa spokesman Eugene Doyle.

The Guardians said last month it would not appeal the ruling and would amend its policies to be more specific.

It is unclear whether the fund will have to divest in its shares in the four companies. PSNA chair John Minto said at the time that he expected the fund would have to “quickly” get rid of the shares under its revised policy. In his decision, Justice Mount did not go that far, but said the fund would have to make a decision about the investments under its new policies.

The court’s decision has been questioned in some quarters, including by MPs who passed the law which governs the fund. Some say the law may need to be reformed.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis, who is responsible for the fund, did not respond to a request for comment before deadline.

An independent review of NZ Super in 2024 by Willis Towers Watson gave the fund an “A” for its “sustainable” investment - which included ethical investments.

The Guardians previously excluded five Israeli banks in 2021 because they financed construction of unlawful Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The investment in those banks totalled $6.5m at the time.

Thiel, who chairs Palantir Technologies, was granted New Zealand citizenship through ministerial discretion in 2011 despite only spending 12 days in the country at the time. The New York Times reported last week that he is now living in Argentina.