Stockholm (NordSIP) – Following the recent exclusion from Norway’s Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), KLP and Storebrand, Swedish asset owners have come under pressure to address their exposure to Israeli companies and the conflict in Gaza.
This week, Swedish national broadcaster SVT noted that Sweden’s “AP funds have billions in companies accused of crimes in Gaza”. The article made special reference to national pension funds and AP7 and its exposure to Palantir and other companies facing accusations for their role in the ongoing conflict.
Exposure to Israeli Controversies
Reviewing AP7’s holdings suggests that the fund own shares in at least eleven Israeli companies. Although not all Israeli companies are necessarily tied to the ongoing conflict, some are.
Considering financial institutions, AP7 owns shares in Azrieli Group, Leumi Bank, Bank Hapoalim, and Israel Discount Bank. All of these banks seem to have been, to one degree or another, involved in financing, developing and constructing illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to Danwatch.
ICL Group is an Israeli company that produces fertilisers, specialty minerals, and chemical products. While it has no direct ties to Gaza in terms of operations, it has been the subject of some controversy for its historical role as a supplier of white phosphorus to the US Army for use in projectiles, some of which were deployed by the Israeli military in Gaza.
The rest of Israeli companies owned by AP7 appear less controversial. Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd is an Israeli multinational company that supplies medicines within the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including Gaza. Criticisms of Teva tend to be focused on economic competitiveness and the fact that it has a captive market in Palestine rather than anything to do specifically with recent Gaza operations-specific controversies.
AP7’s tech holdings include Check Point Software Tech, Cyberark Software and Nice Ltd. There seems to be no evidence that any of these companies is tied to the ongoing conflict Check Point Software Tech is a global leader in cybersecurity, providing AI-powered, cloud-delivered security solutions for network, cloud, and workspace security to enterprises, governments, and consumers. Cyberark Software is a global identity security company that provides solutions to protect organizations from cyber threats by managing and securing privileged accounts and identities. Nice Ltd is a company headquartered in Ra’anana that provides AI-powered cloud platforms for enterprise software solutions, specifically focusing on customer engagement and financial crime and compliance.
Monday.com Ltd is an Israeli software company based in Tel Aviv that provides a cloud-based Work OS platform for work management and project coordination. Wix.com Ltd is an Israeli platform for website building. Neither of these two latter companies seem to have any involvement with the ongoing conflict.
The Spectre of War AI
Another investment that came under the lens of the Swedish press was the American IT company Palantir, which makes software for AI and combat command and which has close ties to Israel. Palantir was one of the IT companies singled out by the UN for its role in facilitating technological tools being used by Israel in its increasingly controversial operations in the Palestinian territories. The report also notes that BlackRock, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and IBM are the main owners of Palantir.
“Palantir Technology Inc., whose tech collaboration with Israel long predates October 2023, expanded its support to the Israeli military post-October 2023. There are reasonable grounds to believe Palantir has provided automatic predictive policing technology, core defence infrastructure for rapid and scaled-up construction and deployment of military software, and its Artificial Intelligence Platform, which allows real-time battlefield data integration for automated decision-making. In January 2024, Palantir announced a new strategic partnership with Israel and held a board meeting in Tel Aviv “in solidarity”; in April 2025, Palantir’s CEO responded to accusations that Palantir had killed Palestinians in Gaza by saying, “mostly terrorists, that’s true”.[110] Both incidents are indicative of executive-level knowledge and purpose vis-à-vis Israel’s unlawful use of force, and failure to prevent such acts or withdraw involvement,” the UN report notes.
The facts are consequential to Swedish investors, many of whom, directly or indirectly are investred in these companies. According to the latest available estimates, AP1, AP2, AP3, AP4 and AP7 all own shares of Palantir.
At the start of August, the Council of Ethics of the Swedish AP funds discussed its efforts to address the risks posed by the intersection of IT and human rights. However, these efforts were focused on human rights outside the context of warzones, concentrating instead on the dangers of “the commercialisation of personal data, extremism and terrorism, election manipulation and other serious consequences for vulnerable people and risk groups.”
Comenting on all these issues for the SVT article, Charlotta Dawidowski Sydstrand, sustainability manager at AP7, noted that “it is difficult to get verifiable information from war zones, there are a lot of rumors and claims. (…) We have received more information about companies in war zones and we will contact that company and engage in dialogue with them during the autumn, says Charlotta Dawidowski Sydstrand.”
