401(k) Private Assets: What Changes for Retirement Investors

Private assets, including private equity, infrastructure funds, and real asset funds, have historically been excluded from 401(k) plans. The regulatory environment, the complexity of valuing private assets, and the fiduciary obligations under ERISA all combined to keep retirement plans limited to publicly traded securities. Executive Order 14330, signed in August 2025, is designed to change that by directing the Department of Labor to clarify that plan fiduciaries may include professionally managed alternative-asset funds in 401(k) lineups.

Alexander Green’s ASI Fund presentation from The Oxford Club frames this as a fundamental shift in retirement investing. He argues that ordinary investors can now access the kinds of private assets that made Mitt Romney and Peter Thiel wealthy, and he identifies the ASI Fund as a specific vehicle for doing so.

What Private Assets Are

Private assets are investments that are not publicly traded. They include:

Private equity. Ownership stakes in private companies, often acquired through leveraged buyouts or growth equity investments. Private equity funds pool investor capital to acquire, improve, and eventually sell private companies. Romney’s IRA grew to $100 million largely through private equity investments in Bain Capital deals.

Infrastructure funds. Funds that invest in physical infrastructure like data centers, power plants, transportation networks, and communications infrastructure. These funds generate returns through infrastructure usage fees and asset appreciation. The ASI Fund is an infrastructure fund focused on AI infrastructure.

Real asset funds. Funds that invest in tangible assets like real estate, commodities, and natural resources. These assets provide diversification because their performance is not correlated with the stock market.

Venture capital. Early-stage investments in startups. Thiel’s Roth IRA grew to $5 billion because he bought early shares of PayPal through a venture investment and let them compound tax-free.

The common characteristic of private assets is that they are illiquid. You cannot sell them as easily as a stock. They are designed to be held for years, which is why they work well inside retirement accounts where the investment horizon is long.

Why EO 14330 Matters

Before EO 14330, 401(k) plans were effectively limited to publicly traded securities. Plan sponsors were concerned that including private assets could expose them to fiduciary liability under ERISA. The order directs the Department of Labor to issue guidance clarifying that professionally managed alternative-asset funds can be included in 401(k) lineups without creating fiduciary liability, provided certain standards are met.

This is a real regulatory shift. It does not mean that every 401(k) plan will immediately offer private assets. It means that the regulatory barrier has been removed, and over time, more plans will add alternative-asset funds to their menus. For more on the executive order, see our EO 14330 article.

The ASI Fund as a Private Asset

The ASI Fund is Green’s specific recommendation. ASI stands for “Artificial Superintelligence,” and the fund is a picks-and-shovels vehicle targeting AI infrastructure: data centers, semiconductors, power generation, and cooling. Green says you can “get in for less than $15” through a regular brokerage account.

The fund’s focus on AI infrastructure is well-timed. The Stargate project is deploying $100 billion. Meta is building a Manhattan-sized data center. Amazon’s Project Blue is under construction. ChatGPT alone uses enough power to run 180,000 American homes every day. The demand for AI infrastructure is real and accelerating.

For more on the fund itself, see our ASI Fund article. For more on alternative assets broadly, see our alternative assets article.

The Romney and Thiel Examples

Green uses Romney and Thiel to illustrate what is possible when high-growth private assets are placed inside tax-advantaged accounts:

  • Romney turned $450,000 into $100 million (a 20,000 percent gain) in his IRA through private equity.
  • Thiel turned $2,000 into $5 billion in his Roth IRA through early venture investments.

These are extraordinary outliers. Green acknowledges: “I can’t promise you’ll see anything near this level of return. But this is what’s possible.” The examples illustrate the power of the strategy, not a guarantee of specific returns. The ASI Fund is not a private equity fund or a venture capital fund. It is an infrastructure fund, which has a different risk and return profile.

The Trump Connection

Green opens with Trump’s alternative investment income: up to $250,000 per month from a “hidden source.” The source is alternative investments. Trump reportedly invested up to $25 million in the kinds of assets the ASI Fund targets. EO 14330 was signed by Trump, which Green frames as him opening the door for ordinary investors.

Considerations

The inclusion of private assets in 401(k) plans is a genuine structural shift. The benefits include diversification, access to higher-growth investments, and the ability to compound returns tax-free. The risks include illiquidity, complexity, and the fact that private asset valuations can be opaque.

For ordinary investors, the key question is whether the ASI Fund or similar vehicles are worth including in a retirement portfolio. The answer depends on your risk tolerance, investment horizon, and confidence in the AI infrastructure thesis. Green’s 365-day money-back guarantee gives you a full year to evaluate the research. For the full analysis, see our ASI Fund review.

If you want to explore the full thesis, you can access the ASI Fund presentation through The Oxford Club.

This is not financial advice. Always do your own research before investing.