Microsoft recently made an unprecedented decision: It cut off an Israel military unit’s access to some of its cloud computing and AI services after discovering the technology was being used for mass surveillance of Palestinian civilians. The company found billions of phone calls stored on Microsoft servers, violating its own terms of service that prohibit enabling “mass surveillance of civilians.”
Here’s what we think should concern every American saver: If you have a 401(k) or a 403(b), you almost certainly own shares in Microsoft. And Google. And Amazon. And Intel. These “boring” household brands that power daily life are often simultaneously involved in controversial military operations that many people would never knowingly support with their retirement dollars.
Amazon’s AWS provides cloud storage for Israeli military intelligence operations, with sources describing “endless storage” capacity for data on Gaza residents. Google and Amazon’s $1.2 billion “Project Nimbus” contract provides cloud services directly to Israel’s military and government agencies. Intel, meanwhile, was building a $25 billion semiconductor factory in Israel—the largest foreign investment in the country’s history—before suspending the project amid mounting pressure.
Yet Microsoft’s retreat reveals that when public pressure mounts, even the biggest companies can be forced to change course. But it also exposes a deeper problem: the financial opacity that keeps ordinary investors in the dark about where their money is ending up.
Navigating the maze
When you contribute to your workplace 401(k), those dollars flow into market funds that can own hundreds of companies, including ones whose activities might violate your values.
The financial system is designed to focus on profit above all other concerns, even if that comes at the expense of transparency and values alignment. There is no built-in incentive for retirement providers or asset managers to make clear which companies you’re actually investing in, let alone the controversial activities those holdings might support. As a result it can be incredibly difficult to understand what companies your retirement plan is invested in.
This creates a fundamental disconnect: Millions of Americans may be unknowingly invested in companies that are deeply involved in surveillance operations or with military contractors through their retirement savings. The system works because, according to a 2023 CNBC survey, almost half of 401(k) investors don’t know what investments are in their workplace retirement plan.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. In our work at Just Futures, we screen investments across more than 70 values-based criteria. Whether you’re concerned about human rights, environmental destruction or weapons manufacturing, it’s possible to channel your values into investment decisions without requiring you to become an expert on every company’s global operations. Because of how pervasive these investments are in our financial system, even with our screens it’s not always possible to completely avoid these names in your portfolio. But you can help minimize these investments where possible and potentially push for bigger change where it isn’t.
Putting the pressure on
The power of values-aligned investing extends beyond simply avoiding problematic companies. When institutions and individuals make it clear they won’t fund activities that contradict their values, markets respond. Microsoft’s decision wasn’t driven by government regulation. It came after employee activism, public scrutiny and grassroots resistance. Intel’s factory pause reflected economic pressure from the growing “Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions” movement.
That should be the key insight from Microsoft’s reversal in Gaza: Helping militaries spy on civilians is immaterial to Microsoft’s overall business. Military targeting systems are immaterial to Google’s. Amazon’s retail success isn’t built on defense contracts. These companies can do business in other ways.
So why do they do it? Because the revenue is lucrative. But after employees protested, investigators exposed the practices and public pressure mounted, Microsoft changed course within months.
Microsoft’s decision shows how quickly companies will reverse course in response to public scrutiny and backlash. Imagine if we watched what companies invested in more closely and made that information more public. Imagine if we then used that information to make decisions about our own investments and use our collective status as investors to influence these companies. But first, you have to know where your money could end up.
The financial industry’s opacity isn’t accidental. It’s profitable. Breaking through that opacity is the first step toward making your investments a force for the world you want to build. Mass surveillance of Palestinians is atrocious in its own right, but it’s unfortunately only part of the picture. Companies many of us are invested in through our retirement portfolios are also profiting from mass incarceration and immigration detention, border surveillance and fossil fuel exploration and extraction.
Your retirement dollars are already having an impact. The question is whether that impact reflects your values or undermines them. It’s time to demand transparency, embrace accountability and make finance a tool for justice rather than a black box that could help companies you’d never knowingly support.
Mika Weinstein is CEO of Just Futures, a community nonprofit-owned investment firm helping organizations and individuals invest in alignment with their values.
Guest posts on ImpactAlpha represent the opinions of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of ImpactAlpha.
