TIAA-CREF Funds Summary Prospectus

TIAA-CREF Inflation-Linked Bond Fund

AUGUST 1, 2022

Class:	Institutional	Advisor	Premier	Retirement	Retail	Class W
Ticker:	TIILX	TIIHX	TIKPX	TIKRX	TCILX	TIIWX

Before you invest, you may want to review the Fund’s prospectus, which contains more information about the Fund and its risks. You can find the Fund’s prospectus, reports to shareholders and other information about the Fund online at www.tiaa.org/tcf_pro. You can also get this information at no cost by calling 800-223-1200 or by sending an e-mail request to disclosure@tiaa.org. The Fund’s prospectus and Statement of Additional Information (“SAI”), each dated August 1, 2022, as subsequently supplemented, and the sections of the Fund’s shareholder report dated March 31, 2022 from “Summary Portfolio of Investments” through “Notes to Financial Statements,” are incorporated into this Summary Prospectus by reference and may be obtained free of charge at the website, phone number or e-mail address noted above.

Investment objective

The Fund seeks to provide inflation protection and income, primarily through investment in inflation-linked bonds.

TIAA-CREF Inflation-Linked Bond Fund ■Summary Prospectus 1

Fees and expenses

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the tables and examples below.

SHAREHOLDER FEES (fees paid directly from your investment)

	Institutional Class	Advisor Class	Premier Class	Retirement Class	Retail Class	Class W
Maximum sales charge imposed on purchases (percentage of offering price)	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%
Maximum deferred sales charge	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%
Maximum sales charge imposed on reinvested dividends and other distributions	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%
Redemption or exchange fee	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%
Account maintenance fee (annual fee on accounts under $2,000)	0%	0%	0%	0%	$15.00	0%

ANNUAL FUND OPERATING EXPENSES (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)

	Institutional Class	Advisor Class	Premier Class	Retirement Class	Retail Class	Class W
Management fees	0.24%	0.24%	0.24%	0.24%	0.24%	0.24%
Distribution (Rule 12b-1) fees	—	—	0.15%	—	0.25%	—
Other expenses	0.01%	0.11%	0.01%	0.26%	0.08%	0.01%
Total annual Fund operating expenses	0.25%	0.35%	0.40%	0.50%	0.57%	0.25%
Waivers and expense reimbursements1	—	—	—	—	—	(0.25)%	2
Total annual Fund operating expenses after   fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement	0.25%	0.35%	0.40%	0.50%	0.57%	0.00%

1

Under the Fund’s expense reimbursement arrangements, the Fund’s investment adviser, Teachers Advisors, LLC, has contractually agreed to reimburse the Fund for any Total annual Fund operating expenses (excluding interest, taxes, brokerage commissions or other transactional expenses, Acquired fund fees and expenses and extraordinary expenses) that exceed: (i) 0.30% of average daily net assets for Institutional Class shares; (ii) 0.45% of average daily net assets for Advisor Class shares; (iii) 0.45% of average daily net assets for Premier Class shares; (iv) 0.55% of average daily net assets for Retirement Class shares; (v) 0.65% of average daily net assets for Retail Class shares; and (vi) 0.30% of average daily net assets for Class W shares of the Fund. These expense reimbursement arrangements will continue through at least July 31, 2023, unless changed with approval of the Board of Trustees.

2

Teachers Advisors, LLC has contractually agreed to waive and/or reimburse Class W’s Management fees and Other expenses (excluding interest, taxes, brokerage commissions or other transactional expenses, Acquired fund fees and expenses, Trustee expenses and extraordinary expenses) in their entirety. Teachers Advisors, LLC expects these waiver and/or reimbursement arrangements to remain in effect indefinitely, unless changed or terminated with approval of the Board of Trustees.

Example

This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in shares of the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and

2Summary Prospectus■TIAA-CREF Inflation-Linked Bond Fund

then redeem all your shares at the end of those periods. The example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses, before fee waivers and/or expense reimbursements, remain the same. The example assumes that the Fund’s fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement arrangements will each remain in place for the durations noted in the table above. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:

	Institutional Class		Advisor Class		Premier Class		Retirement Class		Retail Class		Class W
1 year	$	26	$	36	$	41	$	51	$	58	$	0
3 years	$	80	$	113	$	128	$	160	$	183	$	0
5 years	$	141	$	197	$	224	$	280	$	318	$	0
10 years	$	318	$	443	$	505	$	628	$	714	$	0

Portfolio turnover

The Fund pays transaction costs when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 21% of the average value of its portfolio.

Principal investment strategies

Under normal circumstances, the Fund’s investment adviser, Teachers Advisors, LLC (“Advisors”), invests at least 80% of the Fund’s assets in fixed-income securities whose principal value increases or decreases based on changes in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (“CPI-U”), over the life of the security. Typically, the Fund will invest in U.S. Treasury Inflation-Indexed Securities (“TIIS”). The Fund can also invest in (1) other inflation-indexed bonds issued or guaranteed by the U.S. Government or its agencies, by corporations and other U.S. domiciled issuers, as well as foreign governments, and (2) money market instruments or other short-term securities. For purposes of the 80% investment policy, the term “assets” means net assets, plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes.

Like conventional bonds, inflation-indexed bonds generally pay interest at fixed intervals and return the principal at maturity. Unlike conventional bonds, an inflation-indexed bond’s principal or interest is adjusted periodically to reflect changes in a specified inflation index. Inflation-indexed bonds are designed to preserve purchasing power over the life of the bond while paying a “real” rate of interest (i.e., a return over and above the inflation rate). These bonds are generally issued at a fixed interest rate that is lower than that of conventional bonds of comparable maturity and quality, but they generally retain their value against inflation over time.

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The principal amount of a TIIS bond is adjusted periodically for inflation using the CPI-U. Interest is paid twice a year. The interest rate is fixed, but the amount of each interest payment varies as the principal is adjusted for inflation. The principal amount of a TIIS instrument may diminish in times of deflation. However, the U.S. Treasury guarantees that the final principal payment at maturity is at least the original principal amount of the bond. The interest and principal components of the bonds may be “stripped” or sold separately. The Fund can buy or sell either component.

The Fund may also invest in inflation-indexed bonds issued or guaranteed by foreign governments and their agencies, as well as other foreign issuers. These investments are usually designed to track the inflation rate in the issuing country. Under most circumstances, the Fund’s investments in inflation-linked bonds of foreign issuers are generally less than 20% of its assets.

The Fund’s benchmark index is the Bloomberg U.S. Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) 1–10 Year Index (the “Index”). As of May 31, 2022, the duration of the Index was 4.27 years. Although the Fund may invest in fixed-income securities of any duration, typically, the Fund invests in corporate and foreign inflation-indexed bonds that are similar in duration and maturity to those of U.S. Government inflation-indexed bonds.

The Fund may purchase and sell futures, options, swaps, forwards and other fixed-income derivative instruments to carry out the Fund’s investment strategies. In particular, the Fund may purchase and sell interest rate futures to attempt to manage duration and/or certain risks. The Fund also may invest in any fixed-income securities provided that no more than 5% of its assets are invested in fixed-income securities rated below investment-grade.

Principal investment risks

You could lose money over short or long periods by investing in this Fund. An investment in the Fund, due to the nature of the Fund’s portfolio holdings, typically is subject to the following principal investment risks:

·Interest Rate Risk (a type of Market Risk)—The risk that increases in interest rates can cause the prices of fixed-income investments to decline. This risk is heightened to the extent the Fund invests in longer duration fixed-income investments and during periods when prevailing interest rates are low or negative. Low interest rates may increase the Fund’s exposure to risks associated with rising interest rates. However, a Fund may be subject to heightened levels of interest rate risk due to rising interest rates (including a sharp rise in interest rates). In general, changing interest rates could have unpredictable effects on the markets and may expose fixed-income and related markets to heightened volatility.

·Market Volatility, Liquidity and Valuation Risk (types of Market Risk)—The risk that volatile or dramatic reductions in trading activity make it difficult for the Fund to properly value its investments and that the Fund may not be able to purchase or sell an investment at an attractive price, if at all.

4Summary Prospectus■TIAA-CREF Inflation-Linked Bond Fund

·Income Volatility Risk—The risk that the level of current income from a portfolio of fixed-income investments may decline in certain interest rate environments.

·Special Risks for Inflation-Indexed Bonds—The risk that interest payments on, or market values of, inflation-indexed investments decline because of a decline in inflation (or deflation) or changes in investors’ and/or the market’s inflation expectations. In addition, inflation indices may not reflect the true rate of inflation.

·Credit Risk (a type of Issuer Risk)—The risk that the issuer of fixed-income investments may not be able or willing, or may be perceived (whether by market participants, rating agencies, pricing services or otherwise) as not able or willing, to meet interest or principal payments when the payments become due.

·Credit Spread Risk—The risk that credit spreads (i.e., the difference in yield between securities that is due to differences in each security’s respective credit quality) may increase when market participants believe that bonds generally have a greater risk of default, which could result in a decline in the market values of the Fund’s debt securities.

·U.S. Government Securities Risk—Securities issued by the U.S. Government or one of its agencies or instrumentalities may receive varying levels of support from the U.S. Government, which could affect the Fund’s ability to recover should they default. To the extent the Fund invests significantly in securities issued or guaranteed by the U.S. Government or its agencies or instrumentalities, any market movements, regulatory changes or changes in political or economic conditions that affect the securities of the U.S. Government or its agencies or instrumentalities in which the Fund invests may have a significant impact on the Fund’s performance.

·Fixed-Income Foreign Investment Risk—Investment in fixed-income securities or financial instruments of foreign issuers involves increased risks due to adverse issuer, political, regulatory, currency, market or economic developments as well as armed conflicts. These developments may impact the ability of a foreign debt issuer to make timely and ultimate payments on its debt obligations to the Fund or impair the Fund’s ability to enforce its rights against the foreign debt issuer. These risks are heightened in emerging or developing markets. Foreign investments may also have lower overall liquidity and be more difficult to value than investments in U.S. issuers. Foreign investments may also be subject to risk of loss because of more or less foreign government regulation, less public information, less stringent investor protections, and less stringent accounting, corporate governance, financial reporting and disclosure standards. The imposition of sanctions, exchange controls (including repatriation restrictions), confiscations, trade restrictions (including tariffs) and other restrictions by the United States or other governments may also negatively impact the Fund’s investments. The type and severity of sanctions and other measures

TIAA-CREF Inflation-Linked Bond Fund ■Summary Prospectus 5

that may be imposed could vary broadly in scope, and their impact is impossible to predict.

·Active Management Risk—The risk that Advisors’ strategy, investment selection or trading execution may cause the Fund to underperform relative to the benchmark index or mutual funds with similar investment objectives.

·Derivatives Risk—The risks associated with investing in derivatives may be different and greater than the risks associated with directly investing in the underlying securities and other instruments. The Fund may use futures, options, single name or index credit default swaps, or forwards, and the Fund may also use more complex derivatives such as swaps that might present liquidity, credit and counterparty risk. When investing in derivatives, the Fund may lose more than the principal amount invested.

Please see the non-summary portion of the Prospectus for more detailed information about the risks described above.

Past performance

The following chart and table help illustrate some of the risks of investing in the Fund by showing changes in the Fund’s performance from year to year. The bar chart shows the annual total returns of the Institutional Class of the Fund, before taxes, in each full calendar year for the last ten years. Because the expenses vary across share classes, the performance of the Institutional Class may vary from the other share classes. Below the bar chart are the best and worst returns of the Institutional Class for a calendar quarter during the full calendar-year periods covered by the bar chart. The performance table following the bar chart shows the Fund’s average annual total returns for the Institutional, Advisor, Premier, Retirement, Retail and Class W classes over the applicable one-year, five-year, ten-year and since-inception periods ended December 31, 2021, and how those returns compare to those of the Fund’s benchmark index. After-tax performance is shown only for Institutional Class shares, and after-tax returns for the other classes of shares will vary from the after-tax returns presented for Institutional Class shares.

The returns shown below reflect previous agreements by Advisors to waive or reimburse the Fund for certain fees and expenses. Without these waivers and reimbursements, the returns of the Fund would have been lower. Past performance of the Fund (before and after taxes) is not necessarily an indication of how it will perform in the future. The benchmark index listed below is unmanaged, and you cannot invest directly in an index. The returns for the benchmark index reflect no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes.

For current performance information of each share class, including performance to the most recent month-end, please visit www.tiaa.org.

6Summary Prospectus■TIAA-CREF Inflation-Linked Bond Fund

ANNUAL TOTAL RETURNS FOR THE INSTITUTIONAL CLASS SHARES (%)^†

Inflation-Linked Bond Fund

^†The year-to-date return as of the most recent calendar quarter, which ended on June 30, 2022, was -4.83%.

Best quarter: 3.69%, for the quarter ended June 30, 2014. Worst quarter: -7.01%, for the quarter ended June 30, 2013.

TIAA-CREF Inflation-Linked Bond Fund ■Summary Prospectus 7

AVERAGE ANNUAL TOTAL RETURNS

For the Periods Ended December 31, 2021

		Inception date	One year		Five years		Ten years
Institutional Class		10/1/2002
	Return before taxes		5.27	%	4.19	%	2.33	%
	Return after taxes on distributions		2.84	%	3.05	%	1.44	%
	Return after taxes on distributions and sale of
	Fund shares		3.28	%	2.74	%	1.41	%
Advisor Class		12/4/2015
	Return before taxes		5.09	%	4.09	%	2.27	%#
Premier Class		9/30/2009
	Return before taxes		5.12	%	4.04	%	2.17	%
Retirement Class		3/31/2006
	Return before taxes		4.96	%	3.93	%	2.07	%
Retail Class		10/1/2002
	Return before taxes		4.91	%	3.87	%	2.01	%
Class W		9/28/2018
	Return before taxes		5.51	%	4.35	%#	2.41	%#
Bloomberg U.S. Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) 1-10 Year Index
(reflects no deductions for fees, expenses or taxes)			5.69	%	4.46	%	2.57	%
Current performance of the Fund’s shares may be higher or lower than that shown above.
#	The performance shown for the Advisor Class and Class W that is prior to their respective inception dates is based on performance of the Institutional Class. The performance for these periods has not been restated to reflect the actual expenses of the Advisor Class and Class W. If these actual expenses had been reflected, the performance of these two classes shown for these periods would have been different because the Advisor Class and Class W have different expenses than the Institutional Class.
After-tax returns are calculated using the historical highest individual federal marginal income tax rates in effect during the periods shown and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on the investor’s tax situation and may differ from those shown. The after-tax returns shown are not relevant to investors who hold their Fund shares through tax-deferred arrangements such as 401(a), 401(k) or 403(b) plans or Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs). After-tax returns are shown for only one class, and after-tax returns for other classes will vary.
For the Fund’s most current 30-day yield, please call the Fund at 800-842-2252.

Portfolio management

Investment Adviser. The Fund’s investment adviser is Teachers Advisors, LLC.

Portfolio Managers. The following persons are primarily responsible for the management of the Fund on a day-to-day basis:

Name:	John Cerra	Nicholas Travaglino	Chad Kemper
Title:	Managing Director	Managing Director	Senior Director
Experience on Fund:	since 2008	since 2016	since 2019

8Summary Prospectus■TIAA-CREF Inflation-Linked Bond Fund

Purchase and sale of Fund shares

Institutional Class shares are available for purchase directly from the Fund by certain eligible investors (which include employee benefit plans and financial intermediaries). Advisor Class shares are available for purchase through certain financial intermediaries, employee benefit plans and insurance company separate accounts. Premier Class and Retirement Class shares are generally available for purchase through employee benefit plans, other types of savings plans or accounts and certain financial intermediaries. Retail Class shares are available for purchase through certain financial intermediaries or by contacting the Fund directly at 800-223-1200 or www.tiaa.org. Class W shares are available for purchase directly from the Fund only by funds advised by Advisors or its affiliates or other clients or accounts of Advisors or its affiliates that are subject to a contractual fee for advisory, management or other similar or related services provided by Advisors or its affiliates.

·The minimum initial investment is $2 million and the minimum subsequent investment is $1,000 for Institutional Class shares, unless an investor purchases shares by or through financial intermediaries that have entered into an appropriate agreement with the Fund or its affiliates. Employee benefit plans, fee-based managed account programs (“wrap accounts”), state sponsored 529 college savings plans, collective trust funds, investment companies or other pooled investment vehicles, thrifts and bank and trust companies that have entered into agreements to offer Institutional Class shares held in omnibus accounts on the books of the Fund are exempt from initial and subsequent investment minimums.

·There are no minimum initial or subsequent investment requirements for Advisor Class, Premier Class, Retirement Class or Class W shares.

·The minimum initial investment for Retail Class shares is $2,000 per Fund account for Traditional IRA, Roth IRA and Coverdell accounts and $2,500 for all other account types. Subsequent investments for all account types must be at least $100.

Redeeming or Exchanging Shares. You can redeem (sell) or exchange your shares of the Fund on any day that the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) or its affiliated exchanges, NYSE Arca Equities or NYSE American, are open for trading (each such day a “Business Day”). Exchanges may be made for shares of the same share class of other funds offered by the Trust. If your shares are held through a third party, please contact that entity for applicable redemption or exchange requirements.

Tax information

The Fund intends to make distributions to shareholders that may be taxed as ordinary income or capital gains. Distributions made to tax-exempt shareholders or shareholders who hold Fund shares in a tax-deferred account are generally

TIAA-CREF Inflation-Linked Bond Fund ■Summary Prospectus 9

not subject to income tax in the current year, but redemptions made from tax-deferred accounts may be subject to income tax.

Payments to broker-dealers and other financial intermediary compensation

If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), the Fund and/or its related companies may pay the financial intermediary for providing investor services. The Fund’s related companies may also pay the financial intermediary for the sale of Fund shares and related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other financial intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Ask your salesperson or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.

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