US university endowments set to match stock market gains with massive tech bets

For years, the knock on big university endowments was simple: all that sophistication, all those expensive fund managers, and they still couldn’t beat the S&P 500. That narrative is getting a rewrite this fiscal year, and the authors are named SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic. Major US university endowments are on track to match or exceed S&P 500 returns for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2026, a dramatic reversal after a stretch of relative underperformance that had critics questioning whether the “Yale model” of heavy private-market allocation was still worth the illiquidity. The numbers behind the comeback The University of North Carolina system is expected to post returns exceeding 30% for the fiscal year. The University of Colorado Foundation is projecting 20.3% returns. Both figures are driven substantially by a single company: SpaceX, which went public in June 2026. Harvard Management Company disclosed a $2.2 billion stake in SpaceX as of June 30, 2026, making it the largest single public equity holding in the university’s portfolio. The University of Colorado committed approximately $4.2 million to SpaceX back in 2009. That position has ballooned to roughly $289 milli...