August 7, 2026
Bloomberg recently published an article featuring Ted Karns, Lecturer in Finance, discussing how early investments in companies such as SpaceX and OpenAI are driving outsized returns for some university endowments.
The University of North Carolina’s endowment is expected to have returned more than 30% this year, boosted by an early investment in SpaceX, while the University of Michigan is also expected to outperform the median following an early investment in OpenAI.
Karns emphasized that these gains reflect long-term investment decisions rather than single-year performance, noting: “The gain is recognized in one year, but it was built over years. And that concentration can then work in both directions.” His comments highlight how concentrated investments can produce significant rewards when a portfolio company succeeds, while also creating substantial risk when those bets move in the opposite direction.
The article also examines how strong performance in technology and energy investments is contributing to a wide gap in returns among university endowments this year.
