MPI estimates that SpaceX contributed nearly 40% of Yale’s FY26 investment gain, with hedge-fund ties offering clues to how Yale and Penn gained exposure.
UPenn
Penn, Stanford and MIT have reported sharply different FY26 returns. MPI examines the emerging endowment puzzle through the lens of economic exposures and portfolio risk.
According to our analysis, UPenn’s liquidity problem is real—but somewhat different from those faced by other elite schools. Dartmouth emerges as the most resilient to cash flow pressures.
These widely cited projections come from MPI’s Transparency Lab, which provides unique insights into the styles, risks, and performance of traditionally opaque pensions and endowments.
Endowments and pensions continue to post gains, but exposure to private markets pushes many below benchmarks
MPI is continuing its long tradition of bringing you special insights into the true drivers of endowment performance and risk. Stay tuned for the launch of our new Endowments research hub, and exciting daily updates throughout the FY2022 reporting season.
Lessons (not) learned: our analysis shows Ivies are at pre-GFC levels of risk
We take a quick look at Ivy schools’ endowments’ performance results both for the 2020 fiscal year and also long-term for 10-year periods.
The grades for all the Ivy League endowments are in – and they are rather disappointing. Save for Brown, all Ivies underperformed the 9.9% return of a domestic 60-40 portfolio in fiscal year 2019. The Ivy average in FY 2019 was 6.7%, significantly underperforming the 60-40 and reversing two years in which they outperformed the traditional domestic benchmark.
In stark contrast to FY 2016, this past year was a strong one for most endowments. In fact, nearly all the Ivy League endowments, Harvard being the only exception, beat the 60-40 portfolio, a commonly cited benchmark that endowments measure their performance against.