Harvard Endowment Soars to $68 Billion SpaceX IPO

Megan L. Blonigen and Graham W. Lee:

The returns followed Harvard’s August disclosure of its $2.2 billion stake in SpaceX, which went public in June in the largest initial public offering in history. The position was worth more than all of the endowment’s other reported public holdings combined.

Harvard’s tax liability jumped from $317 million to $1.9 billion, most of which reflects estimated future taxes on unrealized investment gains under the new rate. The tax is expected to cost Harvard roughly $300 million each year. Though the higher rate will take effect in fiscal year 2027, the University is required to book the effect of the law this year.

The modest surplus follows the operating loss of $113 million the University reported in fiscal year 2025 — its first since the pandemic and its largest deficit since 2011 — amid the Trump administration’s mass cuts to federal research funding earlier that year.

Kalra and Barakett attributed the modest 1.5 percent margin to “elevated legal costs along with other pressures that show little sign of abating.”

Harvard reported a 58 percent increase in legal fees in fiscal year 2025, according to University tax returns, a dramatic rise amid court battles with the Trump administration and multiple federal investigations. Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 acknowledged the surge at a Sunday event, calling the costs “mind-boggling.”

But efforts to cut costs were effective in some areas, according to the report. “All other expenses,” a category that includes legal fees, rose just 1 percent, with continued increases in legal costs “partially offset by broader cost-saving initiatives.”