Harvard University's endowment, known as Harvard Management, just disclosed a $2.2 billion investment in Space Exploration Technologies (NASDAQ: SPCX) , commonly known as SpaceX. Harvard's endowment, officially named Harvard Management, is the largest in the world with an estimated value of about $57 billion. This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again.
In 2009, a "Double Down" signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. For the first time in years, that same "Total Conviction" signal is flashing for a company 1/100th the size of Nvidia. Continue » SpaceX is far and away the largest single stock holding for the fund.
Other large holdings include Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, Amazon, Microsoft, and Cerebras Systems. The fund's equity holdings come to about $4.3 billion and include many large technology companies. Interestingly, the fund also holds about $101 million in Bitcoin, via the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF.
Publicly traded stocks make up just a small portion of the fund, while investments in private equity and hedge funds made up about 72% as of fiscal 2025. The fund posted a return of about 12% last year and has done relatively well in recent years, including a 33.6% gain in 2021. It suffered a historic 27.3% loss in 2009, about $11 billion, due to the global financial crisis.
Harvard's investments were tied up in illiquid assets like private equity and real estate, which lost significant value during the crisis. It took the fund seven years to recover from that loss. Before you buy stock in Space Exploration Technologies, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Space Exploration Technologies wasn't one of them.
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