SpaceX’s initial public offering, set to begin trading in the coming weeks, will crystallize years of private-market appreciation for some of the largest U.S. university endowments. The rocket company, which has expanded from launch services into internet provision, social media, and plans for orbital data centers, last week said it would sell shares at $135 apiece, valuing the company at around $1.77 trillion. That valuation represents a sharp increase from $140 billion as recently as December 2022.
The University of North Carolina system, which manages about $15 billion for 17 institutions, has roughly 10% of its endowment tied up in SpaceX, according to people familiar with the endowment. The position is largely attributable to an early investment in Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, one of SpaceX’s earliest venture backers. UNC Management sold some shares in a secondary sale toward the end of 2025, and its leadership and board have been discussing whether to hedge the position once SpaceX is publicly traded, one of the people said.
Washington University in St. Louis has an even larger allocation. The school’s $13.4 billion endowment as of June 2025 holds a midteens percentage in SpaceX, a person familiar said. The position stems from a 2018 direct investment alongside Vy Capital, as well as exposure through multiple outside managers. “We obviously hope for every co-investment to get this large,” Scott Wilson, Washington University’s endowment chief, wrote in an email, “but few businesses compound at this rate for such a long period of time.” Under Wilson, WashU has developed a reputation for making large, concentrated bets. The school has trimmed some of its SpaceX position in secondary markets to lock in gains and plans to sell more after the IPO, the person said.
Stanford University, whose endowment managed $47.7 billion at the end of June, has a sizable position in SpaceX, according to people familiar with the endowment. One person said the stake falls well short of 10%. Like UNC Management, a key contributor was Stanford’s early investment in Founders Fund, which began investing in SpaceX in 2008. Stanford also gained exposure through managers including Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive Capital, and hedge fund Darsana, the people said.
The University of Virginia began building a SpaceX position in 2020 after discovering it had almost no exposure, said people familiar with the matter. It built its stake between 2020 and 2021, when SpaceX was valued around $74 billion and then $100 billion. SpaceX today makes up a low single-digit percentage of UVA’s endowment, which manages roughly $17 billion.
Endowments are restricted in how they can spend gains. Much of the money is legally tied to specific purposes, meaning schools with large SpaceX investments will not necessarily have discretion to spend the windfall as they wish. Several endowment chiefs told the Wall Street Journal it is unlikely that their peers ever intended for SpaceX positions to become so large; the sizes reflect the company staying private for decades and its valuation soaring in recent years.
Elon Musk, who holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, has been publicly critical of higher education. In 2024, he posted, “College is overrated,” accompanying a clip in which he said, “We need electricians, plumbers and carpenters. That’s a lot more important than having incremental political science majors.” SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment for Musk.