Washington University in St. Louis just posted a 37.3% return on its endowment for the year ended in June, and the driving force behind it was a bet almost a decade in the making: a concentrated stake in Elon Musk's rocket company that has now added more than $2 billion in value to the school's investment pool.
Washington University invested about $50 million in SpaceX roughly a decade ago. That single position eventually grew to account for more than 10% of the university's total asset pool before SpaceX ever sold a share to the public. As reported by Bloomberg, Washington University, based in St. Louis, made the investment in Musk's rocket company almost a decade ago, and it is now the centerpiece of the school's blockbuster fiscal-year performance.
Even before SpaceX went public, the payoff was already staggering. The Cavalier Daily reports the original $50 million position had surged to roughly $1.5 billion prior to the IPO, a pre-IPO return exceeding 3,000% and a gain of more than $1.4 billion in value while the company remained private.
The IPO That Changed Everything
SpaceX completed the largest initial public offering in history on June 12, 2026, listing on the Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX at $135 per share to raise more than $75 billion at a valuation higher than $2 trillion, according to the Space Foundation. The offering instantly made SpaceX the seventh-largest public company in the world on its first day of trading. Bloomberg photographer Michael Nagle captured SpaceX signage at the Nasdaq MarketSite during the closing bell ceremony that day, a visual marker of just how large the moment had become for the company and its early believers.
The ride hasn't been smooth since. Per the same account from Investing.com, SpaceX stock peaked at $225.64 in mid-June before tumbling to $104.83 in early August, after a major post-IPO lockup expiration released as many as 911.5 million shares into the market. That kind of volatility is a live concern for university endowments now sitting on concentrated public positions rather than illiquid private venture stakes.
WashU Wasn't Alone
Washington University's windfall echoes gains at other schools that made early SpaceX bets. The University of North Carolina system posted a 37.8% return for fiscal year 2026, driven by a SpaceX position dating back to 2009, while Harvard University disclosed holding 12.94 million SpaceX shares worth $2.2 billion at the end of June, according to TradingKey. Hoodline previously reported on UNC's SpaceX windfall, which explicitly referenced Washington University's own $50 million stake as part of the broader trend among elite university endowments cashing in on aerospace bets made years before Wall Street had a chance to buy in.
As of June 30, 2025, Washington University held $13.4 billion in endowment assets, per Praxis Rock Advisors.
Tax Bill and Layoffs Cloud the Windfall
The gains land amid new financial pressure from Washington. A spending bill signed in summer 2025 created a tiered endowment tax system reaching up to 8% for large higher-education funds, with the new taxes set to affect endowments starting in 2026; WashU leadership estimated the changes would add $37 million in annual tax costs, according to Higher Ed Dive. That tax hit followed the university's elimination of nearly 500 filled and unfilled positions earlier in the year amid rising structural costs.
Washington University's endowment operates under a targeted average net annual return of 8% to 11%, structured to fund a 4% to 5% yearly operating payout to the campus while keeping pace with 3% to 4% inflation, according to the university's own endowment FAQ. Its stated yearly payout to campus operations is 4% to 5%.
Wilson's Concentrated Strategy
Wilson has run WashU's investment office since December 2017, after previously overseeing Grinnell College's endowment, and he has steered the school toward a concentrated, high-conviction allocation model rather than the broad diversification favored by many peer institutions. The FY21 MEP return was 65.1%, according to Top1000funds.com.
