Princeton’s endowment generated an 11.0 percent investment gain over the 2025 fiscal year that ended June 30, University spokesperson Michael Hotchkiss said in a statement Friday. This marks a rebound in a hot year for markets compared to last year’s historically low return of 3.9 percent and the losses of 1.7 percent and 1.5 percent in FY 2023 and 2022, respectively.
The value of the endowment stood at $36.4 billion at the end of the fiscal year.
Princeton’s results are the second lowest of the six Ivy League schools who have released endowment results for this year — although the returns have all been tightly clustered. Brown generated 11.9 percent, Columbia 12.4 percent, Dartmouth 10.8 percent, Harvard 11.9 percent, and UPenn 12.2 percent. Cornell and Yale have not yet publicly released results.
The results follow a period of financial turbulence earlier this year, including suspensions in research funding and the threat of a new endowment tax. This semester, all University departments and units have enacted budget cuts of 5 to 10 percent.
“These returns will enable Princeton’s ongoing support for groundbreaking research, innovative scholarship, and leadership on student access and affordability,” Hotchkiss said in a statement. Payouts from the endowment account for about two-thirds of the University’s annual operating revenue, including programs like financial aid.
PRINCO’s portfolio allocation, like most university endowments, is historically heavily weighted towards illiquid alternative assets — like private equity, venture capital, and real assets — and this year underperformed the booming public stock market. Historically, these illiquid assets have generated higher returns based on the principle that long-term risks are rewarded with higher returns over time — matching the long time horizons of university endowments, which University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 has described as like a “retirement annuity.”
According to the 2024 Report of the Treasurer, 78 percent of PRINCO’s total gross managed investments were allocated towards alternative investments, with 42 percent of the total in private equity. Comparatively, Yale reported allocating 95 percent of its endowment towards alternative assets.
Such investments have historically paid off: In the 2021 fiscal year, Princeton’s endowment saw a boom with 46.9 percent returns driven by venture capital (138.5 percent returns) and private equity (99 percent). However, compared to public markets that have recently delivered strong liquid gains, private assets have underperformed in recent years amid relatively slower exits and an increasingly crowded market.
The extent to which PRINCO may have adjusted its private equity allocation is unknown. However, Harvard and Yale announced plans this year to sell $1 billion and $3 billion of their private equity holdings in the secondaries market, respectively.
Coco Gong is a head Features editor for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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