“Harvard is sitting on top of a $54 billion hedge fund they call an ‘endowment’ that they pay zero taxes on. Yale has $31 Billion. Stanford $29 Billion. Princeton $26 Billion.”
College and university endowments are donation-supported investments that serve as sources of long-term funding. Harvard’s endowment was at $53.2 billion in 2021. Yale’s was $42.3 billion, Stanford’s was $37.8 billion and Princeton’s was $37.7 billion. Kirk’s numbers appear to reflect 2020 endowment values. Private institutions with very large endowments, such as Harvard University, pay a 1.4% excise tax on net endowment investment income.