University of Chicago Endowment Rises 10.2% to $10.9B

The endowment of the University of Chicago returned 10.2% in fiscal 2025, the university announced Tuesday. Assets of the endowment rose to $10.9 billion as of June 30.

Last fiscal year, the University of Chicago endowment returned 8.4%. Over the past 15 and 20 years, annualized, the university reported returns of 8.1% and 7.8%, respectively. Andy Ward has served as CIO of the fund since 2021.

In a statement, the university noted that investment performance was negatively impacted by a strategic sale of private markets assets on the secondary market, which resulted in its performance being trimmed to 10.2% from 11.1%.

“The transaction focused on divesting long-time holdings that no longer fit the university’s long-term strategy,” the announcement stated.

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Several large institutional investors have turned to the secondary market to sell off old vintages and underperforming alternative investments at discounts ranging between 10% and 30%.

In May, the New York City pension system sold a $5 billion private equity portfolio to Blackstone on the secondary market. The sale later resulted in a four-percentage-point drag on private equity performance in the pension system for fiscal 2025, resulting in a 4.5% return in its private equity portfolio.

UChicago also noted that its investments in digital assets had positive performance. Digital assets and exposure to artificial intelligence through venture capital investments have been strong drivers of returns for university endowments this fiscal year, according to research from Markov Processes International, but few endowments acknowledge their digital asset holdings.

“The endowment holds these assets alongside a broad selection of investment vehicles to provide a stable and optimal long-term return, and these investments have yielded strong returns, well in excess of those of the overall portfolio, to support UChicago students and faculty,” the university stated.