Harvard Management Co.’s late-2025 bet on Ethereum got off to a poor start in 2026, as its investment in BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust ETF has plunged 35% during the first two months of the year.
The $57 billion endowment reported in its latest 13F filing that it made a new investment in the exchange-traded fund during the final quarter of 2025 and held more than 3.87 million shares worth nearly $87 million as of the end of the year. However, the ETF’s share price tumbled to $14.45 as of midday trading on February 27, down from $22.43 as of December 31, 2025, erasing more than $30 million from the endowment’s holdings.
As a long-term investor, Harvard is not concerned about how an asset performs over the course of two months, but it cannot be pleased with the timing of its entrance into Ethereum investing. It is likely pleased, however, with the timing of some of its other moves at the end of 2025, including jumping into Union Pacific, reducing its shares in iShares Bitcoin ETF and Microsoft, and boosting its shares in Taiwan Semiconductor.
During the fourth quarter of calendar 2025, Harvard increased its shares in Taiwan Semiconductor by 45%, and with the stock price rising 27% since the end of the year, the investment’s value has surged to approximately $93.2 million from $59.2 million.
The endowment also took a new position in Union Pacific, acquiring more than 611,000 shares that were worth $141.4 million as of December 31. Those shares are currently worth about $163 million, following a 15% rise in Union Pacific’s share price since the start of 2026.
The endowment raised its stake in Alphabet by 25%, increasing its value to almost $253 million as of the end of 2025, from just over $157.1 million at the end of September 2025. Shares of the tech giant are down slightly since the end of 2025.
HMC also benefitted from cutting its iShares Bitcoin ETF and Microsoft holdings by 21% each. The iShares ETF’s value has fallen by more than 26% since the start of the year, while Microsoft’s stock is down close to 20%. Harvard also slashed its Amazon holdings by 37%—prior to the stock falling 10% during the first few months of 2026—and reduced its shares in Nvidia by 30%.
Despite the pullback from Amazon, the endowment still has 10 times more shares in the company than it did at the end of 2024. The position’s value rose to $157 million from less than $15 million a year earlier. While HMC increased its shares in Meta by 11% in the final quarter of calendar 2025 to 182,000, its holdings are still far fewer than the 1.3 million shares it held a year earlier.
The endowment also liquidated its shares in gambling products and services company Light and Wonder, shares worth $94.5 million at the end of September 2025 and $124.5 million a year earlier.
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Tags: Asset Allocation, Digital Assets, Endowment, Harvard Management Co., investment performance