Just for perspective, the annual research budget of a university I looked at the numbers for recently (not Cornell, but R1) would go through that in less than two decades, even if it were completely dedicated to research and nothing else.
Tech transfer is an important function, however, tech transfer offices outside perhaps the top 15 or 20 in the US (public and private) are not profitable in terms of dollars. AUTM (tech transfer trade group) has extensive data on the subject.
Still I can't work up a tear for universities with large endowments when the top 10 universities sit pretty on 304 billion dollars out of 840 billion total, while charging insane and exponentially rising tuition fees.
and you're assuming they invest like you do in your 401k or whatever. which they most certainly don't. some are more aggressive w.r.t. private markets investment but many focus on capital preservation and don't grow as much as you'd expect. FY24 Cornell's endowment returned something like 8%. this despite an S&P500 gain of, what, 23% ish.
institutions and allocators operate with a very different mindset versus individuals or hedgies.
