CHAPEL HILL – The UNC Investment Fund returned 37.8% in the fiscal year ended June 30 and grew to about $17 billion, giving public universities and UNC Health a sharply larger pool of long-term assets.
A Sept. 23 UNC Board of Trustees committee packet documents the fund presentation to the Budget, Finance and Infrastructure Committee. The fund was worth about $12.5 billion one year earlier, according to figures presented at the meeting and reported independently.
WRAL reported that roughly half of the fund’s growth was attributable to aerospace manufacturer SpaceX. UNC Management Company President Stefan Strein said the fund began investing through a venture-capital fund with SpaceX exposure in 2009 and expects distributions tied to the investment to continue through September 2027.
The pooled fund manages long-term assets for UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC Health, NC State University, Appalachian State University, UNC Charlotte, UNC Wilmington and other UNC System institutions. UNC Health’s portion is about $4 billion, while NC State’s is about $1.8 billion, according to the meeting presentation.
The UNC-Chapel Hill Foundation Investment Fund grew from $6.04 billion at June 30, 2025, to $8.16 billion at June 30, 2026, after distributing $315.1 million for university programs and development. The broader fund also outperformed its primary benchmark and a traditional 70% stock and 30% bond portfolio across the one-, three-, five-, seven- and 10-year periods presented.
The business consequence extends beyond a single campus. A larger investment pool can support future university, health-system and research spending, while the concentration of recent gains in one company also leaves future results exposed to market performance. The reported return covers the fiscal year ended June 30 and does not guarantee a similar result in later periods.
Featured image: The Old Well at UNC-Chapel Hill, shown as campus context. Photo by Dennis Ludlow – Sharkshock, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. The photograph was faithfully cropped and resized, then placed above the approved NC Business Desk footer.