Owning SpaceX shares is hardly on par with those other issues, but the lack of reaction says something about how much the mood on campus has changed.
Catch up: Harvard’s SpaceX investment, valued at $2.2 billion when it was disclosed in August, was the largest publicly traded stock holding in the school’s nearly $68 billion endowment.
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The shares were a significant contributor to the endowment’s 27 percent investment gain in the fiscal year ended June 30, its biggest return since 2021.
The increase was driven by holdings in venture capital funds, public equities, and hedge funds, according to N.P. “Narv” Narvekar, CEO of Harvard Management, which oversees the endowment. The university’s annual financial report last week said some of those venture funds invested in SpaceX in the years before its June initial public offering and distributed shares to Harvard after the deal.
Harvard Management declined to provide details on the SpaceX investment, including when the university first acquired shares and its profit to date.
Why it matters: The sound of silence on campus appears to underscore a waning zeal for protests, rather than a softening in opposition to Musk and his close ties to Trump.
After a tumultuous 2024 and 2025, crises this year “have made more noise in the headlines than on our campus, as students have largely gone about their lives as normal,” The Harvard Crimson’s editorial board wrote in May.
A Tesla Cybertruck.David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
There’s plenty not to like about Musk, including his abhorrent views on immigration, race, and religion, as well as his blatant attempts to swing elections with huge donations to MAGA candidates. And don’t get me started on the militaristic Cybertruck made by Tesla, where Musk is also CEO.
More recently, he ordered a slowdown of a military-grade version of SpaceX’s Starlink internet service relied on by Ukraine, rendering some Ukrainian drones virtually useless as the country tries to fight off Russian air attacks.
But Musk also has many fans, including the venture capital investors who poured money into SpaceX when it was still private. SpaceX has been a big winner for other university endowments, too, including those at the University of Virginia, the University of North Carolina, Washington University in St. Louis, and Stanford University.
Past isn’t prologue: Harvard has faced sustained pressure on its investments before.
In the spring of 2024, pro-Palestinian protesters camped in Harvard Yard for about three weeks, demanding divestment from companies tied to Israel. Harvard didn’t divest, offering meetings on the endowment instead, and weeks later adopted a policy of institutional neutrality on public statements.
The fossil fuel campaign that began in 2012 lasted nearly a decade. In 2021, then president Lawrence Bacow announced the endowment would let its remaining oil and gas investments wind down.
From the late 1970s through the 1980s, students blockaded University Hall, rallied by the thousands, and in 1986 built shanties in Harvard Yard as they called on the university to divest from South Africa, then ruled by an apartheid white-minority government.
What they’re saying: “I’m not surprised that there has been no protest,” Steven Pinker, a Harvard psychology professor, said in an email.
“For one thing, it appears that the holding is substantial only because Harvard (shrewdly, as it turns out) got in early with what may have been a small investment at the time, which became substantial only with SpaceX’s rapid growth. For another, though Musk himself has become an odious character, his companies themselves haven’t engaged in bad things — SpaceX has brought many benefits (at least in its rockets). But most important, students and activists don’t continuously comb through Harvard’s portfolio company by company and evaluate each one on moral grounds.”
Takeoff: SpaceX, whose businesses include space travel, AI data centers, and Starlink, went public June 11 at $135 a share, amid heavy demand from institutions and individual investors.
The stock immediately soared, reaching nearly $202 a few days later. It has since fallen back but remains up 18 percent from its IPO price.
On Tuesday, Musk said SpaceX and Tesla are considering a merger. The two companies have formed committees of independent directors to explore a deal.
“Because I’m a conflicted party, I can’t actually be in the discussions,” he said during SpaceX’s earnings call. “I think it would be a good idea.”
Final thought: Harvard investment managers and university officials have long resisted outside interference.
That’s because the endowment, the largest in higher education, is a crucial source of funds. It contributed $2.6 billion to the university’s operating revenue in fiscal 2026 — nearly 40 percent of the total.
They will hold on to SpaceX as long as they think its value will increase. There’s no percentage in walking away from Musk — no matter how despicable he may be.
Larry Edelman can be reached at larry.edelman@globe.com.