Harvard's endowment is larger: $68 billion vs Yale's $54.5 billion at June 30, 2026. Returns were nearly identical in fiscal 2026: Harvard 27.1%, Yale 26.3%. Harvard paid out $2.6 billion (39% of operating revenue) and Yale $2.2 billion (35% of operating revenue). Both now face the 8% federal tax on net investment income.
Answer
Harvard's endowment is larger: $68 billion vs Yale's $54.5 billion at June 30, 2026. Their fiscal 2026 returns were almost identical, 27.1% for Harvard and 26.3% for Yale. Harvard paid out $2.6 billion (39% of operating revenue) and Yale $2.2 billion (35%). Both now face the 8% federal tax on net investment income.
| Harvard vs Yale endowment | Harvard | Yale |
|---|---|---|
| Value, June 30, 2026 | $68 billion | $54.5 billion |
| FY2026 return | 27.1% | 26.3% (net of fees) |
| FY2025 return | 11.9% | 11.1% |
| FY2026 investment gain / value increase | +$11.1 billion in value | $11.3 billion investment gains |
| Payout in FY2026 | $2.6 billion | $2.2 billion |
| Share of operating revenue | 39% | 35% |
| Long-run return | 11.4% a year over 9 years | 11.7% a year over 10 years |
| Endowment tax | 1.4% to 8% in FY2027 (~$300M a year) | Newly subject to 8% (~$900M on FY2026 gain) |
| Results published | October 15, 2026 | October 27, 2026 |
Sources: Harvard Magazine (Oct. 15, 2026); Yale News (Oct. 27, 2026); AI-CIO (Oct. 27, 2026). Updated November 3, 2026.
Which endowment is bigger, Harvard or Yale?
Harvard's endowment was valued at $68 billion at June 30, 2026, up $11.1 billion, or 19.5%, from $56.9 billion a year earlier, according to Harvard Magazine's account of Harvard's FY2026 financial report. Yale's endowment rose to $54.5 billion on the same date, per Yale News.
That leaves Harvard about $13.5 billion ahead. Harvard remains the largest university endowment. Among the fiscal 2026 results published so far, Yale also sits behind Stanford's $61.5 billion Merged Pool (a broader measure that includes other university funds). See the full league table in our largest university endowments 2026 ranking.
Which earned the higher return in 2026?
Harvard, by less than a percentage point. Harvard Management Company (HMC) returned 27.1% for the year to June 30, 2026, which Harvard Magazine called the second-highest return of the past decade, behind only the 33.6% of fiscal 2021. Yale reported a 26.3% return, net of fees, representing $11.3 billion of investment gains.
The two also finished close together in fiscal 2025: Harvard 11.9% and Yale 11.1%. Both beat the 15.5% median for US college and university endowments in fiscal 2026 reported by Cambridge Associates (as cited by The Stanford Daily) by more than 10 percentage points, and both trailed Stanford's 31.7%.
What drove the returns? HMC CEO N.P. Narvekar credited venture capital, public equities and hedge funds, as quoted by Harvard Magazine. Yale's name is attached to the "endowment model", with its heavy weighting to private and alternative assets; our Yale endowment model explainer covers that approach. The lean years are a reminder of the other side of that model: Yale returned 0.8% in FY2022 and 1.8% in FY2023 (AI-CIO, Oct. 27, 2026).
How much does each endowment pay its university?
Harvard's endowment distributed $2.6 billion in fiscal 2026, which Harvard Magazine puts at 39% of operating revenue, within an operating budget of $6.7 billion. Harvard held its FY2027 distribution flat, with no increase from the prior year.
Yale's endowment distributed $2.2 billion to the operating budget and provides 35% of Yale's operating revenue, including 62% of Yale College's budget, according to Yale News. Over the past decade Yale's endowment has funded $16.3 billion of spending, 64% of its value at the start of the period. Yale says this year's return will flow into the budget gradually, starting with the fiscal 2028 budget that begins July 1, 2027.
Both lean on their endowments more heavily than Stanford does: Stanford's fiscal 2027 payout of more than $2.2 billion is one-fifth of its operating budget (The Stanford Daily).
How does the 8% endowment tax hit Harvard and Yale?
Both are in the top tier of the federal tax on net investment income. Harvard Magazine reports Harvard's rate rises nearly sixfold, from 1.4% to 8%, in fiscal 2027, at an estimated cost of about $300 million a year; Harvard's balance sheet already shows a future tax liability of $1.9 billion, most of it deferred.
Yale says it is newly subject to an 8% federal endowment tax and that the tax liability associated with its fiscal 2026 gain is roughly $900 million (Yale News). The two figures are not directly comparable: Harvard's is an estimated annual cost, Yale's is the liability tied to one exceptional year of gains.
Which has the better long-term record?
On the data each published this autumn, they are close. Yale's endowment returned 11.7% a year over the decade to June 30, 2026, which Yale says beat the median college and university endowment by an estimated 1.6 percentage points a year and a 70/30 stock-bond portfolio by 2.7 points a year. Harvard Magazine reports Harvard returned 11.4% a year, annualized, over Narvekar's nine-year tenure. The periods differ by one year, so this is a rough comparison rather than a ranking.
What should institutional investors take from the comparison?
- Scale is not the edge it once was. Harvard is about a quarter bigger than Yale, but their returns were within a point of each other in both of the last two years.
- Budget reliance shapes risk appetite. With the endowment funding more than a third of operating revenue at both schools, spending discipline is a core governance choice; see fiduciary duty for endowments.
- Tax is now a portfolio variable for both, and is likely to shape how the wealthiest US endowments structure holdings and set payouts.
For the full single-school pages, see the Harvard endowment 2026 and the Yale endowment 2026, and the Stanford endowment 2026 for the year's top performer.
Sources
- Harvard Magazine, Jonathan Shaw, "Harvard Stabilizes Finances With Strong Endowment Returns, Philanthropy," October 15, 2026. https://www.harvardmagazine.com/university-finances/harvard-endowment-financial-report-fiscal-year-2026
- Yale News, "Yale reports investment return for fiscal 2026," October 27, 2026. https://news.yale.edu/2026/10/27/yale-reports-investment-return-fiscal-2026
- AI-CIO, Matt Toledo, "Yale Endowment Delivers 26.3% Investment Return for FY 2026," October 27, 2026. https://www.ai-cio.com/news/yale-endowment-delivers-26-3-investment-return-for-fy-2026/
- The Stanford Daily, Emerson Prentice, "Stanford reports 31.7% return on investment," September 29, 2026. https://stanforddaily.com/2026/09/29/stanford-reports-return-on-investment/
Last updated November 3, 2026.