Early venture bets on SpaceX have ballooned into major portfolio positions at some US university endowments, with new analysis estimating the aerospace firm contributed as much as 10.6 percentage points to annual returns. Michael Markov, founder of US quantitative researcher Markov Processes International, says the windfall is now creating a concentration risk that investors cannot ignore.
The $9 billion asset manager for 500 US endowments and foundations, TIFF, is famed for its PE and venture capital allocation. Head of private markets Brendon Parry reflects on his priorities, including navigating the winners and losers of AI, and leaning into independent sponsors and relationships with the best managers.
Fordham University CIO Geeta Kapadia is cutting back on private credit, calling it an asset class “less able to financially engineer returns” in a higher-rate world. She’s instead redirecting the $1.1 billion endowment to venture and growth equity and entrusting larger mandates to a smaller roster of high-conviction managers.
AI will deliver a five-year burst of productivity and cost cutting before a deflationary decade reshapes the global economy, according to legendary venture capitalist Vinod Khosla.
The short-term investment focus of venture capital investors and the withdrawal of government funding are opening the door to asset owners as providers of patient, long-term capital to fill an investment void, the Top1000funds.com Fiduciary Investors Symposium has heard.
The A$175 billion Aware Super’s CIO Damian Graham said its venture capital investment in tech unicorn Canva has been good value for money but "pretty unusual" in the scheme of things. He reflects on the asset class and the broader pension investing purpose.
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