HORSEPOWER

Fiscal year 2026 marked an important milestone for the University of Wyoming Foundation. The endowment crossed the $1 billion threshold, growing from $892.2 million to approximately $1.03 billion, while generating an estimated lagged return of 15.5%. This exceeded our 9% cost of capital by approximately 650 basis points and outperformed the policy benchmark by 50 basis points.

This year provides evidence that decisions made over several years, not simply the market environment of a single year, are increasingly translating into stronger portfolio outcomes. For example, in 2024, we initiated a substantial overweight to public energy companies through Chickasaw Capital, positioning the endowment to participate meaningfully in one of this year’s strongest investment themes: energy. That decision, made two years earlier, helped our public equity allocation return 26.1% in fiscal year 2026 and contributed more than 10 percentage points to total portfolio performance.

That same long-term perspective continues to shape how we invest around artificial intelligence. In last year’s report, we described the buildout of AI-driven computing infrastructure as a multiyear investment theme and noted that the opportunities extended beyond technology companies themselves to the physical infrastructure required to support that growth. Power generation was one such area, and semiconductors represent another. During fiscal year 2026, we initiated positions in two semiconductor ETFs, which we expect can have the same kind of multiyear positive return impact that our energy investments have provided. These investments illustrate our effort to participate not simply in the most visible beneficiaries of technological change but also in the infrastructure required to enable it.

Private markets also provided an important source of return. During fiscal year 2026, private equity returned an estimated 21.3%, with much of that performance coming from venture capital investments. Here, too, results are beginning to reflect decisions made over a longer period. Venture returns will remain uneven from year to year, but the portfolio is beginning to demonstrate the value created during the extended period in which private company liquidity was constrained. We expect additional realizations during the coming fiscal year and look forward to writing about those results next year.

We also continued the portfolio simplification effort described in last year’s report. During fiscal year 2026, we redeemed our investments in the DoubleLine CAPE equity fund, the Artisan Developing World fund, and the Blackstone Private Credit fund. Reducing the number of overlapping strategies allows us to concentrate capital in exposures where we have greater conviction, improve transparency, and continue reducing both portfolio complexity and associated fees.

The longer-term results are increasingly reflecting these changes. When the internal investment team began in January 2019, the endowment’s compounded return since inception, dating to 1998, stood at 4.46%. That figure has now increased to 6.02%. While it remains below our 9% long-term cost of capital objective, the direction of travel is meaningful. Over the trailing seven- and ten-year periods, compounded returns are now 10.1% and 9.4%, respectively, both above the endowment’s cost of capital.