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Universities’ nightmare scenario is here, and it’s not just federal funding cuts | Semafor

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The nightmare scenario for elite universities is here. The flood of White House actions aimed at private colleges can be hard to follow. But think of these universities as companies, and the math gets simpler — and the dangers become stark. Top universities are financial titans, generating investment profits that mirror those of Wall Street firms. They are health care companies; the University of Pennsylvania gets half its revenue from the hospitals it runs. They commercialize the inventions that spring from their labs. They sell four-year subscriptions for rent and classes to their students and lifelong memberships in an elite club to their donors (posthumous, if the checks are big enough). By revenue, UPenn is bigger than BNY Mellon; Columbia is as big as Coinbase. But these universities operate on profit margins thinner than those of a grocery store. In short, they make a lot of money but spend almost all of it. That leaves little wiggle room when any of their revenue streams is thr

Universities’ nightmare scenario is here, and it’s not just federal funding cuts | Semafor Intelligence for the New World Economy Semafor World Economy Universities’ nightmare scenario: it’s not just federal funding cuts Liz Hoffman Business & Finance editor May 29, 2025, 2:55pm EDT Business Share Noah Berger/File Photo/Reuters Post Email Whatsapp Copy link Sign up for Semafor Business: The stories (& the scoops) from Wall Street. Read it now . Email address Sign Up In this article: The News Know More Step Back The News The nightmare scenario for elite universities is here. The flood of White

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