Oil-Rich University of Texas Wants to Cash In on AI, Crypto and Power
The system—with an endowment second only to Harvard’s—is diversifying into wind and solar energy at a fraught time for renewables.
A crypto data center in Pyote, Texas, on land leased from the University of Texas System.
Photographer: Jordan Vonderhaar for Bloomberg Markets
Scores of wind turbines, each as tall as a 50-story building, rise into the desert sky. Solar panels, 800,000 in all, cover a patch of scrubland almost the size of London’s Heathrow Airport. Rows of computer servers whir loudly in a chilled cryptocurrency data warehouse that could cover two New York City blocks. The University of Texas System manages the land under all these new projects, which are generating cash for hundreds of thousands of students.
UT has long relied on the money it makes leasing the rights to what’s beneath its vast property in the Permian Basin: oil and natural gas from North America’s richest trove. And the miles of pipelines carrying liquid gold below the windmills and solar farms remain key to its wealth. Thanks to record years of fossil fuel production and investment gains, UT has a $47.5 billion endowment, ranking No. 2 in higher education, after Harvard University’s.