Permanent University Fund - Assets

Assets

In 1900, the Permanent University Fund earned approximately $40,000, mostly from grazing leases; by 1925, income had increased to $2,000 per day (about $700,000 per year), and by 1943 was just under $1 million per year. In the late 1950s, the PUF earned about $8,513,000 per year and was valued above $283,642,000; in 1990, the PUF was valued at $3,541,314,800 and earned $266,119,000 in income. Currently, PUF land assets deliver proceeds through oil, gas, sulfur, and water royalties, rentals on mineral leases, and gains on fiduciary investments. Grazing leases and other surface rights income are distributed to the AUF.

As of December 2008 figures, the PUF holds approximately $8.8 billion in investments and 2,100,000 acres (8,500 km2) of land located in 21 counties, mostly in West Texas. Each year, five percent of the PUF's value is transferred to the AUF, which then distributes the money. The PUF exclusively serves institutions in the University of Texas System, which receives two-thirds of its proceeds, and the Texas A&M System, which receives the remaining one-third. As of 2008, the University of Texas System received the fifth-largest endowment in the nation, and the Texas A&M System received the tenth-largest. At one time, the PUF was the chief source of income for The University of Texas at Austin, but today its revenues account for less than twenty percent of the university's annual budgets. Of the 2007-08 year's $1 billion core academic budget of UT Austin, the AUF's funding accounted for $143 million.