Harvard University

What Harvard University does

Harvard University is a private, non-profit Ivy League research institution chartered in Massachusetts in 1636 and headquartered at Massachusetts Hall, Cambridge. It serves approximately 6,600 undergraduates through Harvard College and operates 12 graduate and professional schools (including HBS, Law, Medical, Kennedy, SEAS, GSAS, T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Radcliffe Institute) offering 71 degree-granting GSAS programs and more than 3,700 courses. Online learning is delivered via Harvard Online and the edX platform (co-founded with MIT, now operated by 2U), which reaches over 100 million learners through 5,300+ programs and 250+ enterprise partners including IBM, Microsoft, UC Berkeley, and Oxford.

The university's research enterprise produced externally validated outputs in 2025-26 including the ERA AI system with Google DeepMind (Nature publication), the BRIDGE parasports simulation (ACM CHI Best Paper), and the SNUH-Harvard virtual hospital for medical AI validation. It supports 27+ libraries, 14 museums, the Harvard Gazette news platform, the President's Innovation Challenge ($500K+ in non-dilutive funding annually), and the Allston Partnership Fund ($200K annually to 25 nonprofits).

Harvard's revenue mechanics are dominated by the $57B endowment managed by Harvard Management Company (HMC), which generates over one-third of the $6.7B operating budget and delivered 8.1% annualized returns over three years. Other revenue streams include undergraduate tuition (~$65K/year, with families earning under $100K attending tuition-free), sponsored research ($629M, down 8% YoY due to federal funding cuts totaling $2.6B), 12-school graduate and professional tuition, executive education, philanthropic gifts, and online learning. The institution is governed by the Harvard Corporation and Board of Overseers and currently faces material regulatory headwinds from the Trump administration's federal funding cuts and antitrust/civil rights litigation.

Name

Harvard University

Legal name

The President and Fellows of Harvard College

Website

https://harvard.edu

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

5,001–10,000 employees

Short description

Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university founded in 1636, serving approximately 6,600 undergraduates and graduate students across 12 professional schools, with online learning reaching 100M+ users via edX and a $57B endowment funding its $6.7B operating budget.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Higher Education and Research

NAICS

Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools (611310), Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools (6113)

akta.pro primary industry

Comprehensive Doctoral Research Universities (Multi-Disciplinary) (EDAHABAA)

akta.pro secondary industry

STEM-Focused Research Universities (Engineering & Applied Sciences) (EDAHABAB)

Keywords

• Higher education services
• Research university programs
• Graduate and professional degrees
• Online lifelong learning
• Academic research services

Headquarters

HQ city

Cambridge

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices5 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Revenue model

1. Endowment investment returns: Harvard Management Company oversees the $56.9B endowment, the largest university fund globally, which generates over one-third of Harvard's $6.7B operating budget. HMC operates an external generalist model managing roughly 90% of the portfolio through elite hedge funds, venture capital, and private equity firms, delivering 8.1% annualized returns over the past three years.
2. Undergraduate and graduate tuition: Eight Ivy League colleges charge approximately $65,000 annually in tuition with total costs reaching $90,000-$100,000 per year including living expenses; Harvard charges a $90 admissions application processing fee.
3. Online learning and professional programs: edX (originally co-founded by Harvard and MIT, now operated by 2U) and Harvard Online deliver 5,300+ programs to over 100 million people through 250+ institutional and enterprise partners including IBM, Microsoft, UC Berkeley, and Oxford.
4. Federal research grants and contracts: Harvard's sponsored research fell 8% from $686 million to $629 million amid Trump administration federal funding cuts totaling $2.2B, with $2.6B in research grants and federal contracts at stake. NSF restricted new grants to Harvard since April 9, 2026.
5. Philanthropic gifts and endowment contributions: Major gifts include $100M from Zimmer Family Foundation (2018) for Science Center, $20M from Troper Wojcicki Foundation for Susan Wojcicki Library, $15M from SOHO China Foundation, and $9.2M from Jeffrey Epstein (1998-2008). Harvard set aside $100M in 2022 for Legacy of Slavery Initiative recommendations.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Harvard University is a private research university delivering undergraduate liberal arts education through Harvard College, graduate and professional degrees across twelve schools (Business, Law, Medical, Kennedy, Public Health, etc.), online learning via Harvard Online and the edX platform co-founded with MIT, and a sponsored research enterprise. It also operates a network of 27+ libraries and 14 museums and runs an investment subsidiary managing a roughly $57 billion endowment that funds more than one-third of its $6.7 billion operating budget.

Product overview

Harvard University operates a portfolio spanning in-person graduate and undergraduate degree programs (anchored by Harvard College and twelve graduate/professional schools), digital learning through Harvard Online and the edX platform it co-founded with MIT, an extensive library and museum network, and a research enterprise that produces both scholarly outputs (e.g., the Harvard Gazette, the Slavery Remembrance Program Database, ERA, BRIDGE, RAnts, Keyring) and applied programs (President's Innovation Challenge, Frontiers of Innovation for Societal Impact Fund, AHRI Research Capacity Grant, Harvard Allston Partnership Fund, and the Joint Center for Housing Studies). The university also manages its endowment through the Harvard Management Company ($57B endowment) and runs convening programs such as Harvard Model Congress Asia, forming a tightly integrated research-and-education platform rather than a single commercial SaaS product.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Harvard College: The undergraduate liberal arts college of Harvard University, founded in 1636, with approximately 6,600 undergraduates.
• Harvard Business School (HBS)
• Harvard Law School
• Harvard Medical School
• Harvard Kennedy School (HKS)
• Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
• Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD)
• Harvard Divinity School
• Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS)
• Harvard Graduate School of Education (GSE)
• Harvard School of Dental Medicine
• Harvard Radcliffe Institute
• Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
• Harvard Management Company (HMC)

Products and services

• Harvard College Harvard's four-year undergraduate liberal arts and sciences program serving approximately 6,600 undergraduates across 50+ concentrations, 17 first-year dormitories, and 12 upperclass residential Houses.
• Harvard Graduate and Professional Schools Twelve graduate and professional schools offering advanced master's and doctoral degrees: Harvard Business School, Divinity School, Kennedy School, Law School, Medical School, T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Graduate School of Design, Graduate School of Education, SEAS, Radcliffe Institute, School of Dental Medicine, and the Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
• Harvard Online Harvard's online learning portal providing digital access to Harvard courses and programs for professional and lifelong learners.
• edX Online Learning Platform Global online learning platform originally co-founded by Harvard and MIT, now operated by 2U; reaches over 100 million people through more than 5,300 programs with 250+ institutional and enterprise partners including IBM, Microsoft, UC Berkeley, and Oxford.
• Harvard Library System Network of 27+ libraries including Widener Library, Houghton Library, Harvard-Yenching Library, Countway Library, Baker Library, Schlesinger Library, Loeb Music Library, and others supporting teaching and research across the university.
• Harvard Museums Network of museums including the Harvard Art Museums, Harvard Museum of Natural History, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Arnold Arboretum, Carpenter Center, Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, and Harvard Forest.
• Harvard Gazette Official news outlet of Harvard University publishing coverage of science, medicine, art, campus life, university issues, and broader national and global concerns, with a daily email newsletter.
• Harvard Management Company (HMC) Endowment Services Investment subsidiary overseeing Harvard's approximately $57 billion endowment, generating over one-third of Harvard's $6.7 billion operating budget via an external generalist model managing roughly 90% of the portfolio through hedge funds, VC, and PE firms.
• Keyring Digital Identity Wallet Open-source digital identity wallet developed by Harvard's Applied Social Media Lab at the Berkman Klein Center in collaboration with the Linux Foundation's Decentralized Trust Graph Working Group; uses biometric authentication to store credentials locally and selectively verify attributes such as mobile driver's licenses.
• BRIDGE Parasports Simulation Simulation system developed by Harvard's Visual Computing Group that transforms standard basketball footage into realistic wheelchair-basketball video using computer vision and embodiment-aware reconstruction; awarded Best Paper at ACM CHI 2026 and validated with the Japanese national wheelchair basketball team.
• Empirical Research Assistance (ERA) AI System AI system co-developed with Google DeepMind and published in Nature that combines Google's Gemini large language model with tree search to autonomously generate and refine high-performance scientific software, outperforming CDC COVID-19 hospitalization predictions in proof-of-concept experiments.
• SNUH-Harvard Virtual Hospital for Medical AI Validation Virtual hospital jointly unveiled by Seoul National University Hospital and Harvard, described as the world's first platform designed specifically for validating medical AI systems by providing a preclinical gateway for testing LLM safety and efficacy without risking harm to actual patients.
• Harvard Model Congress Asia (HMCA) Three-day English-language debate and crisis-response simulation conference drawing approximately 520 participants including around 30 Harvard students.
• Harvard Allston Partnership Fund (HAPF) Public-private partnership between Harvard and the City of Boston that has provided more than $2 million in grants to the Allston-Brighton community over 18 years, awarding $200,000 to 25 nonprofits in 2026.
• Harvard President's Innovation Challenge Harvard's flagship venture competition drawing over 3,000 student participants annually, distributing more than $500,000 in non-dilutive funding from the Bertarelli Foundation to ventures spanning AI, climate, healthcare, and education.

Quantifiable outcome

• 98% graduation rate, among the highest at American colleges and universities
• +5 more outcomes

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration9 records

AI capability15 records

Partnerships

22 partnerships are on record, tiered minor, flagship and core.

• University of SeoulminorGTM or Marketing Partner · 11 January 2027University of Seoul will host Harvard Model Congress Asia (HMCA) 2027 from January 11, with ~520 participants including ~30 Harvard students, 470 Asian high school students, and 20 University of Seoul students for English-language debates and crisis simulations.
• OpenAIflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 19 June 2026Researchers from Boston Children's Hospital's Manton Center for Orphan Disease Research, Harvard University, and OpenAI used the OpenAI o3 Deep Research reasoning model to reanalyze 376 previously unsolved rare-disease cases, surfacing 18 confirmed diagnoses (4.8% additional diagnostic yield); study published in NEJM AI on June 18, 2026. OpenAI has committed $50 million to support Boston Children's AI initiatives. Harvard economist David Deming also co-led OpenAI's Economic Research team ChatGPT usage study.
• University of Pittsburgh School of Public HealthminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 19 June 2026Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh published a study in Science Advances explaining how H5N1 avian influenza adapted to infect dairy cattle in the Texas Panhandle in early 2024; relevant to Harvard's zoonotic disease research programs.
• PhasecraftcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 17 June 2026Phasecraft secured a $4.5M contract from ARPA-E for the Quantum Computing for Computational Chemistry program; collaboration with Johnson Matthey, Harvard, and QuEra aims to reduce reliance on platinum group metals like iridium; builds on Phasecraft's quantum algorithms demonstrating up to 43,000,000x efficiency improvements.
• POSTECH (Pohang University of Science and Technology)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 9 June 2026Korean researchers at POSTECH launched the 'Quantum Global Partnership Leading Center' in Pohang with a 22.3 billion won (~$17M) investment through 2029; partnering with Harvard, MIT, and Singapore's Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT) to develop large-scale quantum entanglement technology for next-generation quantum computing and communication.
• Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 2 June 2026SNUH and Harvard unveiled what they claim is the world's first virtual hospital designed specifically for validating medical AI systems, providing a preclinical gateway for testing LLM safety and efficacy without risking harm to actual patients.
• World Vision InternationalcoreGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 June 2026Co-hosting the Global Summit 2026: Fostering Hope for Children (June 3-5, 2026) in Rome with the Society for Global Flourishing; founding partners include Harvard University, Baylor University, Claremont Graduate University, and Gallup.
• Google DeepMindflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 19 May 2026Harvard and Google DeepMind co-developed Empirical Research Assistance (ERA), an AI system published in Nature that combines Google's Gemini LLM with tree search to autonomously write and refine scientific software; validated by modeling 70,000+ zebrafish brain neurons and outperforming CDC COVID-19 hospitalization predictions. Google Quantum AI and Google.org also launched the $10M REPLIQA initiative funding Harvard, MIT, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, and University of Arizona for quantum-AI life sciences research.
• U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)coreOthers · 19 May 2026Harvard-Google DeepMind ERA system outperformed established epidemiological frameworks, including those used by the U.S. CDC for COVID-19 hospitalization predictions; demonstrates academic-government partnership for public health modeling.
• Educare NetworkminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 15 May 2026Raj Chetty, Professor of Public Economics at Harvard and Director of Opportunity Insights, served as the closing keynote speaker at Catalyst 26, a three-day national summit hosted by Educare Network in Tulsa, Oklahoma; convening 300+ educators, researchers, policymakers on early childhood education.
• City of BostoncoreGTM or Marketing Partner · 13 May 202618th year of Harvard Allston Partnership Fund with the City of Boston; awarded $200,000 to 25 Allston-Brighton nonprofits; Mayor Michelle Wu and President Alan Garber highlighted public-private partnership; over $2M provided since inception.
• Mayor Michelle Wu (City of Boston)minorGTM or Marketing Partner · 13 May 2026Mayor Michelle Wu and Harvard President Alan Garber highlighted the public-private Allston Partnership Fund as a model for community investment in the 18th year of the program.
• American AncestorscoreImplementation/ SI/ Consulting Partner · 12 May 2026Harvard's Legacy of Slavery Initiative partnered with genealogical nonprofit American Ancestors to develop the Harvard Slavery Remembrance Program database; control of program transferred to American Ancestors after January 2025 layoffs of in-house research staff.
• Linux Foundation (Decentralized Trust Graph Working Group)coreTechnology or Integration · 5 May 2026Harvard's Applied Social Media Lab at the Berkman Klein Center collaborated with the Linux Foundation's Decentralized Trust Graph Working Group to develop the Keyring wallet in April; open-source identity verification tool with biometric authentication and verifiable credentials including mobile driver's licenses.
• Association of Historically Black Colleges and Universities Research Institutions (AHRI)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 29 April 2026Three-year, $1.05M grant from Harvard to AHRI (coalition of 15 HBCUs) to strengthen research infrastructure and help schools achieve R1 Carnegie Classification; administered through Harvard's Legacy of Slavery Initiative as implementation of Recommendation 3 from 2022 Presidential Committee report.
• MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)flagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 27 April 2026Cross-registration allows Harvard undergraduates to enroll in MIT courses (10-minute trip from Harvard Yard). Harvard and MIT co-founded edX; co-led quantum error correction research with QuEra; collaborate with Harvard-MIT Program; jointly led POSTECH Quantum Global Partnership Lead Center with Singapore CQT.
• IonQminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 22 April 2026DARPA HARQ program funding 19 teams to develop heterogeneous quantum computing architectures integrating diverse qubit technologies; Harvard University and IonQ are among participants creating high-fidelity interconnects.
• QuEra ComputingcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 21 April 2026QuEra Computing, Harvard University, and MIT researchers demonstrated ultra-high-rate quantum error-correcting codes achieving encoding efficiency above 50% with logical error rates as low as 10⁻¹³; qLDPC codes with hierarchical decoding enable ~1,000 physical qubits to encode 580-1,156 logical qubits on neutral-atom hardware. Harvard spinoff that shipped its second commercial quantum computer to Japan's AIST.
• Vertex PharmaceuticalscoreOEM/ Whitelabel/ Licensing Partner · 1 January 2024Catalyst Professorship partnership allows Doug Melton (stem cell science) to serve as research fellow at Vertex Pharmaceuticals alongside his Harvard appointment; Catalyst program strengthens academia-industry collaboration in biotech.
• OpenAI (Catalyst Professorship - Boaz Barak)coreOEM/ Whitelabel/ Licensing Partner · 1 January 2024Boaz Barak (theoretical computer science) holds the Catalyst Professorship while also working at OpenAI; the program allows leading academics to pursue industry employment alongside university commitments, particularly in AI.
• Google Research (Catalyst Professorship - Michael Brenner)coreOEM/ Whitelabel/ Licensing Partner · 1 January 2024Michael Brenner (applied mathematics) holds the Catalyst Professorship while also serving as principal scientist at Google Research; the program extends academia-industry collaboration in AI and emerging technologies.
• Nurses' Health Study cohort (121,000 women)coreOthers · 1 January 1976Harvard researcher Frank Speizer launched the Nurses' Health Study in the 1970s by recruiting 121,000 women nurses in the United States, achieving 70% participation from 170,000 contacted; one of the most significant research programs in public health history.

Scale indicators15 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT): Harvard's closest peer: co-founded edX, operates cross-registration for undergraduates, and is a research-intensive private university in Cambridge with comparable endowment scale, Nobel output, and federal research dependence. Directly competes for faculty, graduate students, and top-decile applicants.
• Stanford University: Top private research university with similarly sized endowment, comparable selectivity (1-2% acceptance), strong tech-industry ties, and significant federal research exposure. Competes directly for faculty, graduate students, and Silicon Valley-aligned research funding and venture spinouts.
• Yale University: Ivy League peer with comparable endowment model, residential college system, and similar undergraduate liberal arts structure. Competes directly for applicants, faculty, and endowment returns; HMC explicitly benchmarks against Yale's investment office.
• Princeton University: Ivy League research university with similar endowment-driven financial aid model, comparable selectivity, and emphasis on undergraduate teaching with strong graduate programs. Competes directly for applicants, Nobel-laureate faculty, and federal research funding.
• Columbia University: Ivy League research university with comparable scale (10,000+ employees, $13B+ endowment, 12+ graduate/professional schools including law, business, medicine, journalism). Competes for NYC-area talent, federal research grants, and global graduate applicants.
• University of Pennsylvania: Ivy League peer with 12 graduate/professional schools (including Wharton, Penn Law, Penn Medicine) and similarly diversified research portfolio. Comparable operating budget scale and federal research dependence; competes for applicants and faculty.

Broad incumbents

• University of Oxford: International peer of comparable age, prestige, and collegiate residential structure; ranked #1 globally on QS 2027 ahead of Harvard. Operates as a public UK institution rather than private nonprofit but competes for the same global pool of top-decile students and research talent.
• University of Cambridge: International peer with comparable collegiate system, research intensity, and global brand. Operates as a UK public institution with similar endowment model and Nobel output; competes for top global graduate applicants and faculty in overlapping STEM and humanities fields.
• California Institute of Technology (Caltech): Elite STEM-focused private research university with JPL partnership, comparable Nobel output per faculty member, and NASA-driven federal research focus. Smaller in scale but competes for top STEM faculty, graduate students, and AI/quantum research leadership.
• University of California, Berkeley: Top public research university with comparable research output and edX partnership; competes with Harvard for federal research grants, STEM graduate students, and faculty, particularly in engineering, computer science, and physical sciences. Different operating model (public) but comparable research scale.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat8 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/harvard
• Facebookfacebook.com/Harvard
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/harvard-university
• Instagraminstagram.com/harvard
• TikToktiktok.com/@harvard
• Xx.com/Harvard

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Subsidiaries2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds16 records

Investors6 records

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M&A

Investments16 records

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Harvard University