UniversityUpstate New York

Cornell University

University · Ithaca, NY

Ithaca NY + Cornell Tech (Roosevelt Island NYC). $11.8B endowment (Jun 2025, 12.3% return). CIO: Kenneth Miranda. 14 colleges. Cornell Tech NYC opened 2017. Weill Cornell Medicine. 64 Nobel laureates. $463M institutional aid FY2025-26.

Founded

Region

Upstate New York

Investors

People

About Upstate NY

Upstate New York seeded Silicon Valley more directly than most people realize: IBM started in Endicott, GE's research labs sat in Schenectady, and Kodak and Xerox built deep imaging and photonics expertise in Rochester — engineers and ideas from all three migrated west and helped build what came after. Cornell, RPI, the University of Rochester, and the SUNY system now anchor a semiconductor, photonics, and drone corridor that's a direct descendant of that older industrial-research base, not a recent transplant.

Region Stats

Total firms 51

VC / investors 14

Companies 31

Schools 6

Known For

Semiconductors

Photonics

Drones