The big research universities also absolutely have technology licensing operations. However, in the case of MIT for example, [1] it seems as if the net direct profit they make is fairly modest. (They bring in about $80 million a year but a lot of that seems to either go to costs or paid out royalties, etc.)
Yup. Compare that to MIT endowment's annual return. And guess where (a big chunk of) the MIT endowment gets invested (indirectly through VC funds)? The same startups that their alumni are founding.
That's pretty fascinating actually. Its like the alumni have formed a close-knit network that provides both capital and expertise. I didn't know endowments worked that way...I was suspecting they would be mostly invested in "Safe" stocks and bonds.
Hence the widespread practice of granting preference to the children of alumni at admissions time. Only Caltech (among the Ivies) eschews this practice and admits on academic merit alone, I believe.
[1] http://web.mit.edu/tlo/www/about/faq.html