Key facts
- Ken Griffin is donating $3 billion to Carnegie Mellon University.
- The donation will fund a new campus in Miami and support initiatives at the Pittsburgh campus.
- The gift is the largest single investment in higher education in U.S. history.
- The Kenneth C. Griffin School of Computer Science will be established with $1 billion.
- The new Miami campus will focus on human health, biological diversity, national security, energy, climate resilience, and advanced manufacturing.
- The Miami campus is slated to open for graduate students in 2028 and undergraduates in 2032.
Billionaire investor Ken Griffin is making a $3 billion donation to Carnegie Mellon University, marking the largest single investment in higher education in U.S. history. The funds will be used to establish a new campus in Miami, Florida, and to support initiatives at the university's existing campus in Pittsburgh. The announcement was made jointly by the university and Griffin on Wednesday.
The gift aims to bolster Carnegie Mellon's programs in computer science, artificial intelligence, and robotics, with $1 billion specifically allocated to the computer science school, which will be renamed the Kenneth C. Griffin School of Computer Science. The new Miami campus, located in the Wynwood neighborhood, will focus on research in areas such as human health, biological diversity, national security, energy, climate resilience, and advanced manufacturing. Griffin stated that the investment is intended to foster innovation and job creation in the U.S.
Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel, has a history of significant philanthropic contributions to education, science, and medicine. This donation surpasses his previous gifts, including $500 million to Harvard and $125 million to the University of Chicago. The Miami campus is scheduled to begin accepting graduate students in 2028 and undergraduates four years later. The donation comes amid a broader trend of wealthy benefactors increasing their support for higher education, particularly in science and technology fields, driven by advancements in artificial intelligence.