By The Epoch Times | Created at 2026-09-30 16:26:47 | Updated at 2026-09-30 17:05:03
41 minutes ago
Carnegie Mellon University has announced a $3 billion gift from hedge fund titan Ken Griffin, the largest single donation by an individual in the history of U.S. higher education.
The Pittsburgh-based university said on Sept. 30 that $2 billion will go toward building a new campus in Miami, while the remaining $1 billion will support its existing operations in Pittsburgh.
The new campus will occupy more than 35 acres in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood, just north of downtown.
Construction is scheduled to begin in 2027, with the first graduate students expected to enroll in 2028, pending regulatory approvals, university officials said. Undergraduate enrollment is planned for 2032.
Once fully developed, the campus is expected to accommodate more than 3,500 undergraduate and graduate students, along with nearly 300 faculty members and more than 600 staff.
Carnegie Mellon, known for its programs in computer science, artificial intelligence, and robotics, plans to organize the Miami campus “around societal challenges” rather than traditional academic departments.
Initial areas of study will include human health, national security, energy and climate resilience, and advanced manufacturing. The university also plans research facilities where students and faculty can work with businesses and government agencies.
“Artificial intelligence represents one of the defining intellectual developments of our time, and it demands that we rethink how we educate students, conduct research and partner with others,” Carnegie Mellon President Farnam Jahanian said.
Half of the remaining $1 billion will go toward university priorities, including academic programs and student support. The other $500 million will be invested in Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science, which will be renamed the Kenneth C. Griffin School of Computer Science.
Griffin will also join the university’s board of trustees.
Griffin, founder and CEO of hedge fund Citadel, is not a Carnegie Mellon alumnus. A Harvard graduate, he relocated Citadel’s headquarters from Chicago to Miami in 2022 and has since become a major donor to educational and community institutions in South Florida.
“The opportunity to bring Carnegie Mellon to Miami places our city at the heart of humanistic and scientific advancement and amplifies the University’s international reach and impact,” he said in a statement. “It is a tremendous privilege to be part of this historic moment.”
Billion-Dollar University Gifts
The donation surpasses several other major gifts to American universities in recent years.
In August 2025, Nike co-founder Phil Knight and his wife, Penny, committed $2 billion to Oregon Health & Science University’s Knight Cancer Institute. At the time, the university described it as the largest single donation to a U.S. academic institution.
Just last week, on Sept. 23, the Knights announced another $1 billion gift to the University of Oregon to establish a college of engineering focused on bioengineering and other fields with strong industry demand.
Another major contribution came in 2018, when former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg donated $1.8 billion to his alma mater, Johns Hopkins University, to expand undergraduate financial aid.
In 2024, Bloomberg followed up with another $1 billion gift, allowing most medical students at Johns Hopkins to attend tuition-free while expanding financial aid for students in other graduate programs.
