Hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin is making the largest individual gift in higher education history, donating $3 billion to Carnegie Mellon University to expand its Pittsburgh campus and build a new campus in Miami.
The Citadel founder and CEO’s gift includes $1 billion for Carnegie Mellon’s Pittsburgh campus, including $500 million for its School of Computer Science, which will be renamed the Kenneth C. Griffin School of Computer Science.
The remaining $500 million will provide “flexible” funding for the university’s “highest priorities,” according to Carnegie Mellon.
The other $2 billion will fund Carnegie Mellon University Miami, a new 35-acre campus in the city’s Wynwood neighborhood.
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The Miami campus will be organized around addressing major “societal challenges,” with a focus on human health, national security, energy and climate resilience, and advanced manufacturing.
Once complete, the campus is expected to accommodate more than 3,500 undergraduate, master’s and Ph.D. students, nearly 300 faculty members and more than 600 staff.
Construction is expected to begin in 2027. It aims to begin enrolling students in 2028, pending regulatory approvals, according to Carnegie Mellon.
“I believe it’s important to support institutions of excellence in our country, and that when we support an institution that achieves excellence, we both set the bar higher for other institutions across the nation and around the world,” Ken Griffin said in a statement.
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“I believe in Carnegie Mellon because they have done such an extraordinary job in so many fields. What we’re about to embark on in Miami will create one of the great stories in higher education of our lifetime,” Griffin added.
According to Carnegie Mellon, Griffin’s donation is both the largest individual gift ever made to a higher education institution and the largest philanthropic contribution of his career.
Griffin, whose philanthropy has focused on education, expanding opportunity and health sciences initiatives, will also join Carnegie Mellon’s Board of Trustees, according to the announcement.
“We are deeply grateful to Ken Griffin for his extraordinary vision, partnership and belief in what Carnegie Mellon can achieve,” Carnegie Mellon University President Farnam Jahanian said in a statement.
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The gift is Griffin’s latest major investment in South Florida.
Citadel relocated its headquarters from Chicago to Miami in 2022, and Griffin has continued expanding the firm’s footprint in the city. Most recently, Citadel unveiled plans to expand its future Brickell headquarters with a 300-unit apartment tower and a parking garage.
FOX Business’ Robert McGreevy contributed to this report.
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