Carnegie Mellon University announced a $3 billion gift from hedge fund titan Ken Griffin, the largest single donation ever by an individual to a U.S. university.
New Miami Campus to Launch in 2027
The Pittsburgh institution will build a 35‑acre campus in Miami’s Wynwood district, just north of downtown, with construction slated to begin in 2027.
Graduate students are expected to enroll in 2028, pending regulatory approvals, while undergraduates will arrive in 2032.
The completed campus will house more than 3,500 students, nearly 300 faculty and over 600 staff.
Carnegie Mellon, a leader in computer science, AI and robotics, will organize the Miami site around societal challenges instead of traditional departments.
Initial research focus areas include human health, national security, energy and climate resilience, and advanced manufacturing, with facilities that connect students and faculty to 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,” President Farnam Jahanian said.
Funding Allocation and Naming
Half of the remaining $1 billion will support university priorities such as academic programs and student support, while $500 million will endow the School of Computer Science, renamed the Kenneth C. Griffin School of Computer Science.
Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel, will also serve on the university’s board of trustees.
The hedge fund chief, a Harvard alumnus who moved Citadel’s headquarters to Miami in 2022, has become a major donor to South Florida educational and community projects.
“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,” Griffin said in a statement. “It is a tremendous privilege to be part of this historic moment.”
Billion‑Dollar University Gifts
The donation eclipses recent high‑profile gifts to American universities.
In August 2025, Nike co‑founder Phil Knight and his wife Penny pledged $2 billion to Oregon Health & Science University’s Knight Cancer Institute, marking the largest single gift to a U.S. academic institution at that time.
Just days earlier, on September 23, the Knights announced a $1 billion contribution to the University of Oregon to create a college of engineering focused on bioengineering and other high‑demand fields.
Michael Bloomberg’s 2018 gift of $1.8 billion to Johns Hopkins University funded undergraduate financial aid, and a 2024 follow‑up of $1 billion made most medical students tuition‑free while expanding aid for graduate programs.
