Unprecedented university donation from Citadel CEO Ken Griffin will go toward building a new Miami campus.
Carnegie Mellon University will receive an unprecedented $3 billion donation from billionaire investor Ken Griffin, making it the largest single donation in the history of US education. Griffin, 57, is the founder and CEO of Citadel, described as the most profitable hedge fund in history. The funds will be allocated toward a new campus in Miami, Florida, as well as significant investments at the university’s longtime home in Pittsburgh.
Funding Allocation
Part of the funding will be used to develop Carnegie Mellon’s presence in Miami, where Griffin resides and where Citadel is now headquartered. The remaining funds will support priorities in Pittsburgh, including:
- Recruiting prominent academics
- Making attendance more affordable for students
The Miami campus is expected to support over 3,500 undergraduate, master’s, and PhD students, nearly 300 faculty, and more than 600 staff members, with construction slated to begin in 2027.
Investment in Computer Science
$1 billion of the donation will specifically go toward Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science and other priorities, including financial aid. The school will be renamed the Kenneth C. Griffin School of Computer Science.
““Throughout our history, CMU has anticipated moments of profound technological change and responded with new ways of thinking and solving problems,” said university president Farnam Jahanian. “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.”
