Key Takeaways:
Ken Griffin, founder of Citadel, is donating $3 billion to Carnegie Mellon University, the largest higher education gift in US history.
The donation sends $2 billion to a new 35-acre Miami campus and $1 billion to Pittsburgh, including $500 million for the School of Computer Science.
The gift tops Michael Bloomberg's $1.8 billion Johns Hopkins record and lands as federal research funding tightens.
Ken Griffin, the founder and chief executive of Citadel, is giving Carnegie Mellon University $3 billion, the university and multiple outlets confirmed on September 30. It is the largest single donation to a US college or university on record.
The money splits in two. Two billion dollars will build a new interdisciplinary campus on a 35-acre site in Miami's Wynwood neighborhood, expected to enroll more than 3,500 students, with construction starting in 2027. The other billion goes to Pittsburgh, half of it to the School of Computer Science and half to university-wide priorities.
The figure tops the previous record, Michael Bloomberg's $1.8 billion gift to Johns Hopkins in 2018, by more than a billion dollars. It also clears the $1 billion gifts that John and Ann Doerr, Phil and Penny Knight, and Ruth Gottesman made to Stanford, Oregon, and Albert Einstein in recent years. Griffin, a Harvard graduate, moved Citadel's headquarters to Miami in 2022.
Griffin said the Miami project would "create one of the great stories in higher education of our lifetime." Carnegie Mellon President Farnam Jahanian called it an extraordinary act of vision and partnership.
The most notable part of this is the timing. Record private checks are landing on already-strong institutions at the same moment federal research money is tightening and aid programs are being cut, a gap this newsroom tracked when Phil and Penny Knight gave $1 billion to the University of Oregon and when Bill Clinton asked donors to fill the hole left by foreign aid cuts. Where the biggest dollars choose to land is worth watching.
People Also Ask
How much did Ken Griffin donate to Carnegie Mellon?
Ken Griffin donated $3 billion to Carnegie Mellon University, announced September 30, 2026. It is the largest higher education gift in US history.
What will Ken Griffin's Carnegie Mellon gift fund?
Two billion dollars funds a new 35-acre Carnegie Mellon campus in Miami, and $1 billion goes to Pittsburgh, including $500 million for the School of Computer Science.
Is Griffin's donation the largest university gift ever?
Yes. At $3 billion it surpasses Michael Bloomberg's $1.8 billion 2018 gift to Johns Hopkins, the previous record for a US higher education donation.
When will Carnegie Mellon's Miami campus open?
Construction is expected to begin in 2027, with the Miami campus projected to enroll more than 3,500 students in the years that follow.
Sources: Forbes, Fox Business, U.S. News.