By Rajwa Quasim
Billionaire hedge fund manager and Citadel founder and CEO Ken Griffin has pledged $3 billion to Carnegie Mellon University, setting a record for the largest individual gift to a U.S. institution of higher education.
About $2 billion of the donation will go toward establishing Carnegie Mellon University’s new campus in Miami, while the remaining $1 billion will support operations at its Pittsburgh campus. Of the $1 billion, $500 million will go toward the School of Computer Science, which will be renamed the Kenneth C. Griffin School of Computer Science.
“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. It is a tremendous privilege to be part of this historic moment,” Griffin said. He added, “CMU Miami will cultivate the talent, knowledge, and expertise to launch new enterprises, contribute to Miami’s economy and community, and advance the prosperity of our nation.”
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Construction of the Miami campus is expected to begin in 2027, with the first students expected to arrive in 2028. The campus is planned for a 35-acre site in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood. Once fully developed, it could accommodate more than 3,500 undergraduate, master’s and Ph.D. students, nearly 300 faculty members and more than 600 staff members. Griffin will also join the university’s Board of Trustees.
According to the university’s statement, rather than following the traditional university model, the new campus will organize education and research around major societal challenges, including national security, climate change, energy, advanced manufacturing and human health.
According to the university’s website, CMU established the world’s first drama program, robotics institute, human-computer interaction institute and department of engineering and public policy, as well as the nation’s first computer science college. The university ranks No. 3 nationally in graduate earnings by academic major in the 2027 U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges rankings.
CMU President Farnam Jahanian said, “We are deeply grateful to Ken Griffin for his extraordinary vision, partnership and belief in what Carnegie Mellon can achieve.”
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Citadel moved its global headquarters from Chicago to Miami in 2022, and Griffin has since increased his investments in education and other initiatives in the region. He donated about $300 million to his alma mater, Harvard University, in 2023 and another $125 million to the University of Chicago in 2017.
The previous record for the largest individual donation to a U.S. institution of higher education was held by Nike co-founder Phil Knight and his wife, Penny. The couple donated $2 billion to Oregon Health & Science University in 2025.
Griffin said, “Are we going to educate the future members of the House and the Senate and the leaders of IBM? Or are we going to educate a group of young men and women who are just caught up in a rhetoric of oppressor and oppressee and this is not fair and frankly just like whiny snowflakes?”