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Ken Griffin Donates Record $3 Billion to Carnegie Mellon for Miami Campus
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CNBC TV18•30-09-2026, 16:00
Ken Griffin Donates Record $3 Billion to Carnegie Mellon for Miami Campus
- •Hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin has donated a record $3 billion to Carnegie Mellon University, the largest single gift ever to a U.S. university.
- •The bulk of the donation, $2 billion, will fund a new 35-acre campus in Miami's Wynwood neighborhood, focusing on "grand challenge areas" like human health, national security, and climate resilience.
- •The Miami campus is expected to enroll around 3,500 students, with construction slated to begin next year.
- •The remaining $1 billion will be split between the Pittsburgh campus's computer science program, which will be renamed after Griffin, and other main campus projects.
- •Griffin, a GOP megadonor and founder of Citadel, will also join Carnegie Mellon's Board of Trustees, emphasizing Miami's role in humanistic and scientific advancement.
Key Questions Answered
Hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin is donating a record $3 billion to Carnegie Mellon University, which is the largest ever single gift to a U.S. university.
The donation includes $2 billion to build a new 35-acre campus in Miami focused on societal challenges, while the remaining money will be split evenly between the Pittsburgh campus's computer science program and other unspecified main campus projects.
Rather than traditional academic majors, the new Miami campus will focus on grand challenge areas like human health and biological discovery, national security and strategic capabilities, energy and climate resilience, and advanced manufacturing and industrial transformation.
