Key Takeaways
- • Citadel founder and CEO Ken Griffin announced a $3 billion gift to Carnegie Mellon University on Wednesday, September 30, 2026, described as the largest individual donation in the history of higher education.
- • $2 billion will fund CMU Miami, a new campus on more than 35 acres in Miami's Wynwood neighborhood, with groundbreaking planned for 2027 and an inaugural class expected the following year.
- • The remaining $1 billion supports CMU's Pittsburgh campus, including a $500 million investment in the School of Computer Science, which will be renamed the Kenneth C. Griffin School of Computer Science.
- • The gift exceeds the prior benchmark, a $2 billion gift from Phil Knight and Penny Knight to Oregon Health & Science University in August 2025, according to CNBC.
- • The pledge is also Griffin's largest personal donation to date, surpassing a $300 million gift to Harvard University in 2023; Griffin will join CMU's Board of Trustees.
Summary
Citadel founder and CEO Ken Griffin announced a $3 billion gift to Carnegie Mellon University on Wednesday, according to Quartz. The donation is the largest individual gift in the history of higher education, eclipsing a $2 billion gift from Nike co-founder Phil Knight and his wife Penny Knight to Oregon Health & Science University in August 2025, per CNBC.
The largest share, $2 billion, will establish CMU Miami, a campus occupying a plot of more than 35 acres in the Wynwood neighborhood. Groundbreaking is planned for 2027, with CMU expecting its inaugural class the following year. At full build-out, the campus is planned to support more than 3,500 undergraduate, master's, and PhD students, nearly 300 faculty members, and over 600 staff.
CMU Miami will depart from traditional academic majors, organizing programs around four societal challenge areas: human health and biological discovery; national security and strategic capabilities; energy and climate resilience; and advanced manufacturing and industrial transformation. The campus will also include space for industry research labs and venture studios. CMU President Farnam Jahanian said artificial intelligence was a driving force behind the new model, stating that AI "demands that we rethink how we educate students, conduct research and partner with others."
The remaining $1 billion will support CMU's Pittsburgh campus, split between flexible university priorities and a $500 million investment in the School of Computer Science, which will be renamed the Kenneth C. Griffin School of Computer Science. Griffin will also join the university's Board of Trustees. In a statement, Griffin called CMU Miami "a generational opportunity to build a new center of research and intellectual life."
Griffin, whom Bloomberg puts at a net worth of $57.5 billion, relocated Citadel's global base of operations to Miami in 2022, according to CNBC. The CMU gift is also his largest personal donation to date, exceeding the $300 million he gave to Harvard University in 2023.
The largest share, $2 billion, will establish CMU Miami, a campus occupying a plot of more than 35 acres in the Wynwood neighborhood. Groundbreaking is planned for 2027, with CMU expecting its inaugural class the following year. At full build-out, the campus is planned to support more than 3,500 undergraduate, master's, and PhD students, nearly 300 faculty members, and over 600 staff.
CMU Miami will depart from traditional academic majors, organizing programs around four societal challenge areas: human health and biological discovery; national security and strategic capabilities; energy and climate resilience; and advanced manufacturing and industrial transformation. The campus will also include space for industry research labs and venture studios. CMU President Farnam Jahanian said artificial intelligence was a driving force behind the new model, stating that AI "demands that we rethink how we educate students, conduct research and partner with others."
The remaining $1 billion will support CMU's Pittsburgh campus, split between flexible university priorities and a $500 million investment in the School of Computer Science, which will be renamed the Kenneth C. Griffin School of Computer Science. Griffin will also join the university's Board of Trustees. In a statement, Griffin called CMU Miami "a generational opportunity to build a new center of research and intellectual life."
Griffin, whom Bloomberg puts at a net worth of $57.5 billion, relocated Citadel's global base of operations to Miami in 2022, according to CNBC. The CMU gift is also his largest personal donation to date, exceeding the $300 million he gave to Harvard University in 2023.
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