Citadel CEO Ken Griffin Announces Record-Breaking $3 Billion Gift to Carnegie Mellon University
Citadel founder Ken Griffin pledges a historic $3 billion to Carnegie Mellon University, funding a new Miami campus and the School of Computer Science.
POLICY WIRE — Pittsburgh, USA — Carnegie Mellon University has secured a landmark $3 billion donation from Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, marking the largest individual gift ever bestowed upon a university. This historic contribution surpasses the previous record set by Michael Bloomberg’s $1.8 billion donation to Johns Hopkins University in 2018.
The university plans to allocate $2 billion of the funds toward the establishment of a new campus in Miami, Florida. Located on a 35-acre site in Wynwood purchased by Griffin from developer Moishe Mana for $1.1 billion, the project is slated to begin construction in 2027 with an anticipated opening in 2028.
CMU President Farnam Jahanian expressed deep gratitude for the partnership, noting that the institution is evolving to address the rise of artificial intelligence. Jahanian stated that 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.
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The new Miami facility is designed to accommodate over 3,500 students, 300 faculty members, and 600 staff. Rather than traditional majors, the curriculum will prioritize societal challenges, including human health, national security, energy resilience, and advanced manufacturing.
The remaining $1 billion of the donation is earmarked for the university’s Pittsburgh campus. Half of these funds will support institutional priorities, while the other half will be invested in the School of Computer Science, which will be renamed the Kenneth C. Griffin School of Computer Science.
Griffin, who attended high school in South Florida, relocated Citadel’s headquarters from Chicago to Miami in 2022. His increased focus on the region follows a public disagreement with New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani regarding wealth taxes, leading Griffin to shift resources away from his New York operations.
Reporting by Policy-Wire (PW)
