Carnegie Mellon University Announces Historic $3B Gift from Ken Griffin

Carnegie Mellon University announced a historic $3 billion gift from Citadel founder Ken Griffin, the largest individual donation in higher education. The gift allocates $1 billion to the Pittsburgh campus - half as flexible support for university priorities and $500 million to endow and rename the School of Computer Science as the Kenneth C. Griffin School of Computer Science - and $2 billion to launch a new Carnegie Mellon University Miami campus. The Miami site will occupy more than 35 acres in Wynwood, with construction beginning in 2027 and initial student enrollment planned for 2028. Once complete the campus will house over 3,500 students, roughly 300 faculty and more than 600 staff, and include industry research labs and venture studios.

The Miami campus is designed to invert traditional academic structures by organizing education and research around societal grand challenges rather than majors, with an emphasis on interdisciplinary teams combining computing, robotics, humanistic inquiry, arts and design. Initial focus areas include human health and biological discovery; national security and strategic capabilities; energy and climate resilience; and advanced manufacturing and industrial transformation. Leadership frames the investment as a strategic response to rapid technological change - especially artificial intelligence - and as a platform to accelerate discovery, attract global talent, deepen industry and government partnerships, and strengthen American innovation and economic impact.