The Citadel founder’s donation, the largest ever to a U.S. university, will fund a new Carnegie Mellon campus in Miami and rename its computer science school.
Billionaire Ken Griffin, founder of the hedge fund Citadel, is giving $3 billion to Carnegie Mellon University, the Pittsburgh research university announced on Sept. 30, 2026. CMU says it is the largest single gift ever made to a U.S. university, The Associated Press reported.
The donation tops the previous record gifts to American universities: Phil and Penny Knight’s $2 billion to Oregon Health & Science University in 2025 and Michael Bloomberg’s $1.8 billion to Johns Hopkins University in 2018.
A new campus in Miami
Two-thirds of the money, $2 billion, will build a 35-acre campus in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood, just north of downtown. At full build-out, CMU Miami is expected to serve more than 3,500 undergraduate and graduate students, with nearly 300 faculty and more than 600 staff, according to Axios. CMU plans to break ground in 2027 and enroll its first Miami students in 2028, subject to regulatory approvals.
Instead of traditional majors, the campus will be organized around four “grand challenge” areas: human health and biological discovery, national security, energy and climate resilience, and advanced manufacturing. It will also house research labs and venture studios that connect students and faculty with industry and government partners.
“The opportunity to bring Carnegie Mellon to Miami places our city at the heart of humanistic and scientific advancement,” Griffin said in a university news release. Griffin, a Republican megadonor who owns a waterfront home in Miami, will also join CMU’s Board of Trustees.
What Pittsburgh gets
The remaining $1 billion stays in Pittsburgh. Half of it, $500 million, goes to the School of Computer Science, which will be renamed the Kenneth C. Griffin School of Computer Science. The other $500 million will support broader university priorities on the main campus.
CMU President Farnam Jahanian framed the gift around artificial intelligence. “Artificial intelligence represents one of the defining intellectual developments of our time,” he said in the release. “Together, we have an opportunity to extend the very qualities that have long distinguished Carnegie Mellon.”
Why it matters
The gift arrives as colleges face pressure to prepare students for a workforce reshaped by AI, while many contend with falling international enrollment, shrinking high school graduating classes and rising costs. Miami, a metro area of more than 6.4 million people, is already served by the University of Miami, Florida International University and Miami Dade College, which together enroll about 135,000 students. CMU already works in the region, partnering with the Gates Foundation on AI-powered introductory math materials at Miami Dade College.
