Ken Griffin and Carnegie Mellon Announce $3 Billion Gift

Ken Griffin and Carnegie Mellon University announced a $3 billion gift on September 30, directing $2 billion toward a planned Miami campus and $1 billion to the university’s Pittsburgh campus. The university and Griffin described the donation as the largest individual gift in U.S. higher education history. The plans have not yet been realized: construction in Miami is scheduled to begin in 2027, and the university expects students to enroll there in 2028. The Miami campus is planned for Wynwood, a neighborhood north of downtown. Carnegie Mellon expects the completed campus to serve more than 3,500 undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students. The university has said the campus will organize learning and research around societal challenges rather than conventional academic majors. It has not yet released a detailed academic plan. The Pittsburgh portion includes $500 million for the School of Computer Science, which is to be renamed the Kenneth C. Griffin School of Computer Science. The remaining $500 million is designated as flexible support for the university’s priorities. Griffin is also set to join Carnegie Mellon’s Board of Trustees.