Ken Griffin commits $3 billion to Carnegie Mellon, launching Miami campus

Ken Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel, announced a historic $3 billion donation to Carnegie Mellon University, the biggest single gift ever recorded for a university. The pledge includes $2 billion to build a new 35-acre campus in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood, with groundbreaking planned for 2027 and the first cohort expected in 2028. An additional $1 billion will support Carnegie Mellon’s Pittsburgh campus, split between flexible priorities and a $500 million endowment for the School of Computer Science, which will be renamed in Griffin’s honor.

Griffin will also become a trustee of the university. The Miami campus will serve over 3,500 students and 300 faculty, organized around challenge-driven themes like health, national security, climate resilience and advanced manufacturing, and will feature space for corporate research labs and venture studios. Carnegie Mellon President Farnam Jahanian highlighted artificial intelligence as a key driver of the new educational model.