Billionaire hedge funder Ken Griffin on Wednesday revealed a $3 billion donation for Carnegie Mellon University to open a new campus in Miami — a surprise bid to turbocharge the technology industry in Florida.
It’s the largest-ever donation to an American higher education institution, and a snub to Harvard University – sixfold the $500 million Griffin gave to his alma mater over the years before ending his donations over its weak handling of antisemitism.
Griffin said he was drawn to Carnegie Mellon’s ability to attract top science and tech talent, as the university is home to the world’s first robotics institute and the first computer science college in the nation, according to a press release detailing the investment.
His gift includes $2 billion to support the launch of a 35-acre campus in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood, to start enrolling students in 2028. Another $1 billion will go toward Carnegie Mellon’s main Pittsburgh campus.
The record contribution comes four years after the Citadel and Citadel Securities founder – worth more than $57 billion, per Forbes – moved his home and his company’s headquarters to Miami from Chicago after complaining about rampant crime. Griffin has also blasted blue cities’ high taxes, sparring with NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
He has been trying to mold the Sunshine State into a business hub to rival New York City. The Carnegie Mellon donation – which includes the value of real estate he recently purchased in Wynwood and will donate for the new campus – brings his total contributions in the area to $2.4 billion, according to the Financial Times.
“This will be in some sense the East Coast answer to what happens in Silicon Valley,” Griffin told the outlet. “It’s about making sure that the students who come here to Carnegie Mellon not only have an extraordinary educational experience in Miami, but this is what they learn to call home.”
Steve Fulop, president and CEO of the pro-business group Partnership for NYC, called it an “obvious win for Miami” – warning that “in many ways” it comes at “the expense of Chicago and NYC.”
“I think this is obvious, but worth saying: when companies relocate or build major new hubs, the impact goes far beyond employees, taxes and direct economic activity. Civic investment and philanthropy follow too,” Fulop wrote in a post on X Wednesday.
Carnegie Mellon – the computer science school created by merging universities backed by steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie and financier Andrew Mellon – is a surprise choice for Griffin, who graduated from Harvard in 1989.
The new state-of-the-art Miami campus will eventually support more than 3,500 undergraduate, master’s and PhD students; nearly 300 faculty members; and over 600 staffers. Construction is slated to begin in 2027.
Half of Griffin’s gift to the Pittsburgh campus will go toward its school of computer science, which will be renamed to the Kenneth C Griffin School of Computer Science. Griffin will also join Carnegie Mellon’s board of trustees.
It’s a massive boost for the university, which boasts an endowment of roughly $4 billion – far below the endowments of Ivy League institutions, which can climb far above $20 billion.
Griffin has been eager to bring a top university to Florida since he moved there, hoping that tech and science students who attend the new school will move downtown after graduating to work or launch their own businesses there.
In January 2024, Griffin said he would be ending his donations to Harvard after its feeble response to antisemitism and pro-Palestinian encampments on campus, blasting Ivy League institutions for churning out “whiny snowflake” students and focusing on DEI.
Harvard’s then-president Claudine Gay had refused to condemn student groups who blamed Israel “entirely” for Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks. Other wealthy alumni, like billionaire investor Len Blavatnik, also pulled their gifts, forcing Harvard to rely on its $53 billion endowment.
Griffin previously gave $5 million to Ambition Accelerated, an initiative focused on making Florida the next US business incubator.
“Ken Griffin has made a historic investment in Florida’s capacity to lead,” George LeMieux, chair of The Florida Council of 100, which is leading Ambition Accelerated, said Wednesday.
“Great research universities help build great economies. Bringing Carnegie Mellon to Miami will have an impact for generations, strengthening Florida’s position at the forefront of American innovation and opening new paths to prosperity for Floridians.”
Vanderbilt University is also expanding to Florida, building a graduate campus in West Palm Beach focused on AI, engineering, space and defense technology.
Wealthy billionaires including Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin and Peter Thiel have recently snapped up properties in Florida, known for its low taxes, while Palantir is moving its headquarters to Miami and Andreessen Horowitz is launching a new fund in West Palm Beach.