Carnegie Mellon University received a $3 billion gift to launch a new campus in Florida and to enhance its Pittsburgh campus.
Ken Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel, donated the money to CMU in the largest individual gift in higher education history.
The donation will provide $1 billion to support the university’s main campus in Pittsburgh and $2 billion to establish Carnegie Mellon University Miami, a new campus organized around addressing major societal challenges.
The $1 billion allocation for the Pittsburgh campus includes a $500 million investment in its School of Computer Science, which will be renamed the Kenneth C. Griffin School of Computer Science, alongside $500 million in flexible funding for university priorities.
The remaining $2 billion will fund CMU Miami, which will organize learning around grand challenges rather than traditional academic majors.
The new CMU Miami campus will span more than 35 acres in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood. Plans for the facility include space for industry research labs and venture studios. Once complete, the campus will support more than 3,500 undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students, nearly 300 faculty members and more than 600 staff members.
Griffin noted the impact of establishing the university’s presence in Florida.
“The opportunity to bring Carnegie Mellon to Miami places our city at the heart of humanistic and scientific advancement and amplifies the University’s international reach and impact,” Griffin said. “It is a tremendous privilege to be part of this historic moment. CMU Miami represents a generational opportunity to build a new center of research and intellectual life—one that will attract exceptional students, scholars and researchers from across the globe and rank among the world’s most important academic institutions. Building upon the University’s record of excellence in educating and inspiring the next generation, CMU Miami will cultivate the talent, knowledge and expertise to launch new enterprises, contribute to Miami’s economy and community and advance the prosperity of our nation.”
Initial focus areas for CMU Miami will cover human health and biological discovery, national security and strategic capabilities, energy and climate resilience and advanced manufacturing and industrial transformation.
Carnegie Mellon University President Farnam Jahanian noted that the expansion builds on the university’s history of interdisciplinary innovation and adaptation to technological developments such as artificial intelligence.
“We are deeply grateful to Griffin for his extraordinary vision, partnership and belief in what Carnegie Mellon can achieve,” Jahanian said. “Throughout our history, CMU has anticipated moments of profound technological change and responded with new ways of thinking and solving problems. Artificial intelligence represents one of the defining intellectual developments of our time and it demands that we rethink how we educate students, conduct research and partner with others. Together, we have an opportunity to extend the very qualities that have long distinguished Carnegie Mellon — our agility, creativity, interdisciplinary culture and relentless focus on impact — to build a new model for higher education that meets the urgency of this moment.”
Jahanian also emphasized the ongoing connection between the institution’s primary home and its new location.
“Every great Carnegie Mellon story begins with partnership,” Jahanian said. “Our relationship with Pittsburgh has shaped CMU for more than a century and we believe the connections we build in Miami will enrich both cities. We look forward to listening, learning and working alongside our neighbors to create new opportunities for collaboration, innovation and shared prosperity.”
Construction on the Miami campus is scheduled to begin in 2027.
Pending regulatory approvals, CMU Miami plans to enroll its first students in 2028.
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