Hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin donates $3 billion to Carnegie Mellon as part of his bet on Florida

Denis Balibouse/Reuters/File

Billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin is doubling down on Miami, announcing on Wednesday a $3 billion donation to help fund a new campus for Carnegie Mellon University in the city.

The staggering amount is the largest-ever gift by an individual in higher education, surpassing Michael Bloomberg’s $1.8 billion donation to Johns Hopkins University in 2018. And Griffin’s donation will be split: $1 billion will support CMU’s original campus in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and $2 billion will help launch CMU’s Miami campus.

CMU Miami is expected to launch in the city’s Wynwood neighborhood in 2028, and it will “pioneer a new model for higher education,” according to a Carnegie Mellon press release.

Courtesy Bethany Cody, Carnegie Mellon University

The university said the campus will organize learning around “societal challenges” rather than traditional academic majors. It will focus on “challenge areas spanning human health and biological discovery; national security and strategic capabilities; energy and climate resilience; and advanced manufacturing and industrial transformation,” the press release said.

Griffin’s massive investment comes as the hedge fund billionaire has increasingly shifted his money and business interests to South Florida. As founder and CEO of multinational hedge fund Citadel, he moved his business’s headquarters from Chicago and recently said he would redirect investments from New York City to Miami.

Meanwhile, the rise of artificial intelligence has also sparked growing fears that a traditional four-year college education will become obsolete.

Illustration by Alberto Mier/CNN

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“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,” said CMU President Farnam Jahanian in a statement.

As part of the donation, CMU’s School of Computer Science will be renamed the Kenneth C. Griffin School of Computer Science.

Construction is slated to begin next year. Once completed, the Miami campus will support more than 3,500 undergraduate, master’s and PhD students, the press release said.

Griffin has bet big on South Florida, where he attended high school. After three decades in Chicago, Citadel moved its global headquarters to Miami in 2022.

In a letter to employees at the time, Griffin said that he viewed Florida as a better corporate environment.

Earlier this year, Griffin said he planned to expand his business further in Miami , redirecting resources away from his New York offices after a high-profile spat with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani over a wealth tax.

In April, Mamdani stood outside a luxury skyscraper for a video announcing the city’s plan for a so-called pied-à-terre tax on second homes of the city’s wealthiest residents. In the video, Mamdani singled out Griffin’s $238 million penthouse.

In response, Griffin called the video “creepy and weird.”

“We went to Miami and revised our building plan to make it a bigger office building,” Griffin said in May. “What the mayor of New York has made clear to my partners, and principally my New York partners, is that we need to double down on our bet in Miami.”

Denis Balibouse/路透社/档案照片

亿万富翁对冲基金经理肯·格里芬 (Ken Griffin) 正在加倍投资迈阿密，他于周三宣布捐赠 30 亿美元，以帮助卡内基梅隆大学在该市建设新校区。

这笔巨额捐款是迄今为止个人向高等教育领域捐赠的最大一笔款项，超过了迈克尔·布隆伯格在2018年向约翰·霍普金斯大学捐赠的18亿美元。格里芬的捐款将分为两部分：10亿美元将用于支持卡内基梅隆大学位于宾夕法尼亚州匹兹堡的最初校区，20亿美元将用于帮助启动卡内基梅隆大学迈阿密校区。

根据卡内基梅隆大学的新闻稿，卡内基梅隆大学迈阿密分校预计将于 2028 年在该市的温伍德社区成立，并将“开创高等教育的新模式”。

图片由卡内基梅隆大学的贝瑟尼·科迪提供

该大学表示，校园将围绕“社会挑战”而非传统的学术专业来组织学习。新闻稿称，校园将重点关注“涵盖人类健康和生物学发现、国家安全和战略能力、能源和气候适应能力以及先进制造和产业转型等挑战领域”。

格里芬的巨额投资正值这位对冲基金亿万富翁不断将其资金和商业利益转移到南佛罗里达之际。作为跨国对冲基金 Citadel 的创始人兼首席执行官，他已将公司总部从芝加哥迁至迈阿密，并于近期表示将把投资从纽约市转移到迈阿密。

与此同时，人工智能的兴起也引发了人们日益增长的担忧，即传统的四年制大学教育将会过时。

插图：Alberto Mier/CNN

CNN民调显示，大多数美国人对人工智能表示“恐惧和担忧”，认为政府应该加强监管。

卡内基梅隆大学校长法纳姆·贾哈尼安在一份声明中表示：“人工智能代表了我们这个时代最重要的智力发展之一，它要求我们重新思考如何教育学生、开展研究以及如何与他人合作。”

作为捐赠的一部分，卡内基梅隆大学计算机科学学院将更名为肯尼斯·C·格里芬计算机科学学院。

该项目计划于明年开工建设。新闻稿称，建成后，迈阿密校区将为超过3500名本科生、硕士生和博士生提供支持。

格里芬对南佛罗里达寄予厚望，他高中就读于那里。在芝加哥经营三十年后，城堡投资集团于2022年将其全球总部迁至迈阿密。

格里芬当时在给员工的一封信中表示，他认为佛罗里达州是一个更好的企业发展环境。

今年早些时候，格里芬表示，他计划进一步扩大在迈阿密的业务，将资源从纽约办事处转移出去。此前，他与纽约市市长佐兰·马姆达尼就财富税问题发生了一场备受瞩目的争执。

今年四月，马姆达尼站在一座豪华摩天大楼外，拍摄了一段视频，宣布纽约市政府计划对市内最富有居民的第二套住房征收所谓的“第二居所税”。视频中，马姆达尼特别提到了格里芬价值2.38亿美元的顶层公寓。

对此，格里芬称该视频“令人毛骨悚然，十分怪异”。

格里芬在五月份表示：“我们去了迈阿密，修改了我们的建筑方案，将其建成一座更大的办公楼。纽约市长已经明确告诉我的合作伙伴，尤其是我的纽约合作伙伴，我们需要加倍投资迈阿密。”