Hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin just made the single biggest donation ever to a U.S. university

Carnegie Mellon University announced Wednesday that hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin is donating $3 billion, with the bulk of the money for a new campus in Miami focused on societal challenges.The Pittsburgh-based private research university said the gift is the largest ever single gift to a U.S. university. Other donations topping the billion-dollar mark include $1.8 billion from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to Johns Hopkins University in 2018. And Nike co-founder Phil Knight and his wife, Penny, also have been prolific donors, including a $2 billion gift to Oregon Health & Science University in 2025.Griffin’s gift includes $2 billion to build a new 35-acre campus in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood, just north of downtown. The campus is expected to enroll around 3,500 undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students. Construction is scheduled to begin next year.Rather than academic majors, it will focus on what the university and Griffin described in a news release as “grand challenge areas,” such as human health and biological discovery; national security and strategic capabilities; energy and climate resilience; and advanced manufacturing and industrial transformation.The r…