Billionaire Ken Griffin donates $3bn to Carnegie Mellon University to open a new Miami campus in snub to Harvard

From the Newshound archive · first published 30 September 2026.

Citadel founder Ken Griffin has broken the record for the largest gift ever made to an American university, pledging $2bn to establish a 35-acre Carnegie Mellon campus in Miami's Wynwood neighbourhood, plus a further $1bn for its Pittsburgh base. The donation far exceeds the $500m Griffin gave his alma mater Harvard before severing ties over its response to antisemitism. Griffin, whose net worth exceeds $57bn, relocated both his home and his company's headquarters from Chicago to Miami four years ago and has ambitions for Florida to become a rival to Silicon Valley. The new campus is expected to open its doors to students in 2028.