Ken Griffin Donates $3 Billion to Bring Carnegie Mellon Campus to Miami

Citadel founder Ken Griffin is donating $2 billion to establish a Miami campus of Carnegie Mellon University, plus another $1 billion to the school's Pittsburgh flagship campus, for a combined $3 billion gift that Carnegie Mellon says is the largest private donation in higher-education history, according to Morning Brew.

The Miami campus is targeting a 2028 opening and plans to accommodate 3,500 undergraduate, master's and PhD students, with a focus on nontraditional programs addressing human health, climate adaptation and national security. Citadel has long hired Carnegie Mellon graduates as quantitative traders, and Griffin said he expects local graduates to help draw companies to the city.

The donation follows Griffin's move of Citadel's headquarters from Chicago to Miami in 2022 and adds to his broader investment in the city, including $2.5 billion toward Citadel's Miami corporate campus and tens of millions of dollars donated to local research hospitals.