Billionaire Ken Griffin, who owns the largest estate in Palm Beach, announced on Sept. 30 he is donating a $3 billion to Carnegie Mellon University, describing it as the largest such gift in the history of U.S. higher education.
The funds from the Citadel hedge-fund founder and CEO will be used to build a new Carnegie Mellon campus in Miami and support initiatives at its main Pittsburgh campus, including hiring leading academics and making the school more affordable for students, according to an announcement from the university and Griffin.
The donation came a few years after Griffin moved his family and the headquarters of Citadel LLC and Citadel Securities from Chicago to Miami. Even with the transition, he kept his Palm Beach estate intact.
Carnegie Mellon President Farnam Jahanian said $1 billion of Griffin's donation is earmarked for the Pittsburgh campus' computer science school, which will be renamed the Kenneth C. Griffin School of Computer Science.
"Carnegie Mellon University has made profound contributions to America's preeminence in science, engineering, technology, and the arts and humanities," Griffin said in the university's announcement. "Since its founding, Carnegie Mellon has fostered remarkable talent, pioneered scientific breakthroughs, and expanded the frontiers of research — shaping global leaders and innovators."
The announcement notes that the new Miami campus will be built in the city's Wynwood neighborhood. The location is just a few miles north of Brickell, where Griffin's hedge fund Citadel is headquartered.
Construction is expected to begin next year and with student enrollments to the campus expected to begin in 2028.
"We are deeply grateful to Ken Griffin for his extraordinary vision, partnership and belief in what Carnegie Mellon can achieve," Jahanian said.
Forbes estimates Griffin's net worth at $57.5 billion. His wealth ranked him third among the Palm Beach property owners on the latest Forbes list of the country's 400 richest people.
Griffin is involved in a number of major real estate projects in the Miami area, including building a downtown skyscraper to house his companies.
Griffin's Palm Beach estate, meanwhile, measures more than 27 acres, a quarter-mile south of President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club. A multi-year construction project continues on a mansion Griffin is building for his mother on the property.
Griffin also has been active in Palm Beach, having recently sold an office building at 125 Worth Ave. for a recorded $86 million to an entity affiliated with private-equity titan Stephen Schwarzman's Blackstone. That sale meant Griffin had divested himself of both of the side-by-side buildings he once owned on Worth Avenue. In 2025 he sold 151 Worth Ave. for a recorded $80.5 million. That retail building was once the home of a Neiman Marcus department store and is now undergoing a major redevelopment.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Palm Beach estate owner Ken Griffin donates $3B to Carnegie Mellon
