Citadel founder and CEO Ken Griffin has committed $3 billion to Carnegie Mellon University, the largest individual philanthropic investment in higher education history.
$2 billion will build a brand-new CMU campus in Miami’s Wynwood with the remaining $1 billion going to the main Pittsburgh campus.
Griffin, who has lived in Miami for almost five years, said he chose CMU because it ranks first in the nation in computer science, AI and cybersecurity, and calls the move "game-changing for this city."
Griffin bought the 35-plus-acre Wynwood site from Moishe Mana for $1.1 billion. Mana calls it the largest land assemblage deal in Florida history and a passing of the torch on a shared mission.
Once complete, the campus will support more than 3,500 undergraduate, master's and Ph.D. students, nearly 300 faculty and over 600 staff.
Construction is slated to begin in 2027, with the first students expected in 2028, pending regulatory approvals.
CMU Miami will flip the traditional university model. There are no isolated majors, schools or departments. Teaching and research are organized around “grand challenges” that demand expertise across disciplines.
At launch, it will focus on four areas: human health and biological discovery, national security, energy and climate resilience, and advanced manufacturing.
Built for the AI era, the campus will pair CMU's strength in AI, robotics and the arts with real-world labs and industry partners. The goal is to teach students how to learn, so they can make an immediate impact in a fast-changing economy.
