Hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin is giving $3 billion to Carnegie Mellon University — the largest individual gift in the history of American higher education. The bulk of it goes to Florida: $2 billion will launch a new 35-acre campus in Miami's Wynwood neighborhood, while New York, where Griffin long ran a major operation, got nothing. Business leaders in the city say the donation is New York's loss.
The gift was announced Oct. 1 at an event in Wynwood, where Griffin shook hands with Carnegie Mellon President Farnam Jahanian in a photo captured by the Associated Press. Griffin, 57, the founder and CEO of Citadel, said in a statement: "I believe it's important to support institutions of excellence in our country, and that when we support an institution that achieves excellence, we both set the bar higher for other institutions across the nation and around the world."
The $2 billion Miami campus, to be called Carnegie Mellon University Miami, will sit on about 35 acres in Wynwood — land Griffin closed on Sept. 29 for $1.1 billion in a purchase from developer Moishe Mana, the largest land assemblage deal in Florida history. Mana began assembling his Wynwood portfolio during the Great Recession in 2009 for less than $70 million. Once complete, the campus is expected to accommodate more than 3,500 undergraduate, master's and Ph.D. students, nearly 300 faculty members and more than 600 staff. Construction is expected to begin in 2027, with enrollment starting in 2028 pending regulatory approvals. The campus will focus on major "societal challenges," including human health, national security, energy and climate resilience, and advanced manufacturing.
The remaining $1 billion goes to Carnegie Mellon's main campus in Pittsburgh: $500 million for its School of Computer Science, which will be renamed the Kenneth C. Griffin School of Computer Science, and $500 million in flexible funding for the university's "highest priorities."
What stings for New York is what wasn't included: Carnegie Mellon has a Manhattan campus, and Griffin allocated none of the $3 billion to it. Steve Fulop, president of the Partnership for New York City and a former three-term mayor of Jersey City, said on 77 WABC's "Cats Roundtable" on Sunday: "This week, we saw a huge gift to Miami from Ken Griffin of Citadel — $3 billion. When people have second headquarters and second offices, the philanthropy doesn't double. It gets shared between different places. When Ken Griffin, who had a presence in New York City and a presence in Chicago, goes to Miami and gives that money [away], it's a loss for us."
The subtext is hard to miss. Griffin has been shifting his business center of gravity from New York to Miami for years. As the New York Post noted, the donation came months after Mayor Zohran Mamdani used Griffin as a poster child for his "tax the rich" agenda, including the pied-à-terre tax. Business leaders read the snub of Manhattan as no coincidence — another vote with his feet, and another public verdict on New York's business climate.