Yesterday, Ken Griffin announced a $3 billion gift to Carnegie Mellon University, the largest gift by an individual in the history of American higher education. Two billion dollars will support CMU Miami, a new campus in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood that plans to enroll its first students in 2028.
For Florida, this is a generational investment in the talent, research, and industries that will shape our economic future. Our ambition is to become the place where the next generation of great American companies is built. CMU Miami can help those companies take root and grow.
The first phase of Florida’s growth story came from attracting success: convincing businesses and ambitious people from around the country to put down roots here. But the competition for the next generation of companies is intensifying. And as artificial intelligence and other transformative technologies reshape industries, the states that lead will be the ones that generate innovation — not just attract it.
As president and CEO of The Florida Council of 100, I spend much of my time telling Florida’s business story to the country and the world. Griffin’s gift helps us write its next chapter. By investing in research and education, Florida is strengthening its ability to incubate and develop new technologies and build companies. This gives us a stronger foundation for growth and a new way to compete.
And of course, all of that starts with ensuring we have world-class universities. Stanford’s presence and impact shaped Silicon Valley. Carnegie Mellon helped Pittsburgh become a center for robotics and autonomous vehicle research. CMU Miami can be a similar kind of engine for Florida.
CMU Miami will build on Carnegie Mellon’s long legacy of innovation. Carnegie Mellon researchers Allen Newell and Herbert Simon helped lay the foundations of artificial intelligence, and the university is home to the world’s first robotics institute.
The Miami campus plans to build on that history with a reimagined model for higher education. Instead of being organized around academic disciplines and departments, education and research will be organized around four grand challenges: human health and biological discovery, national security, energy and climate resilience, and advanced manufacturing.
Florida offers a natural setting for that work. Its biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and medical device businesses provide potential partners for health research. National security research can draw on U.S. Southern Command in Miami, Central Command and Special Operations Command in Tampa, and the launch activity along the Space Coast. Its aerospace and medical device manufacturers offer opportunities to develop new products and improve how they are made. Florida’s experience preparing communities, power grids, and ports for severe weather gives researchers practical knowledge to build on in energy and resilience.
The campus will connect that research to the market through industry research labs and venture studios. Discoveries made at CMU Miami can be tested with Florida partners and put to work by Florida companies. At a time when many Americans question the value of college, this model can show what a university delivers when it is built around solving real problems.
The benefits of having such a strong university will reverberate throughout Florida’s Gold Coast, from Miami through Fort Lauderdale to West Palm Beach. CMU Miami can give existing companies access to research and specialized talent, give founders a place to develop their ideas, and give businesses considering the region more reasons to invest here. Companies that grow around the university can create jobs and opportunities well beyond its campus.
For young Floridians, these opportunities can make it possible to pursue their ambitions close to home. A student interested in robotics or medical research could study here and build a career with a company working alongside the university. A graduate with an idea for a business could find the expertise and investment to develop it here. For decades, too many of Florida’s brightest young people left the state to chase goals like these. CMU Miami can give more of Florida’s brightest young people a reason to stay, and the means to succeed.
Florida’s business leaders have a direct role in making that happen. Companies can sponsor research at CMU Miami and bring their hardest technical problems to its labs. They can offer internships and hire its graduates. When startups spin out of the university, Florida companies can become their first customers, and Florida investors can back them early. The members of The Florida Council of 100 are ready to do this work, and we will be asking business leaders across the state to join us.
The full impact of Griffin’s gift will only emerge over the coming decades, in the discoveries that will be made in Florida’s Gold Coast, the companies that are built, the careers that are made possible. Griffin’s gift creates an extraordinary opening; Florida’s responsibility is to make the most of it.
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