NVIDIA CEO Donates $75M to Vanderbilt San Francisco

Vanderbilt University has received a $75 million gift from NVIDIA President and CEO Jensen Huang and his wife, Lori, for its new San Francisco campus, which is slated to open in 2027.

The private university in Nashville, Tenn., is taking over the campus of California College of the Arts, which will close at the end of the 2026–27 academic year. Vanderbilt San Francisco will serve about 1,000 undergraduate and graduate students, with a focus on engineering, entrepreneurship and design. Its flagship college will now be known as the Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang College of Art, Architecture and Design.

“Technology expands what we can build. Art and design determine why we build it. Together they shape civilization,” Jensen Huang said in a statement. “We are delighted to partner with Vanderbilt University to cultivate the next generation of creators and help San Francisco remain one of the world’s great centers of creativity, innovation and culture.”

Huang, an engineer, founded the computer chip company NVIDIA in 1993. The gift to Vanderbilt San Francisco, made through the foundation he runs with Lori, represents his largest higher education gift to date. He has also donated tens of millions of dollars to his alma maters, Oregon State and Stanford Universities.

According to Vanderbilt, the Huangs’ donation has inspired additional philanthropic support for the San Francisco campus, bringing the total investment so far to over $100 million—more than 40 percent of the funds needed by the end of 2028.