Mark Stevens, a venture capitalist and early investor in Nvidia, and his wife, Mary, are donating a staggering $200 million to the University of Southern California to accelerate AI research and education across the institution. The gift will help the 145-year-old university position itself as a “trailblazer” in AI, according to Stevens, a USC alumnus.
The funds will primarily support a university-wide recruitment effort to attract top AI talent, with an emphasis on interdisciplinary expertise. In recognition of the couple’s donation, USC plans to rename its advanced computing school, set to open in 2024, to the USC Mark and Mary Stevens School of Computing and Artificial Intelligence.
“We know that the next universities will be the ones to invest in computers. This is an important time,” Stevens said in a statement.
Stevens, 66, is worth an estimated $11.5 billion, mostly from his stake in Nvidia. He began investing in the chip maker in 1993 while serving as a managing partner at Sequoia Capital, which he joined in 1989 after working at Intel and Hughes Aircraft. Now investing through his family’s firm, S-Cubed Capital, Stevens owns a stake in the NBA’s Golden State Warriors and serves on Nvidia’s board. During his more than two decades with Sequoia, he also invested in companies including Google, Yahoo and YouTube.
USC has long been a cornerstone of the tech industry’s talent pipeline—ranking second among Silicon Valley’s most common alma maters. Stevens himself received degrees in electrical engineering and economics, as well as a master’s degree in computer engineering, from the university. USC, which already offers more than 30 programs related to AI and computing, plans to launch a new Bachelor of Science in AI this fall.
The gift comes at a “critical time of change for our community,” said USC President Beong-Soo Kim. “As a top destination for AI talent, USC can accelerate our work to educate tomorrow’s leaders, address real-world problems and advance human values and agency.”
USC is far from the only university receiving major funding for AI programs. In April, the University of Texas at Austin received $750 million from billionaires Michael and Susan Dell to support a native AI hospital. That donation was followed by a $100 million commitment to the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s new College of Computing and Artificial Intelligence from alumni, business leaders and corporate partners. The University of Chicago also received $50 million last month from alumni Rika and Joe Mansueto to launch a program dedicated to recruiting AI scholars. In January, Bloomberg founder Tom Secunda donated $30 million to establish the Center for AI Responsibility and Research at Binghamton University.
For Stevens, the donation is the latest in a long history of giving to USC. He and his wife previously donated $22 million in 2004 to the USC Innovation Center and $50 million in 2015 to support neuroimaging and informatics work, with additional multimillion-dollar gifts to orthobiologics and athletics programs.
Beyond USC, the couple’s philanthropy includes support for Santa Clara University, Stanford University, the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, and the US Olympic and Paralympic Foundation. They also made a last-minute donation to save the Oasis, a cabaret venue in San Francisco that was facing closure. The couple have signed the Giving Pledge since 2013, pledging to give away a large portion of their income.
