Jensen Huang donates $22 million to San Francisco’s last nonprofit arts college
David Howse, president of the California Institute of Arts (CCA), sent grim news to his faculty and students last summer: The college’s future is in serious danger given the rapid decline in enrollment. Less than a year later, the nonprofit arts school has gained a lifeline thanks to the philanthropy of NVIDIA (NVDA) founder and CEO Jensen Huang.
Jen-Hsun (Chinese name for Jensen Huang) and the Lori Huang Foundation, founded by Huang and his wife nearly two decades ago, are donating a staggering $22.5 million to the San Francisco-based school , this is the biggest gift in its history. These donations match additional funds raised by other individuals and entities associated with the college or the local arts and technology community, providing the CCA with nearly $45 million in total to resolve its financial struggles.
Huang’s foundation “sees an opportunity to support the CCA during this time of need and also a chance to challenge others to get to the present,” House said in a statement. Like other nonprofit art colleges in the United States, CAA has faced increasing challenges in recent years as demographic factors and the sharp increase in enrollment rates in the Covid-19-19 pandemic. In August, the school announced a series of cuts, such as layoffs, as it faces a $20 million deficit.
In addition to addressing its deficit, its new funding will be dedicated to program launches and future fundraising opportunities. The school was founded over a century ago and focuses on art, architecture, design and writing. 22 undergraduate and 10 graduate programs are offered.
Huang is currently the world’s first rich man with an estimated net worth of $121.8 million, an achievement of NVIDIA’s dominance in today’s AI boom. Chipmakers’ graphics processing units (GPUs) have become rare among technical developers, scrambling to power their AI products, and companies like Microsoft (MSFT), Meta (Meta) and Google (GOOGL) will have dozens of them $100 million is invested in Nvidia’s highly anticipated hardware.
Although most of the Gold Foundation’s contributions have been integrated into donor-suggested funds, a charitable savings account used by the wealthy, nonprofits have also supported many educational institutions over the years.
For example, in 2023, it donated $10 million to Oregon State University (OSU), which Huang and his wife Lori attended. The couple had previously promised $50 million to their alma mater in 2022 to build a supercomputing complex. In 2008, they donated $30 million to help establish an engineering center at Stanford University, and Huang obtained his degree in electrical engineering in 1992. The billionaire’s donation also benefited the Oneida Baptist Institute from the Oneida Baptist Institute in Kentucky, a Kentucky boarding school that he attended for $2 million. From Huang in 2019.
Although CCA is not one of the Alma Maters, founder of NVIDIA, art school alumni are closely related in Silicon Valley. According to the school, graduates are often chased by people like Google and Apple (AAPL). Huang’s foundation “recognizes the fundamental intersection of technology, art and design that drives innovation,” Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang Foundation chief operating officer Eric Jensen said in a statement. “Our investment in CCA reflects our commitment to supporting institutions that nurture tomorrow’s creative leaders.”
Huang isn’t the only technology billionaire to inject capital into Silicon Valley art education. The widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs Laurene Powell Jobs led a nonprofit acquisition of the San Francisco Academy of Arts last year. The school will now host an artist residency program that went bankrupt in 2023 – creating the last standing nonprofit arts college in San Francisco.
