USC Renames Computing School After Receiving $200 Million Gift From Nvidia Director Mark Stevens

The University of Southern California announced that Mark Stevens and his wife Mary are donating $200 million to launch a universitywide AI initiative. The gift ranks among the largest in USC’s 146-year history. In recognition, USC’s School of Advanced Computing, housed within the Viterbi School of Engineering, will be renamed the USC Mark and Mary Stevens School of Computing and Artificial Intelligence.

The $200 million donation will fund the recruitment of AI researchers and support work spanning health sciences, security, business, and the arts. It will scale up neuroimaging research at the existing USC Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute, which uses imaging technology to study Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, and traumatic brain injury.

U.S. Army–affiliated research center that uses AI for military training simulations. Additional funding will back USC’s new bachelor’s degree in artificial intelligence and its AI for Business program. ” Mark Stevens, who has served on USC’s Board of Trustees since 2001, said the timing is critical.

“We know the next great universities will be those that invest in computing. This is a key moment,” he stated. Stevens, 66, earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and economics from USC in 1981, followed by a master’s in computer engineering from the university in 1984 and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1989.

He joined Sequoia Capital in 1989 and became a partner in 1993, the same year he led the firm’s investment in Nvidia. Nvidia now carries a $5 trillion market cap. Stevens still sits on Nvidia’s board and runs his own family office, S-Cubed Capital, in Menlo Park, Calif.

During his time at Sequoia, Stevens was part of the team behind early bets on Google, Yahoo, YouTube, and Nvidia. He left Sequoia to start S-Cubed Capital in 2012. 5 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, and he owns a stake in the Golden State Warriors NBA team.

Mark Stevens is a billionaire venture capitalist, Nvidia board member, and Giving Pledge signer. He and Mary signed the Giving Pledge in 2013. In his letter, Stevens wrote that after realizing they had more wealth than they would ever need, the couple chose to donate virtually all of it to causes that could make a difference rather than pass it to their three children, let the government redistribute it, or spend recklessly.

The couple previously gave $50 million in 2015 to endow the USC Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute. That earlier gift also included naming support for the USC Stevens Center for Innovation and the Stevens Academic Center for student-athletes.

@FortuneMagazine reported that Stevens told the Los Angeles Times universities risk falling behind if they fail to invest quickly in AI, as much cutting-edge research has moved to private companies.

He added that AI in the wrong hands can be very destructive and that universities must help establish guardrails and safeguards as the technology proliferates. The donation fits a broader wave of large gifts aimed at strengthening university AI capabilities.

Last month, Michael and Susan Dell donated $750 million to the University of Texas at Austin to fund a medical center built from the ground up around AI.

5 million to its engineering school, with a portion earmarked for AI and quantum engineering research. In 2018, Stephen Schwarzman put $350 million into MIT to launch the Schwarzman College of Computing. Stevens’ gift underscores how billionaire investors with deep technology ties are directing resources to academia to maintain American leadership in a field increasingly dominated by industry.