Nvidia CEO Pours $75M Into San Francisco Art Campus
Vanderbilt University announced that Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jensen (Jen-Hsun) Huang and his wife, Lori Huang, donated $75 million to establish the Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang College of Art, Architecture and Design in San Francisco. The new campus will replace the nearly 120-year-old California College of the Arts (CCA), which Vanderbilt acquired amid declining enrollment and a growing deficit; CCA later said it would cease operating after the 2026–2027 academic year and its Potrero Hill campus would be absorbed by Vanderbilt. The Huangs had previously given CCA a $22.5 million matching gift in February 2025, and California Governor Gavin Newsom worked in 2025 to secure a $20 million public grant to help keep the private school afloat. Critics in the local art community, including artist and educator Lindsey White, argued that billionaire intervention is remaking art education and displacing local artists and workers. Nvidia, founded by Huang in 1993, reached a reported $5.5 trillion valuation in May, and the university said the gift reflects the donors’ belief that creative practice drives innovation.
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This story was covered in Markets Ablaze, Museums Under Fire