The University of Southern California becomes the third major U.S university the past month to receive a blockbuster private gift to support the expansion of AI research and education.gettyThe University of Southern California has received one of the largest private gifts in its history - a $200 million donation from Silicon Valley venture capitalist, NVIDIA board member and USC Trustee Mark Stevens and his wife, Mary.The gift will be used to support a campus-wide, interdisciplinary AI initiative that will span the health sciences, security, business and the arts. In recognition, USC will rename its School of Advanced Computing, located in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, the USC Mark and Mary Stevens School of Computing and Artificial Intelligence. The gift will be used for several purposes, but a major emphasis will be on adding new faculty members with expertise in the application of AI to major social challenges. “As AI becomes ever more powerful, it creates enormous opportunities to improve lives and solve some of our greatest challenges, if used the right way,” USC President Beong-Soo Kim said, in a university news release. “Mark and Mary Stevens’ generosity will allow USC to leverage our existing interdisciplinary strengths and capitalize on these new opportunities at a critical inflection point for our society. As a top destination for AI talent, USC can accelerate our mission of educating future leaders, addressing real-world problems and enhancing human values and agency.”USC currently offers more than 30 AI- and computing-related majors, minors and graduate degree programs, and it is introducing a new Bachelor of Science in Artificial Intelligence this fall. Mark Stevens is an alumnus of USC. After stints at Intel and Hughes Aircraft, he joined Sequoia Capital, making early investment in companies like Google, PayPal and LinkedIn. He is now investing in startups through his firm S-Cubed Capital. Stevens is a long-time member of the board of the semiconductor firm Nvidia and owns a minority stake in the Golden State Warriors NBA basketball team. Forbes pegged his net worth at more than $11 billion. “We know the next great universities will be those that invest in computing,” said Mark Stevens, in the release. “This is a key moment. I am confident that USC has the leadership and direction to run quickly and stake our position as the trailblazer.”MORE FOR YOU“Mark and Mary’s generosity will have incalculable impact,” said Gaurav Sukhatme, inaugural director of the USC Stevens School. “The timing of their gift — which builds on the momentum of our launch, the opening of Ginsburg Hall and the rapidly growing impact of computing and AI on every field — has positioned USC to be a national and global leader for decades to come.”The Stevens’ gift marks the third $100 million-plus donation to a university for AI initiatives in just the past month. In April, the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation committed $750 million to the University of Texas at Austin for its new medical center, undergraduate scholarships, student housing and UT’s Texas Advanced Computing Center. The university plans to break ground later this year on the UT Dell Medical Center, which the university is calling the country’s first “AI-native” medical center.Also last month, The University of Wisconsin–Madison received $100 million in private gift commitments for its new College of Computing and Artificial Intelligence, set to launch on July 1, 2026. The donations came from the Catalyst Collective — a group of alumni, business leaders and corporate partners who have pledged major investments in the college. The college will be the first academic division created at UW–Madison in over 40 years and will include existing UW degree programs in computer sciences, data science, statistics, library science, and information science.