ByLisa Chambers,
Writer.
Investor and billionaire philanthropist Kenneth Hao still remembers watching doctors at the University of California, San Francisco care for his aging grandfather in the final years of his life. “I was inspired by the level of attention and care he was getting,” Hao tells Forbes, “even as a 90-year-old person.”
That experience helped shape Hao and his wife Kathy Chiao’s longtime support of UCSF and academic hospitals, as well as their decision last week to commit $100 million to UCSF to support capital needs and accelerate innovation. The gift is in addition to $75 million they committed in April to the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. But Hao is also candid about what philanthropy can’t fix.
As academic medical research faces ongoing funding pressure and healthcare costs continue to balloon, he says major donations can help universities move faster on infrastructure, AI and new partnerships—but won’t solve education’s deeper financial problems. “It’s supplemental, not fundamental,” he says.
