Michael and Susan Dell Pledge $750 Million to Build a Life Sciences Hub – Chronicle of Philanthropy
The donation to the University of Texas at Austin, Michael Dell’s alma mater, is one of the largest announced so far this year.
Michael Dell and Susan Dell attend the 12th Breakthrough Prize Ceremony at Barker Hangar on April 18, 2026 in Santa Monica, California. WireImage
April 21, 2026 | Read Time: 3 minutes
Michael Dell started a personal computer company in his dorm room at the University of Texas at Austin more than 40 years ago, and now he and his wife, Susan, are giving an immense gift to the university, one of the largest donations announced so far this year. The couple is pledging about $750 million to launch the UT Dell Campus for Advanced Research and the UT Dell Medical Center and to support undergraduate scholarships, student housing, and the university’s Advanced Computing Center, university officials announced Tuesday.
The Campus for Advanced Research will integrate the university’s research programs with its computing capabilities and clinical care. The campus will be home to the new Dell Medical Center, which is being designed to embed the use of technology, data, and artificial intelligence into every aspect of patient care, including early detection of diseases and other health conditions and more precise and personalized patient care. The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center will partner with Dell Medical Center to provide care to cancer patients. The Dell Medical Center is scheduled to open in 2030.
“What makes this moment so meaningful is the opportunity to build something that brings every part of the journey together — from how students learn to how discoveries are made to how care reaches families,” said Michael Dell in a news release. “By bringing together medicine, science, and computing in one campus designed for the AI era, UT can create more opportunity, deliver better outcomes, and build a stronger future for communities across Texas.”
Dell’s ties to the university go back to the early 1980s, when he first started selling computers he souped up from his dorm room, a business that would later become Dell Technologies, which earned him a fortune. His net worth today stands at around $172 billion, according to Forbes. This latest gift from the Dells brings their giving to his alma mater to $1 billion, according to university officials.
Image provided by The University of Texas at Austin
Conceptual rendering of the exterior of the UT Dell Medical Center and its future location in Austin, Texas.
Among the couple’s other donations to the university was a $100 million pledge they made in 2020 to back a program aimed at closing the gap in college-graduation rates across income levels. It expanded services for Pell Grant-eligible students at UT Austin and provided additional financial aid for students who need it.
Previous donations to other nonprofits include $18 million to Mercy Ships in 2022 to support the charity’s efforts to provide free medical care for people in need in sub-Saharan Africa and $36 million in 2017 to launch the Rebuild Texas Fund. The Dells established the fund to provide immediate aid to survivors of Hurricane Harvey and to raise money from other donors to support recovery efforts.
The couple are giving their latest gift through their nearly $8 billion Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, through which they primarily support efforts to improve economic mobility, health, and urban education. They also conduct some of their charitable giving through a donor-advised fund.
The $750 million commitment to the university is the latest the Dells have publicly given or pledged to nonprofits over the past 25 years. They have appeared on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list of the biggest donors five times since 2003, and last year they made headlines when they announced a $6.25 billion pledge to put $250 into investment accounts for 25 million American children under 10 who live in ZIP codes where the annual median family income is $150,000 or less.
To learn about big donations from other donors see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated regularly.
