Michael and Susan Dell pledge $750 million to build country's first AI-native hospital at UT Austin

Michael and Susan Dell fund 'AI-native' medical center with $750 million gift to University of Texas

NEW YORK (AP) -- Billionaires Michael and Susan Dell are fueling the University of Texas at Austin's medical research ambitions with a $750 million gift that promises to improve patient care through artificial intelligence and increase health care options for the booming state capital. The UT Dell Medical Center, announced Tuesday, is projected to open in 2030 as the crown jewel of a new 300-plus-acre advanced research campus. The university expects to break ground this fall on what school leaders are calling the country's first "AI-native" hospital. The donation makes the couple the first University of Texas donors to give more than $1 billion, according to system officials, building on two decades of support for computer science education, the medical school and scholarships for students with the most significant financial need. For Michael Dell, the founder and CEO of Dell Technologies whose net worth is estimated by Forbes at about $170 billion, the next step was to further expand his and his wife's investments in Central Texas. The computer magnate founded the company in 1984 as a UT-Austin pre-med student selling customized supercomputers from his freshman dorm room. Health infrastructure needs became clear, he said, as the area's population about doubled in size. "I was born in Texas. My wife was born in Texas. This is our home," Dell told the Associated Press, adding that "building a stronger health system here, more innovation and helping to support the growth and stability of the region" is important. The donation is among the largest ever in higher education philanthropy, following recent contributions such as Phil Knight's $2 billion pledge to Oregon Health & Science University's cancer center and Michael Bloomberg's $1.8 billion gift to cover Johns Hopkins University medical students' tuition. From monitoring vital signs to triggering step-by-step care plans, AI is making inroads into health care at hundreds of hospitals. With the launch of UT Dell Medical Center, however, Dr. Claudia Lucchinetti sees a rare opportunity: instead of retroactively applying new technologies to old hospital infrastructure, she said they can integrate them from the start. They will also collaborate with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston to offer top specialists for those with complex conditions. Lucchinetti, the dean of Dell Medical School and senior vice president for medical affairs, said their model will use technology to support the patient-doctor relationship and make care "feel simpler and more human." "Ambient" AI will make the hospital itself an "intelligent member of the care team," she said, taking notes so that clinicians can treat patients more directly. She touted AI's ability to identify biometric patterns and early signs of cancer before they're obvious to the naked eye. The goal, she said, is to move from a reactive and fragmented health system to one that is predictive and more seamless. "We have the technology, the science and the understanding to do better. And what we've been missing is the ability to design a system around those capabilities from the start," she said. "That's the opportunity that Susan and Michael Dell have catalyzed." The gift will also support undergraduate scholarships, student housing and UT's Texas Advanced Computing Center, where officials are building the nation's largest academic supercomputer with Dell's AI infrastructure. In a convocation address two years ago, Michael Dell encouraged medical school graduates to ensure AI models understand human ethics and make health care more equitable. He believes the technology will augment caregiving, create more precise treatments, accelerate scientific discoveries and apply those findings to real-world practices sooner. "We have to figure out how to do this in a way that is responsible, reflects our values and beliefs, and ultimately enables humans to reach their full potential," he told AP. "That's what we're all working on." The major contribution comes at a time when private support for higher education is falling to a dwindling pool of supporters. Colleges raised a record $78 billion last year, according to the 2025 Voluntary Support of Education, but nearly 90% of that money came from just 2% of donors. Rutgers University Associate Dean for Research Marybeth Gasman said she's excited to see such strong support for a public institution at a time when public funding is declining amid politicized attacks on higher education. She hopes the megagift inspires other donations, as she said decades-long patterns suggest that more giving occurs after high-profile individual contributions. "Higher education, quite frankly, could really use it right now," she said. UT-Austin officials are certainly hoping so. The Dells' gift kicks off a broader 10-year campaign to raise $10 billion for the university. The donation comes on the heels of the Dells' $6.25 billion pledge to provide an incentive to claim new investment accounts under President Donald Trump's tax law for 25 million American children ages 10 and under. The "Trump Accounts" give $1,000 to every newborn, so long as their parents open one, and invests those funds in the stock market. The couple believes it is the largest single private commitment made to U.S. children. Michael Dell said even a small sum makes a child more likely to enter college -- "perhaps at the University of Texas or some other great school" -- and eventually start a family or business. He welcomed the creativity he's seeing from other "Trump Accounts" funders. He's seen cities offer additional investments for community service and good grades. He noted that hedge fund managers Brad Gerstner and Ray Dalio have seeded accounts in Indiana and Connecticut, respectively. "I think you'll see many more gifts at the local community level and some other big ones at the national level," he said. But he dismissed the suggestion that, between the "Trump Accounts" and this University of Texas gift, there's been a shift in his and his wife's philanthropy toward more selective, bigger bets. "Certainly, we've been very blessed and we have a lot of resources," he said. "So, we're looking for things that have significant impact." ___ Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP's philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

Billionaire Michael Dell started his company in his University of Texas dorm room. Now, he's betting on AI with a $750 million gift | Fortune

Michael Dell is having one of his biggest philanthropic years yet, having announced a major gift to his alma mater on the heels of a $6.25 billion pledge to seed "Trump Accounts." The Dell Technologies founder and his wife, Susan Dell, announced Tuesday a $750 million gift to the University of Texas at Austin to fund a new medical center and research campus built around AI from the ground up. This marks one of the largest donations ever given to a public university in the U.S., and it also pushes the Dells' donations to UT Austin over $1 billion. This is a full-circle moment for Dell, who founded the now-$140 billion tech company in his dorm room at UT Austin in 1984. "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," the Dells said in a statement. The gift will bring together medicine, science, and computing in one campus "designed for the AI era," they added. The newly branded UT Dell Medical Center is slated to open in 2030 on the 300-plus-acre campus. It will connect "prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and discovery through AI and advanced computing -- enabling earlier detection, more precise and personalized care, and better health outcomes," according to the university. The medical center will include a hospital with 300 to 500 beds, outpatient facilities, and a full-service emergency department, alongside a research campus focused on integrating advanced computing and AI into clinical care, university officials told local Austin outlet Kut News. The gift will also support undergraduate scholarships, student housing, and UT's Texas Advanced Computing Center, which is building the nation's largest academic supercomputer using Dell's AI infrastructure. The $750 million gift is deeply personal for Dell, whose net worth is estimated at $177 billion, making him the seventh-richest man in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index as of Wednesday. He founded Dell Technologies from his dorm room at UT Austin, where he had enrolled as a pre-med student to appease his parents. But Dell had long been fascinated by computers and technology, having disassembled an Apple II model at the age of 15 to see how it worked, according to a 1999 biography, Direct From Dell: Strategies That Revolutionized an Industry. Dell was 19 when he started selling personal computer upgrade kits to other students in his dorm, a move that launched his tech empire. He had just $1,000 to invest in his business, but his manufacturing team consisted of "three guys with screwdrivers sitting at six-foot tables," he said in Direct From Dell. But it was that risk-taking that eventually led to his success. "You have to embrace risk, and you have to accept failure," Dell told Fortune in a 2017 interview. "If you want to really make it big, you'd better come up with something unique," Dell continued. "It better be differentiated -- that nobody else is doing." Dell eventually dropped out of UT Austin ahead of his sophomore year, and that same dorm room will also be renamed "Dell House" in his honor, according to Kut News. "I think about this as the next step in a timeline that actually goes back to my parents sending me off to UT to become a doctor," Dell told CNBC. "Obviously, that part didn't work out, but I never stopped thinking about that." Local news outlets also reported Dell joked at a Tuesday press conference that his parents' plan for him to be a doctor "got derailed," but that "so far, it's worked out." The Dells have been building toward this moment for nearly two decades. Their foundation committed $25 million in 2005 to help build Dell Children's Medical Center, which opened in 2007 as the region's first freestanding pediatric hospital. They kicked in $50 million in 2013 to launch the Dell Medical School at UT Austin. The UT gift comes on the heels of another massive philanthropic move by the couple: a $6.25 billion pledge to seed "Trump Accounts," the new investment vehicles created under President Donald Trump's tax law that would give children born between 2025 and 2028 a $1,000 government seed contribution. "It's certainly the largest gift we will have given," Dell told Fortune's Diane Brady in December. "Our philanthropy so far has given about $3 billion, and this is more than double that. We're working on a few other things that we're not ready to announce but there is more to come." The Dells' contribution is intended for the roughly 25 million American children under 10 who were born before Jan. 1, 2025 and therefore do not qualify for the federal seed contribution. Dell has said even a small sum makes a child more likely to enter college -- "perhaps at the University of Texas or some other great school" -- and eventually start a family or business. The Dells' donations land in elite company among recent billionaire mega-gifts to higher education. Nike cofounder Phil Knight in 2025 pledged $2 billion to Oregon Health & Science University's cancer center, and Michael Bloomberg in 2024 gave $1 billion to Johns Hopkins to cover medical school tuition. Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman, meanwhile, has also zeroed in on AI and education, including a $350 million gift to MIT to launch the Schwarzman College of Computing, and MacKenzie Scott has donated more than $1 billion to historically Black colleges and universities.

Michael and Susan Dell Fund 'AI-Native' Medical Center With $750 Million Gift to University of Texas

NEW YORK (AP) -- Billionaires Michael and Susan Dell are fueling the University of Texas at Austin's medical research ambitions with a $750 million gift that promises to improve patient care through artificial intelligence and increase health care options for the booming state capital. The UT Dell Medical Center, announced Tuesday, is projected to open in 2030 as the crown jewel of a new 300-plus-acre advanced research campus. The university expects to break ground this fall on what school leaders are calling the country's first "AI-native" hospital. The donation makes the couple the first University of Texas donors to give more than $1 billion, according to system officials, building on two decades of support for computer science education, the medical school and scholarships for students with the most significant financial need. For Michael Dell, the founder and CEO of Dell Technologies whose net worth is estimated by Forbes at about $170 billion, the next step was to further expand his and his wife's investments in Central Texas. The computer magnate founded the company in 1984 as a UT-Austin pre-med student selling customized supercomputers from his freshman dorm room. Health infrastructure needs became clear, he said, as the area's population about doubled in size. "I was born in Texas. My wife was born in Texas. This is our home," Dell told the Associated Press, adding that "building a stronger health system here, more innovation and helping to support the growth and stability of the region" is important. The donation is among the largest ever in higher education philanthropy, following recent contributions such as Phil Knight's $2 billion pledge to Oregon Health & Science University's cancer center and Michael Bloomberg's $1.8 billion gift to cover Johns Hopkins University medical students' tuition. A 'rare' opportunity to integrate technology into a new medical center From monitoring vital signs to triggering step-by-step care plans, AI is making inroads into health care at hundreds of hospitals. With the launch of UT Dell Medical Center, however, Dr. Claudia Lucchinetti sees a rare opportunity: instead of retroactively applying new technologies to old hospital infrastructure, she said they can integrate them from the start. They will also collaborate with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston to offer top specialists for those with complex conditions. Lucchinetti, the dean of Dell Medical School and senior vice president for medical affairs, said their model will use technology to support the patient-doctor relationship and make care "feel simpler and more human." "Ambient" AI will make the hospital itself an "intelligent member of the care team," she said, taking notes so that clinicians can treat patients more directly. She touted AI's ability to identify biometric patterns and early signs of cancer before they're obvious to the naked eye. The goal, she said, is to move from a reactive and fragmented health system to one that is predictive and more seamless. "We have the technology, the science and the understanding to do better. And what we've been missing is the ability to design a system around those capabilities from the start," she said. "That's the opportunity that Susan and Michael Dell have catalyzed." The gift will also support undergraduate scholarships, student housing and UT's Texas Advanced Computing Center, where officials are building the nation's largest academic supercomputer with Dell's AI infrastructure. In a convocation address two years ago, Michael Dell encouraged medical school graduates to ensure AI models understand human ethics and make health care more equitable. He believes the technology will augment caregiving, create more precise treatments, accelerate scientific discoveries and apply those findings to real-world practices sooner. "We have to figure out how to do this in a way that is responsible, reflects our values and beliefs, and ultimately enables humans to reach their full potential," he told AP. "That's what we're all working on." Landscape for higher education giving The major contribution comes at a time when private support for higher education is falling to a dwindling pool of supporters. Colleges raised a record $78 billion last year, according to the 2025 Voluntary Support of Education, but nearly 90% of that money came from just 2% of donors. Rutgers University Associate Dean for Research Marybeth Gasman said she's excited to see such strong support for a public institution at a time when public funding is declining amid politicized attacks on higher education. She hopes the megagift inspires other donations, as she said decades-long patterns suggest that more giving occurs after high-profile individual contributions. "Higher education, quite frankly, could really use it right now," she said. UT-Austin officials are certainly hoping so. The Dells' gift kicks off a broader 10-year campaign to raise $10 billion for the university. The donation comes on the heels of the Dells' $6.25 billion pledge to provide an incentive to claim new investment accounts under President Donald Trump's tax law for 25 million American children ages 10 and under. The "Trump Accounts" give $1,000 to every newborn, so long as their parents open one, and invests those funds in the stock market. The couple believes it is the largest single private commitment made to U.S. children. Michael Dell said even a small sum makes a child more likely to enter college -- "perhaps at the University of Texas or some other great school" -- and eventually start a family or business. He welcomed the creativity he's seeing from other "Trump Accounts" funders. He's seen cities offer additional investments for community service and good grades. He noted that hedge fund managers Brad Gerstner and Ray Dalio have seeded accounts in Indiana and Connecticut, respectively. "I think you'll see many more gifts at the local community level and some other big ones at the national level," he said. But he dismissed the suggestion that, between the "Trump Accounts" and this University of Texas gift, there's been a shift in his and his wife's philanthropy toward more selective, bigger bets. "Certainly, we've been very blessed and we have a lot of resources," he said. "So, we're looking for things that have significant impact." ___ Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP's philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.