Venture capitalist Mark Stevens and his wife, Mary, are dropping $200 million on USC, a blockbuster gift that will bankroll a sweeping artificial intelligence push across the university and stamp their names on its computing school. USC said Tuesday that the donation will launch a university-wide AI initiative and rename the School of Advanced Computing as the USC Mark and Mary Stevens School of Computing and Artificial Intelligence. The endowment will fund new faculty hires, cross-campus research in health care, security, business and the arts, and expanded degree programs.
According to PR Newswire, USC says the $200 million will help recruit researchers from across campus and scale AI-related projects in the Keck School of Medicine, the Viterbi School of Engineering and the School of Cinematic Arts. The Stevens School, established in 2024, will serve as the university’s interdisciplinary hub for computing and applied AI research. University officials are framing the gift as a way to accelerate new therapeutics, security applications and creative work that leans on AI tools.
What leaders said
USC President Beong-Soo Kim called the timing of the donation “an inflection point” and said the gift will let the university lean into its interdisciplinary strengths, according to MyNewsLA.com. Kim cast the money as fuel for collaborations that cut across medicine, engineering, business and the arts.
Mark Stevens, an alumnus, USC trustee and Nvidia board member, described the gift as “a key moment” and voiced confidence that USC can move quickly to claim a leadership role in AI, MyNewsLA.com reported. Both Stevens and Kim highlighted research aimed at improving health outcomes, strengthening security and supporting creative work that uses AI.
Programs and capacity
USC already offers more than 30 AI- and computing-related majors, minors and graduate programs and plans to roll out a Bachelor of Science in Artificial Intelligence this fall, according to PR Newswire. The university says it ranks among the top five recipients of federal research dollars in computer science-related fields and calls itself the nation’s top producer of computer and information sciences graduates.
The Stevens gift will also scale existing efforts, including the USC Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute and the Institute on Ethics and Trust in Computing, according to PR Newswire. University leaders say the goal is to connect these kinds of efforts under a broader AI umbrella rather than build from scratch.
Local and national context
The donation lands amid a national flood of seven- and eight-figure bets on AI research at U.S. campuses this spring, a trend tracked by Forbes. In Southern California, the timing is especially pointed. The gift follows a rough budget year at USC, where the university disclosed a deficit topping $200 million and signaled layoffs and cuts last summer, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Donors and administrators say large gifts like this can accelerate research and hiring. Observers counter that universities still have to be transparent about priorities and governance, especially when they are cutting in some areas while supercharging others.
USC said the Stevens gift will be deployed over time as new hires and programs are finalized, with more details on faculty recruitment and funding priorities expected in the coming months, according to MyNewsLA.com. For now, leaders say the ambition is clear: turn USC into a place where AI research moves from lab work to real-world applications that benefit Los Angeles and, if all goes according to plan, far beyond.
