NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Billionaires Michael and Susan Dell are fueling the University of Texas at Austin\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s first \u201cAI-native\u201d hospital. <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s investments in Central Texas. The computer magnate founded the company in 1984 as a UT-Austin pre-med student selling customized personal computers from his freshman dorm room. Health infrastructure needs became clear, he said, as the area\u2019s population about doubled in size.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was born in Texas. My wife was born in Texas. This is our home,\u201d Dell told the Associated Press, adding that \u201cbuilding a stronger health system here, more innovation and helping to support the growth and stability of the region\u201d is important.<\/p>\n
The donation is among the largest ever in higher education philanthropy, following recent contributions such as Phil Knight\u2019s $2 billion pledge<\/a> to Oregon Health & Science University\u2019s cancer center and Michael Bloomberg\u2019s $1.8 billion gift<\/a> to cover Johns Hopkins University medical students\u2019 tuition.<\/p>\n A \u2018rare\u2019 opportunity to integrate technology into a new medical center<\/p>\n From monitoring vital signs to triggering step-by-step care<\/a> plans, AI is making inroads into health care<\/a> at hundreds of hospitals.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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 \u201cfeel simpler and more human.\u201d \u201cAmbient\u201d AI will make the hospital itself an \u201cintelligent member of the care team,\u201d she said, taking notes so that clinicians can treat patients more directly. She touted AI\u2019s ability to identify biometric patterns and early signs of cancer before they\u2019re obvious to the naked eye.<\/p>\n The goal, she said, is to move from a reactive and fragmented health system to one that is predictive and more seamless.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have the technology, the science and the understanding to do better. And what we\u2019ve been missing is the ability to design a system around those capabilities from the start,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s the opportunity that Susan and Michael Dell have catalyzed.\u201d <\/p>\n The gift will also support undergraduate scholarships, student housing and UT\u2019s Texas Advanced Computing Center, where officials are building the nation\u2019s largest academic supercomputer with Dell\u2019s AI infrastructure.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWe 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,\u201d he told AP. \u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re all working on.\u201d<\/p>\n Landscape for higher education giving<\/p>\n The major contribution comes at a time when private support for higher education is falling to a dwindling pool of supporters.<\/p>\n Colleges raised a record $78 billion last year, according to the 2025 Voluntary Support of Education<\/a>, but nearly 90% of that money came from just 2% of donors.<\/p>\n Rutgers University Associate Dean for Research Marybeth Gasman said she\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \u201cHigher education, quite frankly, could really use it right now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n UT-Austin officials are certainly hoping so. The Dells\u2019 gift kicks off a broader 10-year campaign to raise $10 billion for the university.<\/p>\n The donation comes on the heels of the Dells\u2019 $6.25 billion pledge<\/a> to provide an incentive to claim new investment accounts under President Donald Trump\u2019s tax law for 25 million American children ages 10 and under. The \u201cTrump Accounts\u201d give $1,000 to every newborn<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n Michael Dell said even a small sum makes a child more likely to enter college \u2014 \u201cperhaps at the University of Texas or some other great school\u201d \u2014 and eventually start a family or business. He welcomed the creativity he\u2019s seeing from other \u201cTrump Accounts\u201d funders. He\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n \u201cI think you\u2019ll see many more gifts at the local community level and some other big ones at the national level,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n But he dismissed the suggestion that, between the \u201cTrump Accounts\u201d and this University of Texas gift, there\u2019s been a shift in his and his wife\u2019s philanthropy toward more selective, bigger bets.<\/p>\n \u201cCertainly, we\u2019ve been very blessed and we have a lot of resources,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, we\u2019re looking for things that have significant impact.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP\u2019s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP\u2019s philanthropy coverage, visit https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/philanthropy<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Billionaires Michael and Susan Dell are fueling the University of Texas at Austin\u2019s medical…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3436,132,134,133,97390,910,863,3362,145,163,97553,3006,19479,14960,36524,97392,9244,97391,97393,3621,27,1760,2188],"class_list":{"0":"post-260558","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-artificial-intelligence","9":"tag-austin","10":"tag-austin-headlines","11":"tag-austin-news","12":"tag-brad-gerstner","13":"tag-business","14":"tag-colleges-and-universities","15":"tag-dell-technologies","16":"tag-donald-trump","17":"tag-education","18":"tag-health-care-industry","19":"tag-inc","20":"tag-information-technology","21":"tag-medical-technology","22":"tag-michael-dell","23":"tag-phil-knight","24":"tag-philanthropy","25":"tag-ray-dalio","26":"tag-susan-dell","27":"tag-technology","28":"tag-texas","29":"tag-tx-state-wire","30":"tag-utah"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}