Jensen Huang, Nvidia Corp.’s leather-jacket-clad top executive, is an unlikely savior for a struggling arts school in San Francisco.
Huang — whose holdings in the company he co-founded make him one of the richest people in the world — along with his wife, Lori, donated $22.5 million through their foundation to the California College of the Arts. They were matching donations as part of a broader campaign that raised $45 million to keep the 1,300-student school afloat.
Often a college making desperate pleas for donations can mark the beginning of the end for that institution, but luring in the billionaire as a benefactor was clearly a boon for the college, which in September said it was facing a $20 million deficit.
“There’s been a huge weight that’s lifted off the campus,” David Howse, the college’s president, said in an interview.
Just last fall, the California College of the Arts laid off 10% of its staff. The school is one of a number of small, private and arts-focused institutions that have teetered given a tough financial outlook and growing competition for new students. The San Francisco Art Institute closed in 2022, and the University of the Arts in Philadelphia ceased instruction last year.
The Jen-Hsun & Lori Huang Foundation typically gives most of its money away to a donor-advised fund at Charles Schwab Corp., but it has also donated money to Oregon State University and Stanford University, where the billionaire went to undergraduate and graduate school. The foundation “recognizes the essential intersection of technology, art and design in driving innovation,” COO Eric Jensen said in a statement.
The foundation, where assets mostly consist of Nvidia shares, likely needs to distribute some of its largess after two years of triple-digit gains for the stock. The foundation gave away at least $120 million last year — double what it did in 2023.
According to the college’s Howse, the foundation was looking to get more involved in the Bay Area.
“We began to talk about who we are as an institution, what we stand for, what we’ve accomplished,” Howse said. Those talks resulted in “a transformational gift.”
The college, which has been operating in the San Francisco Bay Area for nearly 120 years, will use the money from the Huangs to help close its deficit.
“There’s more work to be done,” Howse said. “What this actually does is really stabilizes us and allows us to move forward with more confidence.”
The college is already revamping its academic offerings, including offering a game design program for students. Nvidia offers tools for game development using AI. CCA alumni work at tech and entertainment companies in the area.
“This does open the door for more collaboration between the tech community and the arts and culture community here in the Bay Area,” Howse said.