Nvidia Billionaire Mark Stevens Gives $200 Million to Alma Mater USC for AI Research

The donation will help make USC a "national leader in AI-powered research and creativity," the school said in a statement, adding the university's school of advanced computing will also be renamed after the couple. USC has plans to introduce a new degree in Artificial Intelligence for Business this fall.

For Stevens, the world of AI more than any other tech era feels like "you're either quick or you're dead," he told Bloomberg News.

"It became clear that USC didn't have the compute capacity that other schools or companies had, and I just felt like we've got to get back in the game and be aggressive," he said.

Schools are facing increased competition for talent, particularly from the private sector, at a time when government funding for academic research is also dwindling, Stevens added.

"The gift is not for brick-and-mortar buildings. It is aimed at recruiting top-flight faculty - not just senior faculty, young up-and-comers from all over the world - who will do core AI research and research that is at the nexus of other disciplines," he said, citing examples like applying AI to the film, business or medical fields.

ALSO READ: Google Expands Partnership With Nvidia To Announce Advanced Cloud Supercomputers For AI Companies

While universities are grappling with how to incorporate artificial intelligence into their teaching and what it means for the future of learning, USC President Beong-Soo Kim said Stevens' gift is a validation of both USC and higher education in general. It won't support a new initiative, but is "a deepening of a commitment to using AI to advance societal good," Kim said in an interview with Bloomberg TV at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills.

"He has an unsurpassed track record of seeing companies and their potential, and organizations and their potential, before others," Kim said of Stevens. "And the fact that he would want to make this investment in USC is such an incredibly important sign of confidence in our future and in the future of higher education."

Since 2004, Stevens has gifted more than $290 million to his alma mater including Tuesday's donation, funding everything from athletics to brain science. A native of Culver City, California, Stevens graduated from USC in 1981.

Stevens, who's worth $12.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, was one of the earliest Nvidia backers three decades ago and made his fortune mostly from a stake in the Santa Clara-based chipmaker. He first invested in the company in 1993 while at Sequoia Capital and served on the board until 2006, then rejoined the board in 2008 and has been a director since.

ALSO READ: 'Are We Underpriced?' Harsh Goenka Asks As Nvidia Mcap Eclipses All Listed Indian Stocks

He's also an active investor though his family office S-Cubed Capital and owns a stake in the Golden State Warriors.

Nvidia's growth to become the world's most valuable company has made several of its earliest investors and board members billionaires, including Stevens and Tench Coxe. Earlier this year, Coxe and his wife gave $100 million to help launch a medical center at UT Austin.