Renaissance Technologies founder Jim Simons and his wife Marilyn are giving $500 million to Stony Brook University, the public college on Long Island where he taught before leaving to start his wildly profitable hedge fund.
The gift, made by their Simons Foundation, will be the largest unrestricted donation to an institution of higher education in US history, according to a statement Thursday. The funds will go toward Stony Brook’s endowment.
That pool is now expected to grow to $1 billion in contributions, thanks to a New York State matching program and “other philanthropy inspired by this gift,” the foundation said in the statement.
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