USC announced a $200 million gift to expand AI research across the university, underwriting new hires for AI researchers and accelerating work spanning health sciences, security, business, and the arts. The donation comes from Mark Stevens, a venture capitalist and NVIDIA board member, and his wife Mary, and it will rename USC’s computing school as the USC Mark and Mary Stevens School of Computing and Artificial Intelligence. USC said the initial gift supports recruitment of “world-class AI researchers” and positions the school to launch an AI bachelor’s program in the fall. The announcement also frames USC’s AI push as an interdisciplinary effort tied to both innovation and education. The donation adds to the pattern of large AI-focused university capacity-building through trustee-aligned philanthropy—raising the stakes for institutional hiring, research compliance, and computing infrastructure planning.