The University of Wisconsin–Madison received $100 million in private gift commitments to launch a new College of Computing and Artificial Intelligence, set to open July 1, 2026. The funding comes from the Catalyst Collective, including alumni and business partners such as Databricks co-founder Andy Konwinski and former Cisco CEO John Morgridge. The new college will consolidate and expand existing UW–Madison programs spanning computer sciences, data science, statistics, library science, and information science, and it represents the first major academic division created at the institution in over 40 years. The UW System Board of Regents approved the plan last December. For higher ed leaders, the development signals how institutional investment is being redirected to AI education infrastructure—creating a dedicated organizational home for curriculum, research partnerships, and talent pipelines tied to industry demand.