Oxford to receive biggest single donation 'since the Renaissance'

The University of Oxford has said it is to receive its biggest single direct donation "since the Renaissance", after it unveiled a £150m gift from the US billionaire Stephen Schwarzman to fund humanities research and tackle looming social issues linked to artificial intelligence. The money will be used to create the Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, bringing together disciplines including English, philosophy, music and history in a single hub with performing spaces and a library, alongside a new Institute for Ethics in AI to collaborate. Unlike previous mega-donors, Schwarzman, the founder and chief executive of the Blackstone financial group, is not a former student. He says he was attracted to make the donation after being approached by Louise Richardson, Oxford's vice-chancellor, and by his memories of visiting as a teenager in 1963. "I visited Oxford as a 15-year-old on what we used to call'teen tours' in the US, where you travelled around Europe and hopefully became more civilised. I vividly remember going to Oxford because I'd never seen anything like it," Schwarzman said.