Nvidia Founder Pledges $75 Million to Replace CCA With Another Art School
In January, when California College of the Arts announced it would close at the end of the 2026–27 school year, little was known about the fate of the recently expanded campus beyond the fact that Vanderbilt University had purchased it. Now, a $75 million matching donation looks to establish a new art college on the same site.
The Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang College of Art, Architecture and Design, funded by the Nvidia founder’s family foundation, plans to open in fall 2027, pending accreditation and state approval. A job search for the college’s founding dean is currently underway.
“This college, together with additional academic programming under development, will prepare creative leaders to shape culture, industries and communities in San Francisco’s thriving economy, nationally and around the world,” said Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier in today’s announcement.
Curriculum at the new college would take a tech-forward approach to art, promising to focus on engineering, entrepreneurship and design.
Vanderbilt plans to enroll about 1,000 undergraduate and graduate students on the San Francisco campus, which opened a 82,300 square-foot, $123 million expansion in October 2024.
CCA, founded in 1907, will graduate its final class in spring of 2027. Continuing students are not guaranteed admission to Vanderbilt; CCA has reached teach-out agreements with seven other institutions across the country to help students complete their degrees.
Current CCA faculty and staff also are not guaranteed positions at Vanderbilt.
The Huangs’ donation has so far led to more than $25 million in additional donations, including gifts from Vanderbilt alums. This is not the first time the Huangs have made donations to the site: in February 2025 their foundation contributed $22.5 million in matching gifts to CCA. Later that year, the school announced a partnership with Nvidia, as well as a $20 million one-time grant from the state.
All that was not enough to save CCA from financial collapse.
In today’s announcement, Vanderbilt reaffirmed its commitment to building on CCA’s legacy by “preserving and advancing CCA’s traditions of experimentation, collaboration and remaining deeply connected to the cultural life of San Francisco and the broader Bay Area.”