Mark Zuckerberg is going all-in on AI and STEM with his philanthropic efforts. Late last year, he and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, announced they would shift the majority of the Chan Zuckerberg Institute to biomedical AI research. And late last month, the Meta founder and CEO pledged $50 million to Sacramento State University to fuel state-of-the-art STEM labs and an AI center.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled the gift on Jan. 28, tying it to a major redevelopment of three vacant state office buildings on Sacramento’s Capitol Mall into a downtown campus. The gift from Zuckerberg and Meta will fund abatement, demolition, and initial construction of the campus, enabling new student housing alongside new academic spaces, including STEM facilities and an AI center.
Meta’s donation also comes at the heels of an interesting corporate and financial dynamic in California: Billionaires may soon be subject to a one-time 5% tax on their wealth. Many billionaires, including Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison, PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel, and Craft Ventures’ David Sacks, have already moved their permanent residences out of state to avoid the tax…