Michael Dell has pledged US$750 million (A$1.1 billion) to the University of Texas at Austin, backing an ambitious push into AI-driven healthcare and advanced research.

The donation, made alongside his wife Susan, will fund a new ‘Dell Campus for Advanced Research’ and an AI-native medical centre.

The project includes a next-generation hospital, research facilities, student housing, scholarships and expanded supercomputing capacity. The medical centre, expected to open around 2030, will integrate artificial intelligence into every stage of care – from early detection to personalised treatment.

Dell, who famously founded Dell Technologies from a UT Austin dorm room, said the goal is to build a campus “designed for the AI era” that brings together medicine, science and computing to improve health outcomes.

The facility will also work closely with the MD Anderson Cancer Center, one of the world’s leading oncology institutions, to accelerate breakthroughs in cancer detection and treatment.

The latest funding takes the Dells’ lifetime contributions to the university beyond US$1 billion, making them its first billion-dollar donors. Their backing comes as global competition intensifies to lead in AI-enabled healthcare – an area increasingly seen as the next frontier for both tech and medical innovation.

While large-scale university donations are becoming more common in the US, commitments of this size remain rare.