Tech giant Microsoft has donated $10m to Washington University to put towards expanding the institution’s Computer Science & Engineering department.
The gift is the first corporate donation to plans for a new $110m computing building on campus, which Washington and Microsoft hope will lead to an increase in local computing talent in the Seattle area.
Washington is searching for $40m in public money for the 130,000 square-foot building, which governor Jay Inslee has set aside in his forthcoming budget. The rest of the money will be sourced from private individuals, corporations, and other public sources.
Calling the university’s computing department “one of the crown jewels of our local economy”, Brad Smith, executive vice president at Microsoft, said: “The growth of the University of Washington is important for Microsoft and every single tech company in this state. That’s a big part of the reason why we are investing in this.”
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