Phil Knight Pledges $1 Billion For University Of Oregon Engineering College

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Phil and Penny Knight Pledge $1 Billion to Build a New Engineering College at University of Oregon

The Largest Gift in School History Will Create the Knight College of Engineering

Nike co-founder Phil Knight and his wife, Penny, are handing the University of Oregon — Phil’s alma mater — a $1 billion gift to launch a brand-new engineering school. The announcement, made Wednesday, will establish the Knight College of Engineering on the university’s Eugene campus, filling a notable gap: Oregon has never offered a traditional engineering degree program until now.

A Record-Breaking Donation

The university’s own news release calls this the largest gift in Oregon’s history, and the largest ever given to a comprehensive public university. It builds on a relationship between the Knights and their alma mater that goes back nearly a decade, including a major grant worth hundreds of millions of dollars in 2016. As of this week, Phil Knight and his family’s net worth is estimated at $25.1 billion, according to Forbes — meaning even a billion-dollar gift represents a small fraction of the family’s overall fortune.

University of Oregon President Karl Scholz credited the couple with a pattern of backing ideas before they take shape. “Phil and Penny Knight have a long history of believing in things before they exist,” Scholz said in a statement, pointing to their 2016 commitment as an earlier example of the same instinct, “and they are doing it again now, at a scale that is genuinely hard to take in.”

From Track Athlete to Nike Co-Founder

Knight’s ties to Oregon run deep. He competed as a track athlete at the university under legendary coach Bill Bowerman, before graduating with a business degree in 1959. That relationship between Knight and Bowerman would later become the foundation of Nike, the sportswear company the two co-founded that has since grown into a global giant headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon — just down the road from the campus where it all started.

Building on an Existing Science Foundation

Rather than starting from scratch, the new engineering college will expand on work already underway at the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact, a research hub the couple originally funded with a $500 million gift in 2016, followed by another $500 million to expand it further. That campus is now home to the university’s Department of Bioengineering, along with graduate programs and labs focused on medical devices, biomaterials, neural engineering, synthetic biology, and biomedical artificial intelligence.

The new Knight College of Engineering is designed to broaden that focus well beyond bioengineering alone. According to Forbes, the $1 billion gift is expected to help fund new faculty positions, academic programs, and research initiatives — though the university has not yet released details on specific degree offerings or a launch timeline for the college.

The Knights’ giving has already reshaped the university’s physical footprint, too. A second Knight Campus building opened in March, adding 185,000 square feet of research laboratories, teaching spaces, and a student makerspace to the growing science complex.

“This Is No Time to Abandon” Public Universities

In a statement included in the university’s announcement, Phil Knight framed the gift as a broader vote of confidence in American higher education. “To make an audacious dream a reality requires more than a vivid imagination. It also requires the sort of opportunity that our great American universities, both public and private, have historically provided. This is no time to abandon them,” he said. “Penny and I are grateful for the chance to invest in our most promising young people’s future in this important way.”

Part of a Broader Philanthropic Pattern

The Oregon gift isn’t an isolated move. It comes just a week after the Knights announced a separate $1.1 billion donation to Providence St. Vincent Medical Center and the Providence Heart Institute, funding what will become Oregon’s first hospital dedicated to women’s health, along with expanded cardiac care and patient support services. Taken together, the two gifts put the couple’s philanthropic commitments in the state at more than $2 billion in a single month, underscoring how central Oregon institutions remain to the Knights’ giving strategy even decades after Nike’s founding.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How much are Phil and Penny Knight donating to the University of Oregon?
The Knights are giving $1 billion to establish the Knight College of Engineering, marking the largest single gift in the university’s history.

2. Did the University of Oregon previously offer an engineering degree?
No. Until this announcement, the University of Oregon had never offered a traditional engineering degree program, making the Knight College of Engineering a new addition to the school’s academic offerings.

3. What is Phil Knight’s connection to the University of Oregon?
Knight attended the University of Oregon as a track athlete under coach Bill Bowerman and graduated with a business degree in 1959, before the two later co-founded Nike together.

4. What is the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact?
It’s a research campus the Knights funded with an initial $500 million gift in 2016 and a further $500 million expansion, focused on bioengineering, biomedical data science, medical devices, neural engineering, and biomedical AI research.

5. Will the new engineering college be separate from the Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact?
The new college is expected to build on and broaden the work already happening at the Knight Campus, extending beyond its current bioengineering focus, though full details on its structure haven’t been announced yet.

6. What is Phil Knight’s net worth?
As of the announcement, Forbes estimated Phil Knight and his family’s net worth at $25.1 billion.

7. Has the University of Oregon announced when the Knight College of Engineering will open or what degrees it will offer?
No. As of the announcement, the university has not released a timeline or specific details about degree programs for the new college.

8. What other major donation did the Knights recently make?
A week before the Oregon gift, the Knights announced a separate $1.1 billion donation to Providence St. Vincent Medical Center and the Providence Heart Institute to fund Oregon’s first hospital dedicated to women’s health and to expand cardiac care services.

9. Is this the Knights’ first major gift to the University of Oregon?
No. It follows a prior donation worth hundreds of millions of dollars in 2016, along with the two $500 million gifts that built the Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact.

10. Why is Nike headquartered in Oregon?
Nike, co-founded by Phil Knight and his University of Oregon coach Bill Bowerman, is headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon, reflecting the company’s roots in Knight’s time at the university.

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