Jerry Yang, co-founder of Internet media company Yahoo, is donating $75 million to Stanford University, which will spend most of the money on a new environmental studies centre, the university said yesterday.
Yang, who started Yahoo in 1994 with fellow student David Filo while working on his doctorate, planned to make the donations over a period of several years, said Howard Pearson, director of Stanford's development office.
It will be the largest of several donations Yang has made to his alma mater, although Pearson declined to say how much he has previously given.
Yang would make the donations with his wife, Akiko Yamazaki, also a Stanford graduate.
Of the total, $50 million will pay for a new environment and energy building and $5 million will go towards a doctor training facility for Stanford's medical school. The remaining $20 million will be used for future projects, Stanford said.
Yang's net worth was estimated at $2.4 billion in 2006, according to a report in Forbes magazine in September.
Stanford received $911 million in alumni donations in its fiscal year ended 31 August, up more than 50% from the $603 million the previous year.
Although Yang obtained both bachelor's and master's degrees from Stanford, he never completed his doctorate in electrical engineering, and his biography on Yahoo says he "is on a leave of absence" from the programme.
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