On May 27, coinciding with the 120th anniversary celebrations of Fudan University, Tianqiao Chen, a Fudan University Board Member and 1990 alumnus of the School of Economics, as well as founder of Shanda Group and Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute, and his wife Chrissy Luo, donated RMB 50 million (approximately US $7 million) to the university’s new Engineering Development Fund. According to official statements from Fudan University, this was the largest single donation received for the New Engineering Development Fund.

Chen and his wife, both prominent philanthropists, founded Shanda Group in 1999, pioneering China’s online gaming and online literature industries. In 2016, they established the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute, now one of the world’s largest private brain science research institutions, which has made significant contributions to global brain research. The couple is widely recognized as trailblazers in China for supporting cutting-edge fundamental research through private philanthropy.

In 2017, the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute partnered with Huashan Hospital Affiliated Fudan University and the Shanghai Zhou Liangfu Medical Development Foundation to jointly establish the Shanghai Chen Tianqiao Institute for Brain Health and the Frontier Lab for Applied Neurotechnology. In recent years, Chen and Luo have also devoted considerable resources to advancing artificial intelligence research.

The latest donation will be used to establish the Tianqiao Research Institute in collaboration with Fudan’s College of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence—one of the university’s six new engineering colleges. The institute will focus on pioneering research and talent development at the intersection of artificial intelligence and human intelligence, with a particular emphasis on long-term memory.

Tianqiao Chen commented, “I am delighted to contribute once again to my alma mater on its 120th anniversary. Fudan encourages us to be outstanding and interesting individuals, which perfectly embodies the spirit of keeping pace with the times in the era of artificial intelligence. We will always maintain our curiosity, making ‘interesting’ an inexhaustible source of innovation and ‘excellence’ a goal we forever pursue.”