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March 24, 2025

Bowdoin College gets record $50M from Netflix co-founder and alum

aerial of Bowdoin college campus File photo / Courtesy of Bowdoin College Bowdoin College in Brunswick has received a $50 million donation to fund AI studies.
By Tina Fischer

Brunswick-based Bowdoin College has received a $50 million gift, the largest in its 231-year history, from Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings to fund an initiative to study artificial intelligence.

The Hastings Initiative for AI and Humanity is designed to “advance Bowdoin's mission of cultivating wisdom for the common good by deepening the college's engagement with one of humanity's most transformative developments: artificial intelligence," Hastings commented in a press release.

Bowdoin College alumnus Reed Hastings
Photo / Courtesy of Bowdoin College
Reed Hastings

"As AI becomes smarter than humans, we are going to need some deep thinking to keep us flourishing,” Hastings added. “I know Bowdoin can make a significant contribution to these fundamental issues, and that [Bowdoin President Safa] Zaki, a cognitive scientist, can lead the way."

The donation will initially fund the hiring of 10 new faculty members across a number of departments, support current faculty to incorporate AI into their teaching and studies, and to create opportunities for student research.

Zaki said, "We are thrilled and so grateful to receive this remarkable support from Reed, who shares conviction that the AI revolution makes the liberal arts and a Bowdoin education more essential to society. 

"Bowdoin is ideally positioned to meet the challenges and opportunities of AI," Zaki said. "Our deep commitment to the liberal arts and the common good position us to think together about what we are going to value in human cognition, and what we will want our AI systems to do or not do going forward in service to humanity.”

Hastings is a 1983 graduate of Bowdoin and is an active educational philanthropist. 

Bowdoin College is a 2,000-student liberal arts college, offering bachelor of arts degrees in more than 40 disciplines.

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