• Posted August 18, 2025

Nike Co-Founder And Wife Donate $2B to Cancer Research at OHSU, Largest U.S. University Gift

Nike co-founder Phil Knight and his wife, Penny, will donate $2 billion to Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) to expand cancer research and patient care.

The school called it the largest single donation ever made to a U.S. university.

The gift will help OHSU expand its cancer detection programs, grow access to clinical trials and simplify care for patients and families, the university said. The OHSU Knight Cancer Institute is located on the school’s Portland campus.

“We couldn’t be more excited about the transformational potential of this work for humanity,” the couple said in an OHSU news release.

This is not the first time the Knights have supported OHSU. In 2008, according to The New York Times, they donated $100 million, and in 2013 they pledged $500 million on the condition the university matched the amount within two years — a challenge OHSU successfully met.

Dr. Brian Druker, chairman of leukemia research at OHSU, said earlier donations helped launch a large-scale early cancer detection program, The Times reported.

“Penny and Phil Knight have always challenged us to do what no one else is doing,” Druker said. “It can seem impossible to navigate the health care system after being diagnosed with cancer. We’re going to change that. We have revolutionized the way we detect and treat cancer.”

Past donations have already spurred the development of blood tests to detect cancer earlier and supported breakthroughs in targeted therapies and precision medicine, Druker said.

Phil Knight, 87, built Nike into a global sportswear giant before stepping down as CEO in 2004 and retiring as chairman in 2016.

Worth an estimated $35.4 billion, according to Forbes, he is also a well-known philanthropist whose gifts have transformed athletic facilities and academic buildings at his undergraduate alma mater, the University of Oregon. Their gifts also created the university's Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact.

In 2016, Knight pledged $400 million to Stanford University, where he earned his MBA, to recruit graduate students focused on solving major global issues such as poverty and climate change, The Times reported.

Large-scale gifts like this have shaped other U.S. schools, too.

In 2018, Michael Bloomberg donated $1.8 billion to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore to support students from lower-income families. And in 2024, the widow of a Wall Street financier donated $1 billion to Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, making tuition free for all students, The Times reported.

More information

Learn more about the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute.

SOURCE: The New York Times, Aug. 14, 2025