Indian-origin couple gives $20 million to US university for new AI college
Anuradha and Vikas Sinha's gift to the University of North Texas will fund a new college of artificial intelligence and advanced analytics
An Indian-origin engineer couple in the United States has donated a large part of their earnings to education. Anuradha and Vikas Sinha have given the University of North Texas (UNT) a donation of 2 crore dollars, about Rs 190 crore (20 million dollars). This is being described as the largest contribution to education and research so far by any Indian expatriate.
The donation will fund a new college at the university dedicated to artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced analytics. Vikas Sinha himself completed his PhD at UNT in 2023. In recognition of the gift, the university administration has decided to name the new institution the Anuradha and Vikas Sinha College of Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Analytics.
Both of them went to school in India. They completed a BTech in civil engineering from Sri Venkateswara University in Andhra Pradesh, then went to the United States for further studies and completed postgraduate degrees at Florida Atlantic University. Vikas Sinha went on to study at Northwestern University and then earned a PhD from UNT in 2023. He currently serves as vice president in the mainframe software division of the tech company Broadcom.
Speaking about the donation, Vikas Sinha said education had opened the path to success in his life, and he now wants other students to get such opportunities. He said the gift was not just a donation, but proof that immigrants who come to the United States do not just live the "American dream" but also play a key role in shaping and advancing that dream.
The new AI college will operate mainly under two divisions. The Division of Applied Intelligence and Informatics will focus on applying smart and intelligent systems in the real world. The Division of Information and Learning Applications will study how people, society and institutions use AI technology. The aim is to make students not just users of AI but people capable of building, understanding, questioning and responsibly controlling it.
The Sinhas' contribution of Rs 190 crore will create six permanent endowment funds, to be used for scholarships for promising students, professorships, advanced research and technology incubation. An Applied Artificial Intelligence and Data Science Institute will also be set up on campus, linking the university's research directly to the global tech industry.
This is not the Sinhas' first gift to UNT. In 2024, they gave a large donation to start the Anuradha and Vikas Sinha Department of Data Science. In 2025, they established the Sinha Innovation Lab for Data Science. The 20 million dollar donation given in 2026 is now the largest contribution to education and research so far by any Indian expatriate.
