Stephen A. Schwarzman

Timeline

1. 1965–1972

   Yale and Harvard Business School

   He graduates from Abington Senior High School in suburban Philadelphia in 1965 and from Yale University in 1969. After a short stint in the U.S. Army Reserve, he completes Harvard Business School in 1972.

2. 1972–1985

   Mergers at Lehman Brothers

   He joins Lehman Brothers as a banker in 1972 and becomes a managing director in 1978, at age 31. He goes on to chair the firm's mergers and acquisitions committee and to head its global mergers and acquisitions work.

3. 1985

   Co-founding Blackstone

   In 1985, he and his boss Peter Peterson launch The Blackstone Group with $400,000, at first focusing on mergers and acquisitions.

4. 2013

   Schwarzman Scholars at Tsinghua

   In 2013, he announces a $100 million personal gift to found Schwarzman Scholars, a scholarship program at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Modeled on the Rhodes Scholarship, it aims to educate future global leaders about China.

5. October 2018

   The MIT Schwarzman College of Computing

   In October 2018, his $350 million gift founds the MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing, the center of a $1 billion MIT commitment to computing and AI. The college is planned as an interdisciplinary hub for computer science, AI and data science, with forums on policy and the ethics of AI.

6. 2019–2025

   Oxford's Institute for Ethics in AI

   In June 2019, he gives £150 million to the University of Oxford, the largest single donation to a UK university, for the Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities and its new Institute for Ethics in AI. The centre opens at the start of the 2025–26 academic year, and the institute, part of the Philosophy Faculty, has its headquarters there.

7. 2019–2020

   A book and the Giving Pledge

   In 2019, he publishes his first book, What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence. He announces in February 2020 that he has signed The Giving Pledge, writing that he has funded two large-scale programs related to AI. In May 2020, he discusses business, investing and AI on episode 96 of the Lex Fridman Podcast.

8. As of October 2026

   Chairman and CEO of Blackstone

   He is chairman and CEO of Blackstone. In February 2026, plans come to light to expand the Stephen A. Schwarzman Foundation into one of the ten largest private foundations in the United States, focused on AI and education, and to leave it a substantial majority of his fortune.