The latest buzz in academia has left onlookers green with envy.
A 33-year-old billionaire splurges $500 million on research funding for his Stanford wife!
The last time we saw a domineering CEO spending hundreds of millions on his wife, it was either in a Jinjiang romance novel or a mobile game.
But in those novels, the CEO merely gifts luxury cars, mansions, yachts, wineries, or private jets. This real-life hero gives hundreds of millions for his wife's scientific research—a whole different level of romance.
So, who is this outrageously generous and devoted husband?
The Fairy-Tale Love of a Business Titan and an Elite Scholar
With netizens digging deeper, the mysterious identity of the CEO was uncovered: Patrick Collison, one of the world's youngest billionaires and co-founder and CEO of the renowned financial services company Stripe.
The company is valued at up to $95 billion and has thousands of employees in Dublin, New York, San Francisco, and Singapore.
The heroine, Silvana Konermann, is no trophy wife; she is an academic superstar who even outshines the hero—a Ph.D. in neuroscience from MIT.
She is currently an assistant professor of biochemistry at Stanford, aiming to develop innovative therapies for neurodegenerative diseases (such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's) through next-generation functional genomics.
Both are out to change the world—one through business, the other through science.
He, a tech magnate and super-rich. She, an elite professor and scientist.
Their fate was sealed at age 17 when they both competed in a science competition. He lost to her, and from then on began a story of him pursuing, her eluding, and them ultimately becoming a perfect couple.
This storyline is straight out of a Jinjiang novel. Patrick, a small-town Irish youth with a prodigious talent for programming, fought his way to the EU Contest for Young Scientists, where he fatefully met Silvana, a 17-year-old genius scientist with a groundbreaking invention. She took first place, he second—and a seed of love was sown.
That year, there were many bright talents, but Silvana eclipsed them all. They were merely brilliant, while she had a mission for the world.
That's the flavor of a Jinjiang "female lead" power fantasy right there.
Having glimpsed the ceiling of intelligence through her, the hero decisively abandoned research to pursue entrepreneurship. With his programming talent and business acumen, he and his brother built a company from scratch, becoming a millionaire at 19, dropping out of MIT at 21, founding Stripe at 22, and becoming one of the world's youngest billionaires at 28—building a business empire now valued at nearly $100 billion.
The heroine took an entirely different path. At 17, she won the EU Contest for Young Scientists with a medical invention. After entering MIT, she studied under top mentors and achieved great success in applying gene-editing technology CRISPR.
From earning a Ph.D. in neuroscience at MIT to becoming an assistant professor of biochemistry at Stanford, and now founding the Arc Institute to pursue innovative treatments for complex diseases—in the future, patients with neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, immune dysfunction, and more may see new hope.
They met as rivals in their youth, later reached the pinnacle in their respective fields, and got married quietly after achieving fame. The romance between a business titan and an elite scientist is simply irresistible.
And there's more to this love story.
The hero not only donated $500 million himself but also brought his brother and close friends to contribute, raising a total of $650 million to build the Arc Institute, so his wife could focus on her research worry-free.
She immediately became executive director and head of research, boldly recruiting 150 scientists. No more worrying about funding—she has achieved academic freedom.
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This must be the fairy-tale love of super achievers: Love her, and together change the world.
Love in the Academic World, All the Way
Speaking of love between business tycoons and beautiful professors, Neri Oxman and her husband William Ackman certainly deserve a mention.
Neri is a professor at MIT and a goddess in the design world—exceptionally talented and stunningly beautiful, like an academic Audrey Hepburn. Born into an Israeli architectural family, she graduated from the prestigious Architectural Association School of Architecture.
Neri holds a Ph.D. in architecture design from MIT and has received the National Design Award. She excels at integrating technology and design with avant-garde concepts.
Neri Oxman was featured in the second season of Netflix's creative documentary "Abstract: The Art of Design."
She also served in the Israeli Air Force, attaining the rank of lieutenant. Beautiful and kickass—isn't she a real-life Wonder Woman?
Neri also has a billionaire investor husband—William Ackman, who once splashed out $500 million to build an art and media design lab for her in Manhattan.
William holds an MBA from Harvard and is an academic achiever himself. He founded Pershing Square Capital Management and serves as its CEO, with a net worth of $2.8 billion, ranking among Forbes' global billionaires.
He buys the building, she designs it—the love between a financial magnate and a beautiful professor is another day of Jinjiang fiction coming to life.
Who doesn't love a power-couple romance like this?
In these academic CEO romances, there are no mansions, yachts, or extravagant luxuries. They spare no expense only to empower each other.
Scientific research can benefit generations but often requires enormous funding.
A gift that allows your loved one to fully devote themselves to research and sustain their lifelong passion is not only the ultimate present but also an enduring testament to your love.
What's the use of being a billionaire if you don't change the world? With great wealth comes great responsibility. To change the world hand in hand with your beloved—that's true fairy-tale partnership.
