Susan Dell is the one running the Dells’ $10 billion giving operation—and her biggest bets are on kids, health care, and UT Austin

Michael Dell is worth about $232 billion, but the shape of the family’s giving has been Susan Dell’s call. The couple has given away about $10 billion, and Susan, as co-founder and chair of the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, is the one driving much of where it goes.

The foundation, started in 1999, now runs more than 800 projects a year across the U.S., Africa, India, Israel, and Texas. Its core work sits in three buckets: education, jobs and livelihood, and health. That last one is personal for Susan. Her father was a surgical oncologist, and the foundation says he sparked her lifelong focus on health. As a child, she was so outspoken about smoking that she would stop strangers in grocery stores to warn them off it.

Recently, her attention has been on the foundation’s livelihood work, especially the Dells’ commitment to Trump Accounts. In December 2025, the couple pledged $6.25 billion to give $250 to 25 million U.S. children. The money is meant for children 10 and under who are not eligible for the federal government’s separate $1,000 contribution for children born between 2025 and 2028. It will go to kids in ZIP codes with median incomes of $150,000 or less.

Texas remains the family’s anchor. In April, the Dells became the first donors to pass $1 billion in lifetime giving to the University of Texas at Austin. Their latest commitments there support a new advanced research campus, an AI-focused medical center, scholarships, student housing, and more supercomputing power. That builds on a long trail of health spending in Central Texas, including the $50 million that helped launch Dell Medical School in 2013 and another $10 million for local health care initiatives.

Susan’s own résumé is broader than philanthropy alone. She founded three fashion labels, including the luxury brand Phi, which closed during the recession. She has also raced marathons, triathlons, and the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii. Even with all that behind them, she has said the foundation is still early in its work. That sounds about right: the Dells are not dabbling. They are building a system.