From Robotron to $2.3 Billion: How William Wang Is Paying It Forward at USC Viterbi

William Wang, the founder and CEO of Vizio, is returning to his roots at the University of Southern California with a significant investment in the next generation of engineers. During his own time as an undergraduate student, Wang struggled academically and spent hours in the campus arcade, barely scraping by before his eventual career success. Today, he and his wife Sakura have committed $10 million to the USC Viterbi School of Engineering to support the school’s technology innovation and entrepreneurship hub, which will now bear his name.

This donation represents one of the largest gifts of its kind to an engineering entrepreneurship program in the United States. The goal is to provide students with the infrastructure, mentorship, and support that Wang lacked when he started his professional path. Wang built Vizio into a multi-billion dollar enterprise, eventually selling the company to Walmart for $2.3 billion in 2024. He believes that engineering students must be comfortable with risk and that academic performance alone does not define a student’s potential as a future business leader.

Since its inception, the hub has supported over 70 ventures annually, helping those projects secure billions in venture capital. Recent success stories from the program include major players in the AI and robotics sectors. With this new financial backing, the program aims to train over 2,000 founders and launch 100 new startups over the next five years. This support system relies on curated mentorship and modern tools that allow student teams to build products more quickly and at a lower cost.

Wang’s professional journey began in tech support where he learned how to manage difficult customer interactions and translate technical products into value for everyday users. After losing $45 million in early business ventures, he learned the necessity of delegating and recognizing the limits of his own knowledge. This mindset guided the development of Vizio and his commitment to affordability in consumer electronics. As he steps down from his long-held role at Vizio, his focus shifts toward new ways to bridge engineering problem-solving with large-scale business impact.