Abstract
<jats:p>In 2010, the University of Florida had eighty fragmented data centers—most of them closets—and computing infrastructure that could not support its ambition to become a billion-dollar research university. When Elias Eldayrie became Chief Information Officer, he faced a consolidation challenge that was as much cultural and organizational as technical. Over the next decade, UF built a centralized data center sized for future demand, grew its research computing team from eight to thirty-six staff, shifted faculty startup packages toward shared infrastructure, and developed compliance capabilities for federally sponsored work. When a $60 million gift from NVIDIA co-founder Chris Malachowsky arrived in 2020 to fund HiPerGator AI, the institution was ready to absorb it. By 2025, UF had self-funded a full platform refresh at $127 million and achieved sustained utilization above 95 percent across all sixteen colleges. This case examines how a CIO translated a high-profile infrastructure gift into sustained institutional capability, with open questions remaining about agentic AI, talent retention, and whether the model can be replicated elsewhere.</jats:p>