To be fair, the media lab has an alternative funding model that draws primarily from private sources and not the government. The whole premise is that "there is all this private billionaire/corporate/sovereign money sitting around, let's use it for research". This is in contrast to grants, etc.

Note that MIT's central fundraising office seems to have not been in the know - I don't think this reflects badly on the rest of the institute (yet)

I am also wondering the same. Are their other similar labs either in USA or Canada? I liked MIT Media Lab as they didn't have any sort of prerequisite like Bachelors Degree,IELTS etc. If you have proven yourself in their area of interest then you can apply.

I’d have to agree to put it lightly it certainly influences my view on MIT. I won’t go as far as assuming people knew but I’d have to imagine anonymous donations with this many 0s where asked about outside of the media lab.