Using data released by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) on Sept. 30, The Daily reviewed more than 6,300 reported payments from foreign sources to Stanford stretching back to 1987. Among the reported awards, 445 of them, totaling $113.57 million, were marked as originating from 24 unique foreign governments. The U.S. Department of Education (ED) released a portal with a broad overview of contributions from foreign donors to U.S. colleges and universities in February.
The records show more than $113 million in government-linked funding to Stanford, including research contracts with Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company and Singaporean defense institutions, among others.
To date, Stanford has received over $2.7 billion from foreign donors, $500 million of which was reported in the last six months. The Daily previously reported that the University received more than $2.2 billion in foreign gifts and contracts since 1986, with awards linked to China accounting for the largest share at $467 million.
The Daily analyzed the ED’s publicly available Section 117 data by treating each reported transaction as a separate entry and analyzing those labeled as either a foreign government or connected to a foreign government. The records vary in the level of detail they provide: some identify a specific government, entity, purpose and contract period, while others leave one or more of those fields blank.
The data solely reflects what Stanford reported to the federal government and thus may not represent a complete accounting of all foreign funding received by the University. The Daily is continuing to review the records and investigate apparent gaps or inconsistencies in the data.
The largest cumulative award from a single government, which amounted to $43.3 million, was tied to Saudi Arabia. All 113 awards were reported to the federal government starting in July 2020, with the most recent submission date being July 31, 2026.
Saudi Aramco, the largest oil and gas company in the world and owned by the Saudi government, has 90 reported contributions to the University, totaling $23.68 million. Of those contributions, Stanford reported only 16 as being tied to a foreign government. The other 16 awards that Stanford labeled as government-affiliated amount to $10.85 million to date.
Awards from the Singaporean government were the highest tally, adding up to 119 awards totaling $13.2 million. The first award was reported to the federal government in Jan. 2021, with the most recent submission being July 31, 2026.
Singapore’s 119 awards include: the Ministry of Defense, with 22 separate awards; the Singapore Police Force, with two awards; and the Defense Science Organization (DSO) National Laboratories, with three awards, reported on July 31, 2026. DSO National Laboratories is Singapore’s national defense research and development entity. The DSO awards total $1.25 million.
There are no reported foreign awards for the entirety of calendar years 1989, 1990, 1991, 1996, 1997 and 2000.
In April 2025, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order 14282 titled “Transparency Regarding Foreign Influence at American Universities.” According to the order, it is the administration’s policy to “end the secrecy surrounding foreign funds in American educational institutions and safeguard America’s students and research from foreign exploitation.” The order directed the ED to strengthen enforcement of existing foreign-funding disclosure requirements, require more specific information about the sources and purposes of foreign funds and increase public access to those disclosures.
The foreign-funding disclosure requirement predates Trump’s executive order by decades. Congress first enacted the requirement in 1986 as part of amendments to the Higher Education Act of 1965; it is now contained in Section 117 of the law. This section requires federally funded colleges and universities to disclose certain gifts from and contracts with a foreign source when their value, alone or combined with other gifts or contracts from the same source, reaches $250,000 in a calendar year. Following the executive order, more detailed information and data were made publicly available through a new dashboard.
Stanford, like other universities subject to Section 117, collects information on its foreign gifts and contracts, and reports qualifying transactions to the federal government. Stanford says its centralized process for administering Section 117 disclosures has been in place since the 2020 reporting cycle.
The April 2025 executive order therefore did not establish universities’ obligation to disclose foreign funding. Rather, it directed the ED to more aggressively enforce the existing law, collect more specific information about foreign funding and make those disclosures more accessible to the public. The administration attempted to release the names of individual foreign donors but has delayed their release multiple times thus far.
Last Thursday, a federal judge blocked the ED from publicly releasing the names of foreign donors to colleges and universities, with the federal judge saying that these donors provided gifts and contracts on the understanding that they’d remain private.
“Stanford supports the accuracy and completeness of its Section 117 disclosures through a university-wide data collection process facilitated by standardized reporting templates, a robust centralized review process, and attestations by senior financial leaders related to reporting of the data,” University spokesperson Angie Davis wrote in an email to The Daily.
“Stanford’s control environment and support for campus units includes a dedicated Section 117 homepage that serves as a resource for federal guidance, reporting instructions, timelines, templates, FAQs, and decision tools,” Davis wrote.
Many foreign governments have also directed money to Stanford to support their citizens’ education while in the U.S.
“Stanford’s mission of research and education benefits from the financial support of individuals and organizations across the United States and some from abroad, including alumni, parents, and friends with long-standing relationships with the university,” Davis wrote.
Davis said that the University acknowledges the potential security risks of research from “improper foreign interference” and pointed to the “numerous” policies set to ensure security.
“Stanford conducts rigorous due diligence for all philanthropic gifts and sponsored research, with enhanced scrutiny applied to international sources including restricted party screening and evaluation of research security implications, among other measures, to ensure that all support advances our mission of discovery and knowledge creation,” Davis wrote.
This is an ongoing investigation.