TRENTON, N.J. - Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his wife have given US$25 million to start an endowment fund at Princeton University.

The Ivy League school said Tuesday that the money will support the invention and development of technology in natural sciences and engineering. The Eric and Wendy Schmidt Transformative Technology Fund will be awarded through a campus-wide peer-reviewed competition.

Schmidt graduated from Princeton in 1976 with a degree in electrical engineering. He was a Princeton trustee from 2004 to 2008.