But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God, for it is He that giveth thee power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore unto thy fathers, as it is this day. (Deuteronomy 8:18)

The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, a world leader in science and technological innovation, received a $130 million grant on Sunday to build a new technology institute on the camp of Shantou University in China, according to the Jerusalem Post. The new academy will be named the Technion Guangdong Institute of Technology.

The grant, afforded by the Li Ka Shing Foundation, includes profits from the foundations investment in the Israeli-developed GPS mobile application, Waze, which was bought by Google in June for nearly $1 billion. The grant is the largest in the Technion’s history, and among the largest ever for Israeli higher education.

Guangdong Province and the Shantou Municipal Government will allocate some $147 million to fund construction and initial operations of the institute, which will extend over a 330,000-square meter campus to be located next to Shantou University.

Speaking at the signing ceremony in Tel Aviv on Sunday, Li Ka-shing, thought to be the richest person in Asia, emphasized the importance of education to scientific progress.

“In a world of fluid boundaries, the transformative power of technology waves like a magic wand, bringing new models and opportunities to many frontiers and generating new solutions to entrenched problems, but we all know the wands are only as powerful as the wizards who use them, and the magic comes from the genius within,” he said.

“Our responsibility is to invest in education to unlock that genius and enable the continuing realization of human potential, building a society rich in knowledge and securing a sustainable quality of life for all. Failing to do so amounts to a crime against the future.”

The Technion Guangdong Institute of Technology will begin offering students undergraduate programs in civil and environmental engineering and computer sciences in the 2014-2015 academic year. Programs will be taught in English, and the faculty will be recruited from the ranks of researchers and scientists at universities worldwide.

Starting in 2014, Technion Guangdong Institute of Technology will join Shantou University in conducting life sciences research tackling important social and livelihood issues in China, such as healthcare. During the campus construction phase, the inaugural group of students will spend the first two years of studies at the Technion in Haifa, after which they will return to Shantou for their third year.

According to the universities, by 2020, the institute will offer courses in other engineering- related fields, including mechanical and aerospace engineering. Some of the grant’s funds will go toward upgrading the Technion’s Haifa campus.

Technion President Peretz Lavie described the partnership as “a major breakthrough and an opportunity to strengthen ties between Israel and China.”

“When you combine the innovation and entrepreneurial spirit of Israel with the unbelievable scale of China, you have a great partnership,” he said in a statement.

During the signing ceremony, Lavie gifted Gu with a sapling from the palm tree that Albert Einstein, who founded the Technion’s first support society, planted at the the school’s gates 90 years ago. Gu said it would go well with the sapling from Isaac Newton’s apple tree that they had received from the University of Cambridge.