WATCH: Billionaire Robert F. Smith Pledges $40 Million to Wipe Out 2019 Morehouse Graduates’ Student Loan Debt

Billionaire tech investor and philanthropist Robert F. Smith stunned graduates of Morehouse College in Atlanta on Sunday, pledging $40 million to wipe out their student-loan debts.

Wild cheers and astonished looks greeted Smith after he made the gift during his commencement address at the famed historically black college.

“My family is going to create a grant to eliminate your student loans,” Smith told graduating seniors. “You great Morehouse men are bound only by the limits of your own conviction and creativity.”

“You great Morehouse men are bound only by the limits of your own conviction and creativity.” –Robert F. Smith @RFS_Vista #MorehouseGrad2019 pic.twitter.com/rw1VGMHaPm

— Morehouse College (@Morehouse) May 19, 2019

Smith called the gift “a little fuel” for the 396 students who comprise the Morehouse Class of 2019.

“On behalf of the eight generations of my family that have been in this country, we’re gonna put a little fuel in your bus,” he said.

Smith told grads to “pay it forward” and do something that could ensure that “every class has the same opportunity going forward.”

“When Dr. King said that the ‘arc of the moral universe bends toward justice,’ he wasn’t saying it bends on its own accord. It bends because we choose to put our shoulders into it together and push,” Smith said, quoting civil rights icon Martin Luther King.

Smith, who received an honorary doctorate from Morehouse during the ceremony, was chemical engineer before going into investment and private equity.

The Cornell University alum founded, and is still CEO of, Vista Equity Partners, which invests in software, data, and tech-driven companies.

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SOURCE: NBC News, David K. Li