Longtermist Funders (Overview)

Overview

Longtermist funders provide critical financial support for organizations working on AI safety, existential risk reduction, and related cause areas. The funding landscape is characterized by a relatively small number of major philanthropists and foundations that provide the majority of resources, with additional support from regranting programs and smaller donors.

The field has experienced significant growth in funding over the past decade, though it remains small relative to overall AI development spending. Major shifts occurred in 2022-2023 with the FTX collapse eliminating a significant planned funding source, though other funders have partially filled the gap.

Comprehensive Funder Comparison

By Annual Giving and Focus Area

Key Individual Philanthropists

AI Safety Funding Concentration

The AI safety funding landscape is highly concentrated among a few donors:

Untapped Philanthropic Potential

Several major philanthropists have significant resources but minimal AI safety engagement:

If these five individuals allocated just 1% of their net worth annually to AI safety, it would represent $11.6B/year — roughly 80x current total funding.

AI Safety Funders (Detailed)

Non-AI-Safety Major Funders

AI Safety Funding Landscape

flowchart TD
  subgraph AISafetyDonors["AI Safety Donors (≈120M/year)"]
      DM[Dustin Moskovitz<br/>65M/year]
      JT[Jaan Tallinn<br/>50M/year]
      VB[Vitalik Buterin<br/>15M/year]
  end

  subgraph AISafetyVehicles["AI Safety Vehicles"]
      CG[Coefficient Giving<br/>65M AI safety]
      SFF[SFF<br/>30M]
      LTFF[LTFF<br/>5-10M]
      FLF[Foundation Layer Fund<br/>70M+ cumulative]
      MF[Manifund<br/>2-5M]
  end

  subgraph Recipients["AI Safety Recipients"]
      RESEARCH[Research Orgs<br/>MIRI, Redwood, METR]
      POLICY[Policy & Governance<br/>GovAI, CAIS, RAND]
      FIELD[Field Building<br/>80K, Atlas, SERI]
      EVALS[Evaluations<br/>METR, Epoch]
  end

  DM --> CG
  JT --> SFF
  VB -->|Direct| RESEARCH
  CG --> RESEARCH
  CG --> POLICY
  CG --> EVALS
  SFF --> RESEARCH
  SFF --> POLICY
  LTFF --> RESEARCH
  LTFF --> FIELD
  FLF --> RESEARCH
  FLF --> POLICY
  FLF --> FIELD
  MF --> FIELD

  style AISafetyDonors fill:#e6f3ff
  style AISafetyVehicles fill:#ccffcc
  style Recipients fill:#ffffcc

Broader Philanthropy Landscape (For Context)

flowchart TD
  subgraph MegaDonors["Mega-Donors (Minimal AI Safety)"]
      GATES[Bill Gates<br/>130B NW, 5B/year]
      MUSK[Elon Musk<br/>400B NW, 250M/year]
      ZUCK[Mark Zuckerberg<br/>200B NW, 1B/year]
      SCOTT[MacKenzie Scott<br/>35B NW, 4B/year]
  end

  subgraph MegaFoundations["Major Foundations"]
      GATESF[Gates Foundation<br/>7B/year]
      CZI[CZI<br/>1B/year]
      WELLCOME[Wellcome Trust<br/>1.5B/year]
      HEWLETT[Hewlett<br/>473M/year]
  end

  subgraph NonAIFocus["Primary Focus Areas"]
      HEALTH[Global Health<br/>5B+/year]
      SCIENCE[Science<br/>3B+/year]
      CLIMATE[Climate<br/>500M+/year]
      EDU[Education<br/>1B+/year]
  end

  GATES --> GATESF
  ZUCK --> CZI
  GATESF --> HEALTH
  GATESF --> SCIENCE
  CZI --> SCIENCE
  WELLCOME --> HEALTH
  WELLCOME --> SCIENCE
  HEWLETT --> CLIMATE
  HEWLETT --> EDU

  style MegaDonors fill:#ffe6e6
  style MegaFoundations fill:#fff0cc
  style NonAIFocus fill:#e6ffe6

The Scale Gap

Pending Major Funding Sources

Anthropic-Derived Capital

Anthropic (Funder)AnalysisAnthropic (Funder)Comprehensive model of EA-aligned philanthropic capital at Anthropic. At $380B valuation (Series G, Feb 2026, $30B raised): $27-76B risk-adjusted EA capital expected. Total funding raised exceeds $...Quality: 65/100 represents potentially the largest future source of longtermist philanthropic capital. At Anthropic's current $350B valuation:

Key uncertainties:

• Only 2/7 founders have documented strong EA connections—71% of founder equity may go to non-EA causes
• Matching program reduced from 3:1 at 50% to 1:1 at 25% for new employees
• IPO timeline: 2026-2027 expected; capital deployment likely 2027-2035

For comparison, this $25-70B range represents 170-470x current annual AI safety funding of ≈$150M. Even if only 10% ultimately reaches EA causes, it would still be transformative.

See Anthropic (Funder)AnalysisAnthropic (Funder)Comprehensive model of EA-aligned philanthropic capital at Anthropic. At $380B valuation (Series G, Feb 2026, $30B raised): $27-76B risk-adjusted EA capital expected. Total funding raised exceeds $...Quality: 65/100 for comprehensive analysis.

OpenAI Foundation

The OpenAI FoundationOrganizationOpenAI FoundationThe OpenAI Foundation holds 26% equity (~$130B) in OpenAI Group PBC with governance control, but detailed analysis of board member incentives reveals strong bias toward capital preservation over ph...Quality: 87/100 holds 26% of OpenAI, worth approximately $130B at current valuations. Unlike Anthropic's pledge-based model, the Foundation has direct legal control over these assets. Cause allocation is uncertain—the Foundation's stated mission focuses on "safe AGI" but specific philanthropic priorities are undisclosed.

Recent Trends

2024-2026 Developments:

• Coefficient Giving launched $40M AI Safety Request for Proposals (January 2025)
• SFF allocated $34.33M, with 86% going to AI-related projects
• Coefficient Giving (formerly Open Philanthropy) rebranded in November 2025
• LTFF continued steady grantmaking at ≈$5M annually
• Anthropic founders announced 80% donation pledges (January 2026)
• The Foundation LayerOrganizationThe Foundation LayerThe Foundation Layer is a philanthropic guide and donor-advised fund created by Tyler John (Effective Institutions Project) that has facilitated over 100 grants exceeding $70 million across AI safety.Quality: 3/100 launched (early 2026) — a comprehensive philanthropic guide by Tyler John (Effective Institutions Project) synthesizing five years of AI safety advisory into a donor guidebook, covering alignment, nonproliferation, defensive tech, power distribution, and talent

Post-FTX Landscape:

• Future Fund's collapse eliminated ≈$160M in committed grants
• Some organizations faced funding crises; others found alternative support
• Field-wide diversification of funding sources