Funder·Founded May 2014 (launched at MIT)·Campbell, California, US (primary office); also offices in Washington DC, London and Brussels
“Steering transformative technology towards benefiting life and away from extreme large-scale risks.”In its own words: futureoflife.org

Nonprofit working to steer transformative technology away from extreme, large-scale risks through policy, outreach and grantmaking. It funds AI safety research through requests for proposals, contests and PhD and postdoctoral fellowships; Vitalik Buterin is its largest donor by far.

Show detailsHide details

Grants mainly on AI existential safety through RFPs and contests posted on its site, collaborations supporting FLI's own projects, and PhD and postdoctoral fellowships. It does not accept unsolicited requests.

Says it gives about $27M a year (2025)

Typical grant $150k ($15k–$500k)

On applying “We do not accept unsolicited requests.” futureoflife.org

Itemised here $43M in 145 grants

’21
’22
’23
’24
’25
’26
Led by Anthony Aguirre (President and CEO (Executive Director)), Max Tegmark (Founder and Chair)Its grants page ↗Checked 29 Oct 2026

Money flows

Where its money came from and where it went. Pick years and what to show; hover a box or ribbon for details, click one to focus it, click the background to see everything.

How to apply

Applications
Closed

No unsolicited requests; periodic RFPs, contests and fellowships announced via newsletter (https://futureoflife.org/our-work/grantmaking-work/).

Programmes

Biggest recipients

Money from

Passed on to other funders

Gifts and pooled money between funders, as recorded on the site.

All grants

145 grants totalling $43M, newest first. Recipients link to their own pages; people who received grants without a public profile are shown by number.

2026 16 grants · $1.6M
DateRecipientAmountPurpose
2026Impact Academy$201kReligious project on AGI race challenges — Impact Academy. — Religious Projects on AGI Race Challenges RFP source
2026Individual #1452 (Gospel Coalition)$200kReligious project on AGI race challenges — Gospel Coalition. — Religious Projects on AGI Race Challenges RFP source
2026Individual #3404$129kReligious project on AGI race challenges — [name withheld]. — Religious Projects on AGI Race Challenges RFP
2026Individual #9079$125kReligious project on AGI race challenges — [name withheld] [name withheld]. — Religious Projects on AGI Race Challenges RFP
2026Individual #6125$105kReligious project on AGI race challenges — [name withheld] [name withheld] [name withheld] of [name withheld]. — Religious Projects on AGI Race Challenges RFP
2026Octavian Machidon$100kReligious project on AGI race challenges — University of Ljubljana. — Religious Projects on AGI Race Challenges RFP source
2026Individual #4057 (New Polity)$100kReligious project on AGI race challenges — New Polity. — Religious Projects on AGI Race Challenges RFP source
2026Individual #4968 (World Council of Churches)$100kReligious project on AGI race challenges — World Council of Churches. — Religious Projects on AGI Race Challenges RFP source
2026Geoffrey Mitelman (Sinai and Synapses)$100kReligious project on AGI race challenges — Sinai and Synapses. — Religious Projects on AGI Race Challenges RFP source
2026Individual #5791 (ILINA Project)$91kReligious project on AGI race challenges — ILINA Project. — Religious Projects on AGI Race Challenges RFP source
2026Individual #3325 (American Shield)$57kReligious project on AGI race challenges — American Shield. — Religious Projects on AGI Race Challenges RFP source
2026Individual #2505$55kReligious project on AGI race challenges — Wheaton College. — Religious Projects on AGI Race Challenges RFP
2026Individual #8775 (Lausanne Movement)$50kReligious project on AGI race challenges — Lausanne Movement. — Religious Projects on AGI Race Challenges RFP source
2026Individual #30537$50kReligious project on AGI race challenges — [name withheld] est [name withheld]. — Religious Projects on AGI Race Challenges RFP
2026Individual #14735$50kReligious project on AGI race challenges — [name withheld] [name withheld]. — Religious Projects on AGI Race Challenges RFP
2026Individual #1287 (Project Imago Dei)$48kReligious project on AGI race challenges — Project Imago Dei. — Religious Projects on AGI Race Challenges RFP source
2025 22 grants · $12M
DateRecipientAmountPurpose
2025Center for AI Risk Management & Alignment (CARMA)$2.3MGeneral support for lowering transformative AI risks through research and advocacy. — 2025 Grants (Existential Risk Reduction / Institutional Grants) source
2025International Association for Safe and Ethical AI (IASEAI)$1.9MGeneral support addressing AI risks and ensuring safe, ethical AI systems and policy development. — 2025 Grants (Existential Risk Reduction / Institutional Grants) source
2025HITRECORD$1MAI safety digital content (2025 Grants) source
2025Institute for Family Studies$550k"Pro-Family, Pro-Human AI" (2025 Grants) source
2025Palisade Research$500kRaising awareness about superhuman AI risks. — Multistakeholder Engagement for Safe and Prosperous AI Grants source
2025Economic Security Project Inc.$500kSacramento policy fights against Big Tech dominance. — Multistakeholder Engagement for Safe and Prosperous AI Grants source
2025Common Sense Media$500kBuilding Parent Power for AI Safety initiative. — Multistakeholder Engagement for Safe and Prosperous AI Grants source
2025PauseAI$500kCatalyst Project for grassroots organizing networks. — Multistakeholder Engagement for Safe and Prosperous AI Grants source
2025Ekō$500kAI Corporate Accountability Hub. — Multistakeholder Engagement for Safe and Prosperous AI Grants source
2025Young People's Alliance Education Fund$498kBipartisan youth-led AI framework and coalition. — Multistakeholder Engagement for Safe and Prosperous AI Grants source
2025Bureau of Investigative Journalism$487k"Unmasking AI" investigations (2025 Grants) source
2025Foresight Institute$485kExpand Existential Hope (2025 Grants) source
2025Institute for Security and Technology$484kReligious communities AI ethics education resources. — Multistakeholder Engagement for Safe and Prosperous AI Grants source
2025Blueprint for Free Speech$345kMobilizing trade unions in Germany and Greece on AI worker protections. — Multistakeholder Engagement for Safe and Prosperous AI Grants source
2025National Association of Voice Actors$300kGlobal Creatives AI Summit. — Multistakeholder Engagement for Safe and Prosperous AI Grants source
2025AI Objectives Institute$206kSupport for labor union engagement via Talk to the City platform. — Multistakeholder Engagement for Safe and Prosperous AI Grants source
2025PauseAI US$200kPublic awareness and community engagement for responsible AI. — Multistakeholder Engagement for Safe and Prosperous AI Grants source
2025Faith Matters Foundation$174k"Organized Intelligence" (2025 Grants) source
2025International Nuclear Heuristics Research (INHR)$150kU.S.-China-EU AI Safety Dialogue project. — Multistakeholder Engagement for Safe and Prosperous AI Grants source
2025Talos Network$129kTalos Fellowship (2025 Grants) source
2025Evitable$100kPreventing superintelligence advancement and promoting AI scaling moratorium. — Multistakeholder Engagement for Safe and Prosperous AI Grants source
2025Mindstream Project$60kEngaged Buddhists for Responsible AI Initiative. — Multistakeholder Engagement for Safe and Prosperous AI Grants source
2024 38 grants · $10M
DateRecipientAmountPurpose
25 Oct 2024Individual #1943$20kGrand Prize, 'Writing Doom' (short film) — Superintelligence Imagined creative contest. — Superintelligence Imagined Creative Contest
25 Oct 2024Effct$10kPrize winner, '6 Magazine Covers from the Future: Warnings About the Dangers of Artificial (Super)intelligence'. — Superintelligence Imagined Creative Contest source
25 Oct 2024Individual #3075, Individual #9999, and Alberto Hidalgo$10kPrize winner, 'ZARA MARS' (graphic novel). — Superintelligence Imagined Creative Contest source
25 Oct 2024Individual #8106$10kPrize winner, 'Superintelligence: The End of Humanity or Our Golden Age?' (video). — Superintelligence Imagined Creative Contest
25 Oct 2024Individual #7050$10kPrize winner, 'The Great Plan' (multi-media). — Superintelligence Imagined Creative Contest
25 Oct 2024Dr Waku$10kPrize winner, 'How AI threatens humanity, with Yoshua Bengio' (video). — Superintelligence Imagined Creative Contest source
2024International Association for Safe and Ethical AI$1.9MGeneral support (2024 Grants, Institutional Grants); FLI's grant page gives $1,850,000 recommended; Form 990 Schedule I shows $1,500,000 paid in FY2024 source
2024OpenMined$1.7MFederated infrastructure for data provider compensation and control. — Mitigate AI-Driven Power Concentration Grants source
2024Federation of American Scientists~$1.2M2024 Grants: AI and global risk [AI-safety share est. 80% of $1,500,000 (range 60–95%): FLI's grant page says the project is 'To investigate the implications of artificial intelligence on global risk', on 'the nexus between AI and' nuclear deterrence, bioengineering, autonomy and source
2024Center for AI Safety, Inc.$500kDeveloping tamper-resistant safeguards for open-weight language models. — Mitigate AI-Driven Power Concentration Grants source
2024Center for Collective Intelligence Design$460kProject to mitigate AI-driven power concentration. — Mitigate AI-Driven Power Concentration Grants source
2024Mila$447kSimulations testing defenses against AI-powered discourse manipulation. — Mitigate AI-Driven Power Concentration Grants source
2024Collective Intelligence Project$400kProject to mitigate AI-driven power concentration. — Mitigate AI-Driven Power Concentration Grants source
2024Project Libertas$396kMapping AI surveillance vulnerabilities and governance interventions. — Mitigate AI-Driven Power Concentration Grants source
2024Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative$365kPaid FY2024 (Form 990 Schedule I) source
2024CalMatters and The Markup$350kMapping AI control patterns; tracking corporate lobbying efforts. — Mitigate AI-Driven Power Concentration Grants source
2024Peace Research and Education Program$350kProject to mitigate AI-driven power concentration. — Mitigate AI-Driven Power Concentration Grants source
2024Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists$316kInvestigating AI developer influence in politics, media, and the military. — Mitigate AI-Driven Power Concentration Grants source
2024Convergence Analysis$280kProject to mitigate AI-driven power concentration. — Mitigate AI-Driven Power Concentration Grants source
2024Encode$250kYoung people mobilizing policymakers for human-centered artificial intelligence. — 2024 Grants (Existential Risk Reduction / Institutional Grants) source
2024Foresight Institute$247kWorldbuilding course (Form 990 Schedule I, FY2024) source
2024Institute for Security and Technology$243kFramework for antitrust enforcement balancing security concerns. — Mitigate AI-Driven Power Concentration Grants source
2024Cambridge Existential Risk Initiative$158kRisk index measuring AI-enabled power concentration across governments. — Mitigate AI-Driven Power Concentration Grants source
2024Tarbell Center for AI Journalism$150kFunding established journalists for original reporting on current and future harms from AI. — 2024 Grants (Existential Risk Reduction / Institutional Grants) source
2024Anton Korinek$110kProfessor Anton Korinek's research on the economics of transformative AI. — 2024 Grants (Existential Risk Reduction / Institutional Grants) source
2024Longview Philanthropy$100kFinding solutions to collective action problems — Form 990 (2024) source
2024Formation Research$80kPredictive modeling for AI power 'lock-in' scenarios. — Mitigate AI-Driven Power Concentration Grants source
2024Future Coalition$25kAdvocacy for a future with human-centered artificial intelligence — Form 990 (2024) source
2024M. Oladoyin Odubanjo$15kEvaluating the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Health Outcomes in Nigeria — Nigerian Academy of Science. — Impact of AI on Sustainable Development Goals RFP source
2024Metagov$15kResearch into global governance institution design — Form 990 (2024) source
2024Individual #5908$15kInternational Treaty on the Prohibition of Misaligned Artificial General Intelligence — Institute for Law & AI and Oxford Martin AI Governance Initiative, Costa Rica. — Designs for Global Institutions Governing AI RFP
2024Haydn Belfield$15kIAEA and CERN for AI — University of Cambridge, UK. — Designs for Global Institutions Governing AI RFP source
2024Individual #3101$15kA Global AGI Agency — University of Washington, USA. — Designs for Global Institutions Governing AI RFP
2024Institute for Law & AI$15kResearch into global governance institution design — Form 990 (2024) source
2024Individual #9300$15kFair Trade AI — Forum on Information and Democracy, France. — Designs for Global Institutions Governing AI RFP
2024Individual #1554$15kStable AGI Governance through the International AI Governance Organization (IAIGO) — European University Institute, Italy. — Designs for Global Institutions Governing AI RFP
2024Individual #5371$15kEvaluating Impact and Scaling Progress through Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships — Oxford Martin AI Governance Initiative, UK. — Impact of AI on Sustainable Development Goals RFP
2024Individual #2380$15kThe Practical Bengio (network of publicly-funded AI labs for safe AGI) — Metagov and University of Oxford, USA. — Designs for Global Institutions Governing AI RFP
2023 16 grants · $8.4M
DateRecipientAmountPurpose
2023FAR AI$1.9MGeneral support for neglected, high-potential AI safety research agendas — 2023 Grants source
2023Alignment Research Center (Evals team, now METR)$1.4MEvals team building capability and alignment evaluations of advanced ML models — 2023 Grants source
2023Centre for Long-Term Resilience (Alpenglow Group Limited)$769kGeneral support for a UK think tank improving governance of extreme risks — 2023 Grants source
2023University of California, Berkeley (AI Policy Hub)$600kAI Policy Hub graduate fellowship programme in AI policy — 2023 Grants source
2023AI Objectives Institute$500kTalk to the City and Moral Mirror projects — 2023 Grants source
2023Center for Humane Technology$500kAI policy work and messaging cohesion within the AI x-risk community — 2023 Grants source
2023Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative$481kCollaboration with the Center for Human-Compatible AI — 2023 Grants source
2023University of Chicago (Existential Risk Laboratory)$380kXLab fellowships, courses and a planned minor — 2023 Grants source
2023The Future Society$365kGeneral support for aligning AI through better governance — 2023 Grants source
2023Ought$358kGeneral support for research on delegating high-quality reasoning to ML systems — 2023 Grants source
2023CAF America$292kTo support sponsored projects teeside university, uqam foundation and international institute for applied systems analysis — Form 990 (2023) source
2023Foresight Institute$290kExistential Hope and Tech Tree programmes — 2023 Grants source
2023Oxford China Policy Lab$252kGeneral support for research on US-China risks, especially from AI and emerging tech — 2023 Grants source
2023AI Impacts$162kGeneral support for research on AI's future, focused on neglected strategy and forecasting questions — 2023 Grants source
2023Collective Intelligence Project$150kAlignment Assemblies for Legitimate AI Governance — 2023 Grants source
2023Center for AI Safety$22kGeneral support for AI safety work and education for policymakers and business leaders — 2023 Grants source
2022 5 grants · $2M
DateRecipientAmountPurpose
2022Foresight Institute$1MExistential Hope project — 2022 Grants source
2022University of California, Berkeley (AI Policy Hub)$450kAI Policy Hub: annual fellowship cohorts training graduate researchers in AI policy — 2022 Grants source
2022University of Cambridge (Centre for the Study of Existential Risk)~$250kSupport for CSER, including five years' salary for its next Director [AI-safety share est. 25% of $1,000,000 (range 15–40%): FLI's grant page describes CSER as a centre that 'studies existential risks' and lists its year's work on climate, volcanic eruptions, pandemic preparednes source
2022University of Southern California (Hollywood, Health & Society)$170kAdvising the entertainment industry on nuclear, AI and future-focused storylines — 2022 Grants source
2022Open Phil AI Fellowship$162kFLI's half of the 2022 Open Phil AI Fellowship for its Vitalik Buterin Postdoctoral Fellows, paid to Good Ventures Foundation (Form 990 2022: 'Support for ai fellowship program supporting promising machine learning researchers') source
2021 1 grant · $120k
DateRecipientAmountPurpose
2021The Future Society$120kGeneral support for AI governance work in the US and Europe — 2021 Grants source
2018 10 grants · $2M
DateRecipientAmountPurpose
2018Allan Dafoe$276kGovernance of AI Programme — Yale University — 2018 AGI Safety Grants source
2018Marcus Hutter$276kThe Control Problem for Universal AI: A Formal Investigation — Australian National University — 2018 AGI Safety Grants source
2018Dorsa Sadigh$250kSafe Learning and Verification of Human-AI Systems — Stanford University — 2018 AGI Safety Grants source
2018Owain Evans$225kFactored Cognition: Amplifying Human Cognition for Safely Scalable AGI — Oxford University — 2018 AGI Safety Grants source
2018The Anh Han$225kIncentives for Safety Agreement Compliance in AI Race — Teesside University — 2018 AGI Safety Grants source
2018Jose Hernandez-Orallo$220kParadigms of Artificial General Intelligence and Their Associated Risks — University of Cambridge — 2018 AGI Safety Grants source
2018Peter Stone$200kAd hoc Teamwork and Moral Feedback as a Framework for Safe Robot Behavior — University of Texas — 2018 AGI Safety Grants source
2018Josh Tenenbaum$150kReverse Engineering Fair Cooperation — MIT — 2018 AGI Safety Grants source
2018Stefano Ermon$100kValue Alignment and Multi-agent Inverse Reinforcement Learning — Stanford University — 2018 AGI Safety Grants source
2018James Miller$78kUtility Functions: A Guide for Artificial General Intelligence Theorists — Smith College — 2018 AGI Safety Grants source
2015 37 grants · $6.7M
DateRecipientAmountPurpose
2015Nick Bostrom$1.5MStrategic Research Center for Artificial Intelligence — University of Oxford — 2015 AI Safety Grants source
2015Stuart Russell$343kValue Alignment and Moral Metareasoning — University of California, Berkeley — 2015 AI Safety Grants source
2015Francesca Rossi$275kSafety Constraints and Ethical Principles in Collective Decision Making Systems — University of Padova — 2015 AI Safety Grants source
2015Percy Liang$255kPredictable AI via Failure Detection and Robustness — Stanford University — 2015 AI Safety Grants source
2015Stefano Ermon$250kRobust probabilistic inference engines for autonomous agents — Stanford University — 2015 AI Safety Grants source
2015Individual #5362$250kAligning Superintelligence With Human Interests — Machine Intelligence Research Institute — 2015 AI Safety Grants
2015Owain Evans$227kInferring Human Values: Learning 'Ought', not 'Is' — University of Oxford — 2015 AI Safety Grants source
2015Vincent Conitzer$200kHow to Build Ethics into Robust Artificial Intelligence — Duke University — 2015 AI Safety Grants source
2015Daniel Weld$200kComputational Ethics for Probabilistic Planning — University of Washington — 2015 AI Safety Grants source
2015Manuela Veloso$200kExplanations for Complex AI Systems — Carnegie Mellon University — 2015 AI Safety Grants source
2015David Parkes$200kMechanism Design for AI Architectures — Harvard University — 2015 AI Safety Grants source
2015Michael Wellman$200kUnderstanding and Mitigating AI Threats to the Financial System — University of Michigan — 2015 AI Safety Grants source
2015Thomas Dietterich$200kRobust and Transparent Artificial Intelligence Via Anomaly Detection and Explanation — Oregon State University — 2015 AI Safety Grants source
2015Andre Platzer$200kFaster Verification of AI-based Cyber-physical Systems — Carnegie Mellon University — 2015 AI Safety Grants source
2015Individual #9920$197kExperience-based AI (EXPAI) — IDSIA — 2015 AI Safety Grants
2015Wendell Wallach$180kControl and Responsible Innovation in the Development of Autonomous Machines — Yale University — 2015 AI Safety Grants source
2015Heather Roff$137kLethal Autonomous Weapons, Artificial Intelligence and Meaningful Human Control — University of Denver — 2015 AI Safety Grants source
2015Brian Ziebart$134kTowards Safer Inductive Learning — University of Illinois at Chicago — 2015 AI Safety Grants source
2015Michael Wooldridge$125kTowards a Code of Ethics for AI Research — University of Oxford — 2015 AI Safety Grants source
2015Fuxin Li$122kUnderstanding when a deep network is going to be wrong — Georgia Institute of Technology — 2015 AI Safety Grants source
2015Owen Cotton-Barratt$120kDecision-relevant uncertainty in AI safety — Centre for Effective Altruism, Oxford — 2015 AI Safety Grants source
2015Peter Asaro$117kRegulating Autonomous Artificial Agents: A Systematic Approach to Developing AI & Robot Policy — The New School — 2015 AI Safety Grants source
2015Anna Salamon$112kSpecialized rationality skills for the AI research community — Center for Applied Rationality — 2015 AI Safety Grants source
2015Alex Aiken$101kVerifying Deep Mathematical Properties of AI Systems — Stanford University — 2015 AI Safety Grants source
2015Seth Baum$100kEvaluation of Safe Development Pathways for Artificial Superintelligence — Social & Environmental Entrepreneurs — 2015 AI Safety Grants source
2015Long Ouyang$100kDemocratizing Programming: Synthesizing Valid Programs with Recursive Bayesian Inference — Theiss Research — 2015 AI Safety Grants source
2015Benjamin Rubinstein$99kSecurity Evaluation of Machine Learning Systems — The University of Melbourne — 2015 AI Safety Grants source
2015Individual #3214$98kStability of Neuromorphic Motivational Systems — University of Colorado — 2015 AI Safety Grants
2015Jacob Steinhardt$88kSummer Program in Applied Rationality and Cognition — Stanford University — 2015 AI Safety Grants source
2015Michael Webb$76kOptimal Transition to the AI Economy — Stanford University — 2015 AI Safety Grants source
2015Moshe Vardi$69kArtificial Intelligence and the Future of Work — Rice University — 2015 AI Safety Grants source
2015Adrian Weller$50kInvestigation of Self-Policing AI Agents — University of Cambridge — 2015 AI Safety Grants source
2015Paul Christiano$50kCounterfactual Human Oversight — University of California, Berkeley — 2015 AI Safety Grants source
2015Katja Grace$49kAI Impacts — Machine Intelligence Research Institute — 2015 AI Safety Grants source
2015Individual #8421$37kApplying Formal Verification to Reflective Reasoning — University of Cambridge — 2015 AI Safety Grants
2015Bart Selman$25kScaling-up AI Systems: Insights From Computational Complexity — Cornell University — 2015 AI Safety Grants source
2015Individual #5450$20kTeaching AI Systems Human Values Through Human-Like Concept Learning — Theiss Research — 2015 AI Safety Grants