“Exceptional people working on the key opportunities and hardest problems that are critical to get right for society to benefit from AI.”In its own words: ai2050.schmidtsciences.org
Schmidt Sciences fellowship initiative, co-chaired by Eric Schmidt and James Manyika, funding researchers on hard problems in AI, including safety and alignment.
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Schmidt Sciences' initiative funding senior and early-career fellows working on hard problems in making AI benefit society. Fellows are chosen through a closed nominations process, so there is no application.
Says it gives about $18M a year (2025)
Typical grant $370k ($290k–$1.2M)
On applying “AI2050 awards are selected using a closed nominations process, so there is no application.” ai2050.schmidtsciences.org
Itemised here $17M in 28 grants
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’24
’25
’26
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
- By invitation
Fellows announced roughly annually (late in the year) - Who can apply
- Academics, Individuals
Fellows are chosen through a closed nomination process, so being nominated by someone in Schmidt Sciences' nominator network is the only route.
Biggest recipients
- Surya Ganguli$1.4M
- Dawn Song$1.4M
- David Danks$1.3M
- Francis Bach$1.3M
- Mikhail Belkin$1.3M
- Roger Grosse$1.2M
All grants
28 grants totalling $17M, newest first. Recipients link to their own pages; people who received grants without a public profile are shown by number.
2026 9 grants · $6.1M
| Date | Recipient | Amount | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Oct 2026 | David Danks | ~$1.3M | AI2050 (Senior Fellow, 2026 cohort): AI2050 Senior Fellow, 2026 cohort; University of Virginia. Fifth cohort of 28 fellows sharing up to $16M over three years; per-fellow amounts undisclosed; ~$1.3M per senior fellow is estimated by splitting the $16M with senior fellows at ~3.5x source |
| 1 Oct 2026 | Francis Bach | ~$1.3M | AI2050 (Senior Fellow, 2026 cohort): AI2050 Senior Fellow, 2026 cohort; Inria. Fifth cohort of 28 fellows sharing up to $16M over three years; per-fellow amounts undisclosed; ~$1.3M per senior fellow is estimated by splitting the $16M with senior fellows at ~3.5x early-career, as source |
| 1 Oct 2026 | Mikhail Belkin | ~$1.3M | AI2050 (Senior Fellow, 2026 cohort): AI2050 Senior Fellow, 2026 cohort; University of California San Diego. Fifth cohort of 28 fellows sharing up to $16M over three years; per-fellow amounts undisclosed; ~$1.3M per senior fellow is estimated by splitting the $16M with senior fell source |
| 1 Oct 2026 | Florian Tramèr | ~$370k | AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2026 cohort): AI2050 Early Career Fellow, 2026 cohort; ETH Zurich. Per-fellow amount undisclosed. — AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2026 cohort) source |
| 1 Oct 2026 | Daniel Fried | ~$370k | AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2026 cohort): AI2050 Early Career Fellow, 2026 cohort; Carnegie Mellon University. Per-fellow amount undisclosed. — AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2026 cohort) source |
| 1 Oct 2026 | Peter Henderson | ~$370k | AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2026 cohort): AI2050 Early Career Fellow, 2026 cohort; Princeton University. Per-fellow amount undisclosed. — AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2026 cohort) source |
| 1 Oct 2026 | Angelina Wang | ~$370k | AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2026 cohort): AI2050 Early Career Fellow, 2026 cohort; Cornell Tech. Per-fellow amount undisclosed. — AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2026 cohort) source |
| 1 Oct 2026 | Sahar Abdelnabi | ~$370k | AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2026 cohort): AI2050 Early Career Fellow, 2026 cohort; ELLIS Institute Tübingen & Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. Per-fellow amount undisclosed. — AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2026 cohort) source |
| 1 Oct 2026 | Maksym Andriushchenko | ~$370k | AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2026 cohort): AI2050 Early Career Fellow, 2026 cohort; ELLIS Institute Tübingen & Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. Per-fellow amount undisclosed. — AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2026 cohort) source |
2025 7 grants · $4.8M
| Date | Recipient | Amount | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Nov 2025 | Surya Ganguli | ~$1.4M | AI2050 (Senior Fellow, 2025 cohort): AI2050 Senior Fellow, 2025 cohort; Stanford University. Cohort of 28 sharing $18M+; per-fellow amount undisclosed. — AI2050 (Senior Fellow, 2025 cohort) source |
| 5 Nov 2025 | Dawn Song | ~$1.4M | AI2050 (Senior Fellow, 2025 cohort): AI2050 Senior Fellow, 2025 cohort; UC Berkeley. Per-fellow amount undisclosed. — AI2050 (Senior Fellow, 2025 cohort) source |
| 5 Nov 2025 | Adam Gleave | ~$400k | AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2025 cohort): AI2050 Early Career Fellow, 2025 cohort; FAR.AI. Per-fellow amount undisclosed. (Also holds a separate Science of Trustworthy AI award.) — AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2025 cohort) source |
| 5 Nov 2025 | Surbhi Goel | ~$400k | AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2025 cohort): AI2050 Early Career Fellow, 2025 cohort; University of Pennsylvania. Per-fellow amount undisclosed. — AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2025 cohort) source |
| 5 Nov 2025 | Christian Schroeder de Witt | ~$400k | AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2025 cohort): AI2050 Early Career Fellow, 2025 cohort; University of Oxford. Per-fellow amount undisclosed. — AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2025 cohort) source |
| 5 Nov 2025 | Weiyan Shi | ~$400k | AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2025 cohort): AI2050 Early Career Fellow, 2025 cohort; Northeastern University. Per-fellow amount undisclosed. — AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2025 cohort) source |
| 5 Nov 2025 | Natasha Jaques | ~$400k | AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2025 cohort): AI2050 Early Career Fellow, 2025 cohort; University of Washington. Per-fellow amount undisclosed. — AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2025 cohort) source |
2024 11 grants · $5M
| Date | Recipient | Amount | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 2024 | Roger Grosse | ~$1.2M | AI2050 (Senior Fellow, 2024 cohort): AI2050 Senior Fellow, 2024 cohort; University of Toronto. Cohort of 25 sharing $12M; per-fellow amount undisclosed. — AI2050 (Senior Fellow, 2024 cohort) source |
| Dec 2024 | Yejin Choi | ~$1.2M | AI2050 (Senior Fellow, 2024 cohort): AI2050 Senior Fellow, 2024 cohort; Stanford University. Cohort of 25 sharing $12M; per-fellow amount undisclosed. — AI2050 (Senior Fellow, 2024 cohort) source |
| Dec 2024 | Raphaël Millière | ~$300k | AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2024 cohort): AI2050 Early Career Fellow, 2024 cohort; University of Oxford. Per-fellow amount undisclosed. — AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2024 cohort) source |
| Dec 2024 | Simon Du | ~$300k | AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2024 cohort): AI2050 Early Career Fellow, 2024 cohort; University of Washington. Per-fellow amount undisclosed. — AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2024 cohort) source |
| Dec 2024 | Eric Wong | ~$300k | AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2024 cohort): AI2050 Early Career Fellow, 2024 cohort; University of Pennsylvania. Per-fellow amount undisclosed. — AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2024 cohort) source |
| Dec 2024 | Chaowei Xiao | ~$300k | AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2024 cohort): AI2050 Early Career Fellow, 2024 cohort; University of Wisconsin-Madison. Per-fellow amount undisclosed. — AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2024 cohort) source |
| 4 Mar 2024 | Nicolas Papernot | ~$290k | AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2023 cohort): AI2050 Early Career Fellow, 2023 cohort; University of Toronto. Up to $300,000 over two years; exact amount undisclosed. — AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2023 cohort) source |
| 4 Mar 2024 | Jeffrey Ding | ~$290k | AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2023 cohort): AI2050 Early Career Fellow, 2023 cohort; George Washington University. Up to $300,000 over two years; exact amount undisclosed. — AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2023 cohort) source |
| 4 Mar 2024 | Dan Hendrycks | ~$290k | AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2023 cohort): AI2050 Early Career Fellow, 2023 cohort; Center for AI Safety. Up to $300,000 over two years; exact amount undisclosed. — AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2023 cohort) source |
| 4 Mar 2024 | Atoosa Kasirzadeh | ~$290k | AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2023 cohort): AI2050 Early Career Fellow, 2023 cohort; Carnegie Mellon University. Up to $300,000 over two years; exact amount undisclosed. — AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2023 cohort) source |
| 4 Mar 2024 | Jacob Steinhardt | ~$290k | AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2023 cohort): AI2050 Early Career Fellow, 2023 cohort; UC Berkeley. Up to $300,000 over two years; exact amount undisclosed. — AI2050 (Early Career Fellow, 2023 cohort) source |
2023 1 grant · $1M
| Date | Recipient | Amount | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 2023 | Gillian Hadfield | ~$1M | AI2050 (Senior Fellow, 2023 cohort): AI2050 Senior Fellow, second senior cohort of 7 (announced 17 Oct 2023); University of Toronto (now Johns Hopkins University). Amount is an even share of the cohort’s ‘up to USD $7 million’; per-fellow amount undisclosed. — AI2050 (Senior Fell source |