About Future of Life Institute
Steering transformative technology towards benefiting life and away from extreme large-scale risks.
Focus Areas
Artificial IntelligenceBiotechnologyNuclear WeaponsPolicy & ResearchFuturesCommunicationsGrantmaking
Who They Fund
university research centers and academic institutesmachine learning / AI researchers and fellowspolicy makers and regulators (e.g., EU policymakers)civil society sponsored projects and NGOsglobal public / biodiversity stakeholders (planetary ecosystems)
Funding Style
About Future of Life Institute
A single 2025 grant of $162,587,667 to establish the Lightcone Foundation stands out in the Future of Life Institute’s recent record and shows the scale at which it can move when building related organizations. The institute’s grantmaking is centered on steering advanced technology toward life-benefiting outcomes and away from extreme large-scale risks, with AI governance, technical AI safety, nuclear war research, and biodiversity stewardship all appearing in recent awards. It also uses fellowships, sponsored projects, and targeted calls for proposals rather than only open-ended grants. Other large awards point to the same pattern. In 2025, it gave $25,025,000 to establish and fund the Future of Life Foundation, another related organization, and $10,000,000 to Silicon Valley Community Foundation for charitable work in support of its mission. Those commitments sit alongside program grants to research, policy, and public-interest intermediaries, including support for work on the informational ecosystem, AI risk, and global governance. The result is a funder that combines very large organizational grants with smaller, targeted project support across several linked risk domains.
What Future of Life Institute Funds
AI governance is a visible thread in the portfolio. The Future of Life Institute gave $1,500,000 to International Association for Safe and Ethical Artificial Intelligence Inc for general support addressing the risks and opportunities associated with rapid advances in AI, and $750,000 to the Federation of American Scientists to investigate the implications of artificial intelligence on global risk. It also funds work on the informational environment. One grant of $2,950,000 went to Improve the News Foundation for efforts to improve the informational ecosystem, while a separate $3,250,000 award supported improved truth-finding tools. The institute continues to back catastrophic-risk research and biodiversity stewardship. It granted $619,861 through Caf America for university research into the consequences of nuclear war, and $1,113,685 to Biocomplexity Survival Alliance to launch the Wise Ancestors platform supporting conservation of Earth’s biodiversity. Education and capacity-building show up as well, including $247,000 to Foresight Institute for a worldbuilding course and toolbox.
How Future of Life Institute Gives
Typical grants are sized from $259,664 at the 25th percentile to $2,525,000 at the median and $7,383,668 at the 75th percentile, which points to a mix of mid-sized and large awards. The institute also makes very large institutional grants, including major awards to establish related organizations. Its 2025 record shows repeat recipients: Improve the News Foundation received multiple grants in the same year, and Caf America was used for more than one sponsored-project award. The funder is classified as a regular funder, and its listed grantmaking channels include annual grants, fellowships, targeted RFPs, contests, and collaborations. Some programs accept unsolicited proposals, while several call-based programs do not.
Financial Snapshot
Annual Giving
$207.1M
Total Assets
$6.3M
Total Revenue
$21.3M
Total Expenses
$17.4M
Typical Grant Size
Most grants fall between $260K and $7.4M, with a median of $2.5M.
25th Percentile
$260K
Median
$2.5M
75th Percentile
$7.4M
Geographic Reach
National5 states funded
About 0% of grants go to recipients in CA.
Funding intensity
LowHigh
Headquarters
Leadership
MAX TEGMARK
Accepts unsolicited proposals
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