macroscopic.org · foundation · Center for Emerging Risk Research, Polaris Ventures
Philanthropic foundation, Macroscopic Ventures, making grants and investments on global catastrophic risks, including AI safety and biosecurity.
15 people
source, Oct 2026
| AI safety | $91,400,000 | 69% | 16 |
| Other | $19,800,000 | 15% | 8 |
| Animal welfare | $19,800,000 | 15% | 8 |
| AI safety adjacent | $1,000,000 | 1% | 1 |
| Cooperative AI Foundation | $15,000,000 | 11% | 5 |
| Foundations of Cooperative AI Lab | $3,000,000 | 2% | 3 |
| NYU Center for Mind, Ethics, and Policy | $1,000,000 | 1% | 1 |
| Date ↓ | Recipient | Via | Amount | Cause | Source | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Unknown Recipients | ~$49,000,000* | AI safety | fund_estimates | Aggregate estimate — AI safety | |
| 2026 | Unknown Recipients | ~$10,500,000* | Other | fund_estimates | Aggregate estimate — other causes | |
| 2026 | Unknown Recipients | ~$10,500,000* | Animal welfare | fund_estimates | Aggregate estimate — animal welfare | |
| 2025 | Unknown Recipients | ~$4,500,000† | Animal welfare | fund_estimates | Aggregate estimate — animal welfare | |
| 2025 | Unknown Recipients | ~$18,000,000† | AI safety | fund_estimates | Aggregate estimate — AI safety | |
| 2025 | Unknown Recipients | ~$4,500,000† | Other | fund_estimates | Aggregate estimate — other causes | |
| 2025 | Cooperative AI Foundation | ~$3,000,000‡ | AI safety | macroscopic | Seed commitment to establish the Cooperative AI Foundation — Cooperative AI | |
| May 2024 | NYU Center for Mind, Ethics, and Policy | $1,000,000 | AI welfare | macroscopic | Gift (as Polaris Ventures) toward the $6m CMEP Endowment Fund; research on consciousness, sentience, and the moral status of nonhumans including AI systems — AI welfare & sentience | |
| 2024 | Foundations of Cooperative AI Lab | ~$1,000,000§ | AI safety | macroscopic | Commitment to establish the Foundations of Cooperative AI Lab (FOCAL) at Carnegie Mellon University, headed by Vincent Conitzer — Cooperative AI | |
| 2024 | Unknown Recipients | ~$1,500,000¶ | Other | fund_estimates | Aggregate estimate — other causes | |
| 2024 | Cooperative AI Foundation | ~$3,000,000‡ | AI safety | macroscopic | Seed commitment to establish the Cooperative AI Foundation — Cooperative AI | |
| 2024 | Unknown Recipients | ~$1,500,000¶ | Animal welfare | fund_estimates | Aggregate estimate — animal welfare | |
| 2024 | Unknown Recipients | ~$2,000,000¶ | AI safety | fund_estimates | Aggregate estimate — AI safety | |
| 2023 | Unknown Recipients | ~$1,200,000* | Animal welfare | fund_estimates | Aggregate estimate — animal welfare | |
| 2023 | Foundations of Cooperative AI Lab | ~$1,000,000§ | AI safety | macroscopic | Commitment to establish the Foundations of Cooperative AI Lab (FOCAL) at Carnegie Mellon University, headed by Vincent Conitzer — Cooperative AI | |
| 2023 | Unknown Recipients | ~$1,600,000* | AI safety | fund_estimates | Aggregate estimate — AI safety | |
| 2023 | Cooperative AI Foundation | ~$3,000,000‡ | AI safety | macroscopic | Seed commitment to establish the Cooperative AI Foundation — Cooperative AI | |
| 2023 | Unknown Recipients | ~$1,200,000* | Other | fund_estimates | Aggregate estimate — other causes | |
| 2022 | Unknown Recipients | ~$900,000* | Animal welfare | fund_estimates | Aggregate estimate — animal welfare | |
| 2022 | Foundations of Cooperative AI Lab | ~$1,000,000§ | AI safety | macroscopic | Commitment to establish the Foundations of Cooperative AI Lab (FOCAL) at Carnegie Mellon University, headed by Vincent Conitzer — Cooperative AI | |
| 2022 | Unknown Recipients | ~$200,000* | AI safety | fund_estimates | Aggregate estimate — AI safety | |
| 2022 | Cooperative AI Foundation | ~$3,000,000‡ | AI safety | macroscopic | Seed commitment to establish the Cooperative AI Foundation — Cooperative AI | |
| 2022 | Unknown Recipients | ~$900,000* | Other | fund_estimates | Aggregate estimate — other causes | |
| 2021 | Unknown Recipients | ~$500,000* | AI safety | fund_estimates | Aggregate estimate — AI safety | |
| 2021 | Unknown Recipients | ~$750,000* | Animal welfare | fund_estimates | Aggregate estimate — animal welfare | |
| 2021 | Centre for the Governance of AI, Inc. | — | AI governance, policy, and advocacy | org_reported | and the Center for Emerging Risk Research | |
| 2021 | Unknown Recipients | ~$750,000* | Other | fund_estimates | Aggregate estimate — other causes | |
| 2021 | Cooperative AI Foundation | ~$3,000,000‡ | AI safety | macroscopic | Seed commitment to establish the Cooperative AI Foundation — Cooperative AI | |
| 2020 | Unknown Recipients | ~$1,400,000* | AI safety | fund_estimates | Aggregate estimate — AI safety | |
| 2020 | Unknown Recipients | ~$300,000* | Other | fund_estimates | Aggregate estimate — other causes | |
| 2020 | Unknown Recipients | ~$300,000* | Animal welfare | fund_estimates | Aggregate estimate — animal welfare | |
| 2019 | Unknown Recipients | ~$700,000* | AI safety | fund_estimates | Aggregate estimate — AI safety | |
| 2019 | Unknown Recipients | ~$150,000* | Other | fund_estimates | Aggregate estimate — other causes | |
| 2019 | Unknown Recipients | ~$150,000* | Animal welfare | fund_estimates | Aggregate estimate — animal welfare | |
| — | Intelligence Security Laboratories | — | Other | macroscopic | Implementation-driven R&D for high-security AI systems, bridging theoretical security research and practical deployment — AI security research | |
| — | Myrias | — | Animal welfare | macroscopic | Incubating interventions against large neglected sources of animal suffering — Animal welfare | |
| — | Arq Foundation | — | AI governance, policy, and advocacy | macroscopic | Preparing Europe for transformative AI, including the Europe 2031 scenario project — AI governance | |
| — | Simon Institute for Longterm Governance | — | International governance | macroscopic | International governance of frontier AI — International AI governance | |
| — | Eleos AI | — | AI welfare | macroscopic | Research on potential sentience and wellbeing of AI systems — AI welfare & sentience | |
| — | ETH AI Center | — | Other | macroscopic | AI fellowship program for doctoral and postdoctoral researchers, via the ETH Zurich Foundation — General | |
| — | Longview Philanthropy | — | Technical governance | macroscopic | Support for the hardware-enabled mechanisms request for proposals — Technical AI governance | |
| — | Rethink Priorities | — | Other existential risk | macroscopic | Cross-cause research including animal welfare, global catastrophic risks, and AI — General | |
| — | Longview Philanthropy | — | AI welfare | macroscopic | Support for the Consortium for Digital Sentience Research and Applied Work — AI welfare & sentience | |
| — | Institute for AI Policy and Strategy | — | AI governance, policy, and advocacy | org_reported | support to date from ... Macroscopic Ventures, the Survival and Flourishing Fund | |
| — | Rhine AI Lab | — | Other | macroscopic | Research on agentic AI systems, sequential decision making, and generative AI at the University of Basel and UCL — General | |
| — | Delta Institute | — | AI governance, policy, and advocacy | macroscopic | AI governance work at a Dutch think tank — AI governance | |
| — | Redwood Research | — | Security | macroscopic | AI safety and security research on risks from powerful AI systems acting against developers’ interests — AI safety research | |
| — | PRISM | — | AI welfare | macroscopic | Field-building for digital minds: supporting research, raising awareness, developing talent, and organizing events and workshops — AI welfare & sentience | |
| — | Center on Long-Term Risk | — | S-risk | macroscopic | Research on ensuring emerging technologies such as AI do not cause suffering on an unprecedented scale — S-risk research | |
| — | NYU Center for Mind, Brain, and Consciousness | — | AI welfare | macroscopic | Support for work on AI consciousness and welfare — AI welfare & sentience |
* Estimated total given out by Macroscopic Ventures in 2026; grants recorded individually in this database are subtracted from the total. Split 70% AI safety / 15% animal welfare / 15% other.
† Estimated total given out by Macroscopic Ventures in 2025; grants recorded individually in this database are subtracted from the total. Split 70% AI safety / 15% animal welfare / 15% other.
‡ Macroscopic Ventures reported a $15m seed commitment to establish the Cooperative AI Foundation; spread evenly over five years (2021-2025).
§ Macroscopic Ventures reported a $3m commitment to establish FOCAL; spread evenly over three years (2022-2024).
¶ Estimated total given out by Macroscopic Ventures in 2024; grants recorded individually in this database are subtracted from the total. Split 70% AI safety / 15% animal welfare / 15% other.
* Estimated total given out by Macroscopic Ventures in 2023; grants recorded individually in this database are subtracted from the total. Split 70% AI safety / 15% animal welfare / 15% other.
* Estimated total given out by Macroscopic Ventures in 2022; grants recorded individually in this database are subtracted from the total. Split 70% AI safety / 15% animal welfare / 15% other.
* Estimated total given out by Macroscopic Ventures in 2021; grants recorded individually in this database are subtracted from the total. Split 70% AI safety / 15% animal welfare / 15% other.
* Estimated total given out by Macroscopic Ventures in 2020; grants recorded individually in this database are subtracted from the total. Split 70% AI safety / 15% animal welfare / 15% other.
* Estimated total given out by Macroscopic Ventures in 2019; grants recorded individually in this database are subtracted from the total. Split 70% AI safety / 15% animal welfare / 15% other.