OpenAI’s nonprofit foundation announced it’s awarding $40.5 million in grants this year to 208 nonprofits across the US supporting local communities — the largest outside philanthropic commitment the artificial intelligence giant has made to date.
Grant recipients are working in areas such as technology workforce training for youth, mental health support for veterans and AI literacy, the company said Wednesday.
The grants, which aim to “expand the opportunity of AI,” are the biggest example so far of OpenAI’s nonprofit spending, but they’re still a small fraction of the roughly $130 billion in equity value that the foundation now has in OpenAI’s for-profit after a recent corporate restructuring. Last year, OpenAI’s foundation gave away a comparably tiny $7.5 million, a recent tax filing shows.
Grants were made to organizations supporting work in three areas: AI literacy and public understanding, community innovation and economic opportunity. Many of the groups plan to use AI in their work with the grant money, but the company said that AI use wasn’t a requirement.
In July, under the guidance of its nonprofit commission, OpenAI pledged to donate $50 million to community-oriented organizations as part of its People-First AI Fund. After more than 3,000 organizations applied for grants this fall, the foundation has named the recipients of the first wave of giving, and plans to announce the remaining $9.5 million in awards in the coming months.
The moves follow an extended negotiation between OpenAI and regulators in California and Delaware over it plans to restructure as a more conventional for-profit business. One of the company’s key arguments in favor of the change was that its nonprofit arm — which now holds a 26% stake in the for-profit entity — would be better funded to make investments in the public interest.
“We’re proud to support this first group of grantees and to continue work that is mission-driven and responsive to the people it exists to serve,” OpenAI Foundation board chair Bret Taylor said in a statement.
The organizations OpenAI selected ranged widely in size, but their operating budgets were under $10 million, the company said. They include a California-based workforce development nonprofit that provides under-served youth with free technology training and mentorship, a North Carolina-based nonprofit helping rural communities with mental health, and a national association for Native American journalists, which will help guide how they engage with technology like AI.
Roughly half of the grantees were based in California, which the OpenAI Foundation said in a statement reflected its commitment to its home state.
While the more than $40 million in grants represents an increase over previous years, the foundation has much larger spending plans in the future. In October, OpenAI said the foundation would invest $25 billion in two key areas: health and AI “resilience,” or protecting society from potential harms of AI such as cyberattacks. The group has yet to announce further details such as if it will hire new leadership and staff. It’s also not yet clear whether the billions in planned investment will go toward unrestricted grants to outside organizations, similar to the ones announced Wednesday, or include projects led by OpenAI’s nonprofit itself.
For the next wave of $9.5 million in grants from the People-First AI Fund, OpenAI said it will aim to support “organizations already advancing transformative AI work,” in areas such as health and medicine. OpenAI also said it will “prioritize projects with the potential to scale and create durable public benefit.”
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