Dustin Moskovitz

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LLM Summary:Dustin Moskovitz and Cari Tuna have given $4B+ since 2011, with ~$336M (12% of total) directed to AI safety through Coefficient Giving, making them the largest individual AI safety funders globally. In 2024, their $63.6M represented ~60% of all external AI safety investment, supporting organizations like MIRI ($20M+), Redwood ($15M+), and METR ($10M+), while maintaining balanced optimism about AI benefits and risks.

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Quick Assessment

Dimension	Assessment	Evidence
Net Worth	≈$17B (2025)	Forbes, Bloomberg Billionaires Index
Lifetime Giving	$4B+	Through Good Ventures since 2011
AI Safety Funding	≈$336M	Via Coefficient Giving (2017-2024)
Primary Vehicle	Coefficient Giving	Formerly Open Philanthropy
Public Profile	Low-to-Moderate	Increasingly vocal on AI policy
Giving Pledge	2010	Youngest signatories (25/26)

Personal Details

Attribute	Details
Full Name	Dustin Aaron Moskovitz
Born	May 22, 1984, Gainesville, Florida
Hometown	Ocala, Florida
High School	Vanguard High School (IB Diploma Program)
Education	Harvard University (economics, attended 2002-2004, did not graduate)
Net Worth	≈$17.4 billion (Forbes, May 2025)
Spouse	Cari Tuna (married October 2013)
Company	Asana (Co-founder, Board Chair since July 2025)
Giving Vehicle	Good Ventures / Coefficient Giving
Giving Pledge	Signed December 2010 (youngest male signatory at 26)

Overview

Dustin Moskovitz is a Facebook co-founder who became the world’s youngest self-made billionaire in 2011 and has since become the largest individual funder of AI safety research through his philanthropy with Coefficient Giving (formerly Open Philanthropy). Together with his wife Cari Tuna, Moskovitz has given away over $4 billion since 2011 and committed to giving away the vast majority of their wealth during their lifetimes through the Giving Pledge.

Moskovitz’s path from tech entrepreneur to major philanthropist began during his time at Harvard, where he roomed with Mark Zuckerberg and helped build Facebook from a dorm-room project into a global platform. After leaving Facebook in 2008, he co-founded Asana, a work management software company that went public in 2020. His wealth derives primarily from his founding stakes in both Meta Platforms and Asana.

Unlike many tech philanthropists who maintain high public profiles, Moskovitz initially took a hands-off approach to his giving, delegating authority to professional staff. However, he has become increasingly vocal about AI risks, signing the Center for AI Safety’s 2023 statement declaring AI extinction risk a “global priority” and advocating for pre-deployment safety evaluations of advanced AI systems.

Moskovitz’s impact on AI safety is substantial. Coefficient Giving has directed approximately $336 million to AI safety since 2017 (about 12% of its $2.8 billion total giving), making it the largest external funder of AI safety research in the world. In 2023 alone, the organization spent $46 million on AI safety, and in 2024 deployed $63.6 million—nearly 60% of all external AI safety investment globally.

Career Timeline

Year	Event	Significance
2002	Enrolled at Harvard	Economics major, roomed with Zuckerberg and Chris Hughes
Feb 2004	Co-founded Facebook	One of four co-founders with Zuckerberg, Saverin, Hughes
Jun 2004	Moved to Palo Alto	Left Harvard to work on Facebook full-time
Dec 2004	Facebook reaches 1M users	After $500K seed from Peter Thiel
2004-2006	First CTO	Built early technical infrastructure
2006-2008	VP of Engineering	Focused on scalability and growth
Oct 2008	Founded Asana	With Justin Rosenstein (former Facebook/Google engineer)
Mar 2011	Youngest self-made billionaire	Forbes recognition based on 2.34% Facebook stake
Sep 2020	Asana IPO	Direct listing at ≈$5.5B valuation
Mar 2025	Announced CEO transition	Planned retirement from Asana CEO role
Jul 2025	Became Board Chair	Dan Rogers appointed as new CEO

Facebook (2004-2008)

Aspect	Details
Role	Co-founder, first CTO, then VP of Engineering
Period	February 2004 - October 2008
Co-founders	Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Chris Hughes, Andrew McCollum
Key Contribution	Technical infrastructure, scalability
Stake at Departure	2.34% (source of initial billions)

Moskovitz was Mark Zuckerberg’s freshman roommate at Harvard University. According to Zuckerberg, Moskovitz “learned programming in a few days” and joined the founding team as a programmer when Facebook (originally “thefacebook.com”) launched in February 2004. He served as the company’s first Chief Technology Officer, building much of the early technical infrastructure. In June 2004, Moskovitz, Zuckerberg, and Hughes moved to Palo Alto, hiring eight employees and receiving $500,000 in seed funding from Peter Thiel. By December 2004, Facebook had nearly 1 million users.

As VP of Engineering, Moskovitz focused on scaling the platform to handle rapid global growth. He departed in October 2008 to start Asana, taking with him the insight that internal work management tools—like those he’d seen at Facebook and Google—could be “democratized” for all organizations.

Asana (2008-2025)

Aspect	Details
Role	Co-founder, CEO (Oct 2010 - Jul 2025), Board Chair (Jul 2025-present)
Co-founder	Justin Rosenstein (former Google/Facebook engineer)
Founded	October 3, 2008
Mission	”Help humanity thrive by enabling the world’s teams to work together effortlessly”
IPO	September 2020 (direct listing, NYSE: ASAN)
Valuation at IPO	≈$5.5 billion
2024 Revenue	>$700 million annually
Customers	170,000+, including 85%+ of Fortune 500
Moskovitz Stake	≈53% (123M Class A/B shares as of 2024)

Moskovitz announced Asana’s founding on October 3, 2008, explaining that they were “democratizing what was the secret sauce of a lot of tech companies”—internal collaborative work management systems. Google had “Tasks” (built by co-founder Justin Rosenstein), Apple had “Radar,” and Amazon had “Simple Issue Tracker.” Asana would bring this capability to all organizations.

Rosenstein initially served as CEO, but Moskovitz took over the role in October 2010 “by necessity.” He later acknowledged that managing people was “ill-suited to his personality,” stating: “By personality, I don’t like to manage teams, and it wasn’t my intention when we started Asana.”

In March 2025, Moskovitz announced plans to transition to Board Chair, with former ServiceNow and Rubrik executive Dan Rogers becoming CEO in July 2025. Moskovitz described the CEO role as “exhausting” and expressed eagerness to focus more on philanthropy and AI safety work.

The Giving Pledge

In December 2010, Dustin Moskovitz and Cari Tuna became the youngest couple to sign the Giving Pledge, the philanthropic commitment launched by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates asking billionaires to give away at least half their wealth. Tuna was 25 and Moskovitz was 26—making them the youngest signatories in the Pledge’s history.

The Pledge Letter

Aspect	Details
Signed	December 2010
Commitment	Give away majority of wealth during lifetime
Co-signers that day	17 billionaires including Mark Zuckerberg
Key Quote	”We will donate and invest with both urgency and mindfulness, aiming to foster a safer, healthier and more economically empowered global community”

The timing was notable: Moskovitz had just become a billionaire through Facebook’s growth, and the term “effective altruism” had not yet been coined. However, the couple was already developing the research-driven approach to philanthropy that would become their hallmark. Their full pledge letter is available on the Giving Pledge website.

Context: Youngest Self-Made Billionaire

In March 2011, Forbes reported Moskovitz as the world’s youngest self-made billionaire based on his 2.34% stake in Facebook. He held this distinction until around 2014, when Snapchat’s co-founders surpassed him. Notably, Moskovitz is just eight days younger than Mark Zuckerberg—making their near-simultaneous billionaire status a unique case.

Philanthropic Activities

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Good Ventures

Aspect	Details
Founded	2011
Structure	Good Ventures Foundation (private foundation, 2012) + Good Ventures LLC (impact investments, 2012)
Leadership	Cari Tuna (Co-founder, Chair)
Staff	No direct employees; relies on Coefficient Giving for research and grantmaking
Lifetime Giving	$4B+ (2011-2025)
Major Gift	$1.9B transfer from Moskovitz to Good Ventures (June 2023)

Good Ventures is the private foundation through which Moskovitz and Tuna channel their philanthropy. The organization works closely with Coefficient Giving (formerly Open Philanthropy), which provides research, analysis, and grantmaking recommendations. Good Ventures has no staff of its own—all operations are conducted through Coefficient Giving.

In June 2023, Moskovitz quietly donated $1.9 billion to Good Ventures, equivalent to the entire endowment of major legacy foundations like the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. This gift enabled significantly expanded giving capacity.

Coefficient Giving (formerly Open Philanthropy)

The evolution of Moskovitz and Tuna’s grantmaking infrastructure reflects their deepening partnership with effective altruism:

Year	Development
2010	Moskovitz and Tuna meet GiveWell co-founders Holden Karnofsky and Elie Hassenfeld
2011	Tuna joins GiveWell board; Good Ventures founded
2012	GiveWell Labs created as joint initiative
2014	GiveWell Labs rebranded as Open Philanthropy Project
2017	Open Philanthropy becomes independent LLC
2019	Shortened to “Open Philanthropy”
2024	Lead Exposure Action Fund launches ($125M) as first multi-donor fund
2025	Rebranded to “Coefficient Giving” to reflect multi-donor expansion

Coefficient Giving now serves as the primary vehicle for Moskovitz’s giving:

Aspect	Details
Total Giving (2017-2024)	≈$2.8 billion
2024 Grants	>$650 million
2025 YTD	>$600 million
Staff	≈100
Cause Areas	Global health, AI safety, biosecurity, farm animal welfare, scientific research
AI Safety Total	≈$336 million (12% of total)
Multi-Donor Funds	Lead Exposure Action Fund ($125M), Abundance & Growth Fund ($120M)

The rebrand to “Coefficient Giving” signals a strategic shift from serving primarily one anchor donor (Good Ventures) to operating multi-donor funds that other philanthropists can join. The name reflects the mathematical concept: a coefficient multiplies whatever it’s paired with, just as the organization aims to amplify philanthropic impact.

Giving Scale

Period	Amount	Key Developments
2011-2015	≈$100M	GiveWell top charities, EA infrastructure
2016-2019	≈$500M	Grantmaking grows, AI safety begins
2020-2022	≈$1B	Major AI safety scaling, pandemic response
2023	≈$600M	Post-FTX expansion, $1.9B transfer to Good Ventures
2024	≈$650M	Multi-donor fund launches
2025	≈$600M+	Coefficient Giving rebrand
Lifetime	$4B+	Through Good Ventures/Coefficient Giving

Major Non-AI Grants

Recipient	Amount	Focus
Malaria Consortium	$300M+	Malaria prevention
Evidence Action	$200M+	Deworming, water treatment
Helen Keller International	$100M+	Vitamin A supplementation
GiveDirectly	$50M+	Direct cash transfers

AI Safety Philanthropy

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Funding Overview

Coefficient Giving (formerly Open Philanthropy) has become the world’s largest external funder of AI safety research:

Metric	Value	Source
Total AI Safety Grants	≈$336M	2017-2024
Share of Total Giving	≈12%	Of $2.8B total
2023 AI Safety Spending	$46M	LessWrong Analysis
2024 AI Safety Spending	$63.6M	≈60% of all external AI safety investment
Median Grant Size	≈$257K	Across all AI safety grants
Average Grant Size	$1.67M	Skewed by large grants

Major AI Safety Grant Recipients

Recipient	Total Funding	Focus Area	Notable Grants
MIRI	$20M+	Technical alignment	$7.7M general support, $4.1M (2024)
Redwood Research	$15M+	Interpretability, alignment	$5.3M (2023), $6.2M (2024)
Center for AI Safety	$12M+	Advocacy, research, field-building	$1.87M exit grant (2023), $1.43M philosophy fellowship
METR	$10M+	Evaluations	$265K (2022), $10M to RAND/METR Canary project
Epoch AI	$5M+	AI forecasting	Multiple grants
GovAI	$10M+	AI governance research	Core support
FAR.AI	$1.3M+	Alignment research	$645K (Jan 2024), $680K (Jul 2024)
University Programs	$30M+	Academic research	Berkeley, Stanford, Oxford, Cambridge

2024 Technical AI Safety Initiative

In 2024, Coefficient Giving launched a major Request for Proposals for technical AI safety research:

Aspect	Details
Initial Budget	$40M over 5 months
Research Areas	21 areas across 5 categories
Focus	Interpretability, alignment, evaluations
Flexibility	”Additional funding available depending on application quality”

Key 2024 grants under this initiative included $25 million for developing better benchmarks for LLM agent capabilities, with results already being used by the U.S. and UK governments, OpenAI, and Anthropic to measure AI systems’ potential for cyberattacks and pandemic creation assistance.

METR/ARC Evals Partnership

A notable success story in Coefficient Giving’s AI safety portfolio is the support for AI evaluations work:

Entity	Founded	Relationship
Alignment Research Center (ARC)	April 2021	Founded by Paul Christiano (former OpenAI)
ARC Evals	2022	Founded by Beth Barnes within ARC
METR	December 2023	Spun out as independent nonprofit

METR (formerly ARC Evals) now partners with OpenAI and Anthropic to evaluate advanced AI models before release. In a notable 2023 test, ARC evaluated GPT-4’s ability to exhibit power-seeking behavior, including a test where GPT-4 successfully solved a CAPTCHA by hiring a human on TaskRabbit and deceiving them into believing it was vision-impaired.

Anthropic Connection

While Coefficient Giving has not made direct large grants to Anthropic (which has raised >$7 billion in venture capital), there are significant connections:

Aspect	Details
FTX Investment	$500M (2022, now in bankruptcy proceedings)
Coefficient Connection	Holden Karnofsky (Coefficient co-founder) joined Anthropic in 2025
Karnofsky’s Role	Working on Responsible Scaling Policy
Board Structure	Long-Term Benefit Trust controls 3 of 5 board seats

Note: The $500M investment commonly associated with AI safety philanthropy was actually from FTX, not Coefficient Giving. Holden Karnofsky, Coefficient Giving’s co-founder and Anthropic President Daniela Amodei’s husband, joined Anthropic’s technical staff in early 2025 to work on safety protocols.

Philosophy and Approach

Effective Altruism Connection

Moskovitz and Tuna have been central figures in the effective altruism movement since before the term was coined:

Year	Milestone
2010	Met GiveWell founders Karnofsky and Hassenfeld
2011	Tuna joined GiveWell board; Good Ventures founded
2012	GiveWell partnership formalized
2014	Open Philanthropy Project launched
2015+	Major funding for 80,000 Hours, CEA, EA Global

According to one analysis, “It is difficult to separate them from the movement” and “They are the figureheads.” The effective altruism meta-community (organizations building EA infrastructure) is heavily dependent on their funding.

The ITN Framework

Moskovitz and Tuna’s giving follows the effective altruism “ITN” framework for cause prioritization:

Criterion	Description	Application
Importance	Scale of the problem	AI risk: potential extinction-level
Tractability	Can progress be made?	Safety research showing results
Neglectedness	Is it underfunded?	AI safety was ≈$50M/year before OP scaled

Giving Style

Characteristic	Description
Delegated Authority	Empowers professional staff to make independent decisions
Research-Driven	Extensive investigation before major grants
Spend-Down	Aims to give away wealth during lifetime, not create perpetual foundation
Cause-Neutral	Willing to shift funding based on evidence
High Risk Tolerance	Funds speculative bets on transformative research
Increasingly Vocal	Shifting from low-profile to public AI advocacy

Key Priorities

Priority	Rationale	Share of Giving
Global Health	Proven, cost-effective interventions	≈40%
AI Safety	Potential to prevent catastrophe	≈12%
Biosecurity	High-impact, neglected	≈15%
Farm Animal Welfare	Enormous scale of suffering	≈15%
Scientific Research	Enabling innovation	≈10%
Other	Policy, EA infrastructure	≈8%

Views on AI Risk

Unlike some AI safety funders who maintain either strong pessimism (“doomerism”) or optimism, Moskovitz explicitly rejects this binary framing. His views have evolved from early AI optimism to nuanced concern:

Evolution of Views

Period	Position
Early 2010s	Self-described “AI accelerationist”; invested in Vicarious
Mid-2010s	Began funding AI safety through Coefficient (then Open Philanthropy)
2020s	”Neither doomer nor accelerationist”—supports safety research while remaining optimistic

Key Statements

Moskovitz has articulated his AI risk philosophy in several interviews:

“The people I least understand in the AI risk debate are the ones who have ~100% confidence that AI will or will not destroy us—either way, how can they really know something like that?”

“The AI safety community takes a third position: AI is going to be great and we need to mitigate some very real problems.”

On the false dichotomy he sees in AI debates:

“Opponents are deliberately creating a polarized frame that does not exist—on one side are ‘doomers who think everything is awful and want to ban math,’ and on the other are ‘libertarians who think AI is going to be amazing.’ I purposefully reject this binary.”

The Car Safety Analogy

Moskovitz frequently uses a car safety analogy to explain his position:

“When you get into a car, you expect to go to your destination, but you put on a seatbelt and follow the rules of the road. There’s a regulatory system and licensing system for drivers that helps ensure mutual safety for everyone, including pedestrians. I think about AI safety in the same way—we are heading towards something really awesome, but there are some serious risks we need to address.”

Policy Positions

Position	Details
Pre-deployment Evaluations	”The thing I’m most interested in is making sure state-of-the-art later generations, like GPT-5, GPT-6, get run through safety evaluations before being released”
Regulation	Supports coordinated regulatory frameworks; helped craft 12-point policy list for U.S. lawmakers
CAIS Statement	Signed May 2023 statement declaring AI extinction risk a “global priority”
Short Timelines	”I’m pretty much a short timelines person, so I think these problems are now”

Personal Optimism

Despite his concerns, Moskovitz maintains optimism:

“I believe we will figure out a positive way forward with AI and unlock a future that is unimaginably good.”

Personal Characteristics

Trait	Description	Evidence
Analytical	Data-driven approach to giving	Research-intensive grantmaking process
Uncertainty-Embracing	Acknowledges limits of knowledge	Skeptical of 100% confidence claims
Delegating	Empowers professional staff	Coefficient Giving operates independently
Long-term Focused	Thinks about future generations	AI safety, biosecurity focus
Increasingly Vocal	Moving from private to public role	Podcast interviews, policy advocacy
Introverted	Prefers not to manage teams	Stepped down as Asana CEO

Personal Life

Aspect	Details
Met Cari Tuna	2009, blind date arranged by mutual friend
Married	October 2013
Cari’s Background	Yale graduate, former Wall Street Journal reporter (San Francisco bureau)
Cari’s Role	Co-founder and Chair of Good Ventures and Coefficient Giving
Shared Interests	Burning Man attendance, effective altruism
Children	Not publicly disclosed

Cari Tuna

Cari Tuna (born October 4, 1985) deserves significant credit for the couple’s philanthropic work. While Moskovitz provided the capital, Tuna has been the driving force behind their giving strategy:

Aspect	Details
Education	Yale University graduate
Career	Former Wall Street Journal reporter
Role at Good Ventures	Co-founder and Chair
Role at Coefficient Giving	Chair
GiveWell Involvement	Joined board in 2011
Recognition	TIME100 Philanthropy 2025

Tuna met the GiveWell founders (Holden Karnofsky and Elie Hassenfeld) and was impressed by their commitment to transparency and cause neutrality. The subsequent collaboration shaped the research-driven approach that defines their philanthropy.

Comparison with Other Major AI Safety Donors

Aspect	Moskovitz	Tallinn	Vitalik Buterin
Net Worth	≈$17B	≈$500M	≈$1B
Annual Giving	$200M+	$50M	Variable
AI Safety Focus	≈12%	≈85%	Variable
Primary Vehicle	Coefficient Giving	SFF	Direct/various
Public Profile	Low-Moderate	Medium	High
Delegation Level	High	Medium	Low
Risk Tolerance	Medium-High	High	High
Wealth Source	Facebook, Asana	Skype, Kazaa	Ethereum

Criticisms and Discussions

Topic	Description	Response/Context
Field Influence	Concerns about single donor shaping AI safety research agenda	Coefficient Giving expanding to multi-donor model
EA Concentration	Heavy EA infrastructure dependence on Moskovitz/Tuna funding	Acknowledged; no clear alternative funding source
Post-FTX Scrutiny	Association with effective altruism after FTX collapse	Increased emphasis on governance, diversification
Capability vs. Safety	Questions about funding organizations that advance AI capabilities	Moskovitz argues safety work requires frontier access
Neglecting Near-term Harms	Focus on existential risk over present AI harms	Coefficient Giving also funds bias research, misuse prevention

The Concentration Problem

A key concern in the AI safety community is heavy dependence on a small number of funders. Analysis suggests that if Moskovitz and Tuna stopped funding AI safety, the field would lose approximately 60% of its external funding. This concentration creates risks:

Research agendas may reflect donor preferences
Organizations may self-censor to maintain funding
Loss of major funder could collapse multiple organizations simultaneously

Coefficient Giving’s 2025 rebrand and multi-donor fund structure explicitly aims to address this by attracting additional philanthropists.

Public Communications

Media Appearances

Venue	Date	Topic
Tim Ferriss Show (#686)	August 2023	AI risks, energy management, Asana
Stratechery Interview	2025	AI, SaaS, and Safety
CNBC	June 2023	AI concerns and policy positions
Medium	Ongoing	”Works in Progress” blog

Key Publications

Works in Progress: The Long Journey to Doing Good Better (Medium)
AI can make work more human (Asana blog)
Giving Pledge Letter

External Links

Dustin Moskovitz - Wikipedia
Coefficient Giving (formerly Open Philanthropy)
Good Ventures
Giving Pledge Profile
Asana
Bloomberg Billionaires Index