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Foresight Institute

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Founded 1986 (40 years old)HQ: San Francisco, CAforesight.org
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Nonprofit research organization founded in 1986 focused on nanotechnology, secure AI, neurotechnology, longevity biotechnology, and existential hope. Operates through grants, prizes (Feynman Prize since 1993), fellowships, and conferences rather than direct laboratory research. Recently expanded into AI safety grantmaking (~$1.5M in 2024) and planned AI Nodes hubs.

Revenue
$9.4M
as of 2024
Total Funding Raised
$290K
as of 2023
Annual Expenses
$3.8M
as of 2024
Grants Made
$333K
73 grants

Key Metrics

Revenue (ARR)

$9.4M2024
Revenue (ARR) chart. Annual run rate: $1.6M in 2021 to $9.4M in 2024.$0$2.7M$5.4M$8.1M$11M2021202220232024

Facts

11
Financial
Annual Expenses$3.8M
Revenue$9.4M
Total Funding Raised$290K
General
Websitehttps://foresight.org
Organization
Founded Date1986
HeadquartersSan Francisco, CA
Other
ProgramAI Nodes — planned physical hubs in San Francisco and Berlin providing grant funding, office/event space, and compute resources for AI safety and AI-for-science researchers. ~$5M raised toward $7M target as of early 2026.
Program Service Revenue575642
Employee Count6
Total Assets8900000
Charity Rating4 stars — Charity Navigator

Other Data

Entity Assessments
10 entries
DimensionRatingAssessor
ai-safety-relevanceFunds AI safety research in security, human-AI cooperation, neurotechnology, and forecastingeditorial
annual-program-spending~$3.7M (2024 filing, total functional expenses)editorial
ein77-0119168editorial
employees~6 (recent estimates)editorial
focus-areasNanotechnology, secure AI, neurotechnology, longevity biotechnology, space, existential hopeeditorial
founded1986, San Francisco, CAeditorial
foundersChristine Peterson, K. Eric Drexler, James C. Bennetteditorial
key-programsGrants, Feynman Prize, fellowships, Vision Weekend conferences, AI Nodes, tech treeseditorial
total-assets~$8.9M (2024 filing)editorial
typeNonprofit research organization and think tankeditorial

Related Wiki Pages

Top Related Pages

Approaches

Cooperative AI

Analysis

Carlsmith's Six-Premise Argument

Other

RLHFChristine PetersonK. Eric DrexlerJames C. BennettPeter Diamandis

Organizations

Future of Humanity InstituteFuture of Life Institute (FLI)ManifundGovAILessWrongVitaDAO

Concepts

Brain-Computer InterfacesWhole Brain EmulationAI Scaling LawsFTX Collapse: Lessons for EA Funding Resilience

Key Debates

The Case For AI Existential RiskThe Case Against AI Existential Risk