AI safety funding has grown substantially over the past five years, but it remains concentrated and competitive. Knowing where to look, what each funder prioritizes, and how to position your work for the specific funder's criteria can dramatically improve your odds. This directory covers the major funding categories and programs as of mid-2026.
Philanthropic grants
Open Philanthropy
Open Philanthropy is the largest single philanthropic funder of AI safety work globally. They fund across technical alignment, interpretability, governance, policy, and field-building. Grant sizes range from individual researcher fellowships (USD 100k-300k per year) to large institutional grants in the millions. They fund both nonprofits and for-profit companies, and they have an informal exploratory grant process with no fixed application deadline. The best entry point is reaching out to their AI safety program officers directly.
- Focus: technical AI safety research, governance, field-building
- Grant sizes: $50k-$30M+ range
- Deadlines: rolling (exploratory grants); some programs have specific cycles
- For-profit eligible: yes
Long-Term Future Fund (LTFF)
The LTFF is an EA Funds program that makes smaller, faster grants to individuals and early-stage projects working on reducing existential risk from AI. It is particularly useful for individual researchers transitioning to independent work, early-stage research projects, and small organizations that are too early for Open Philanthropy. Applications are via EA Funds and reviewed on a rolling basis.
- Focus: individual researchers, early-stage projects in AI safety
- Grant sizes: $5k-$500k
- Deadlines: rolling
- For-profit eligible: case by case
Survival and Flourishing Fund (SFF)
SFF makes grants specifically focused on reducing existential risks from AI and other catastrophic risks. They operate through periodic grant rounds (typically twice per year) and are open to both nonprofits and commercial ventures. Their process includes a public application followed by a funding round where regrantors vote on allocation.
- Focus: AI safety research and organizations; existential risk reduction broadly
- Grant sizes: $50k-$5M range
- Deadlines: approximately twice per year
Manifund
Manifund is a platform for impact-focused funding that combines philanthropy and impact investing. It enables AI safety researchers and founders to receive funding from multiple sources through a single application. It is particularly useful for smaller amounts and for finding early community validation alongside funding.
Government grants
UK: Innovate UK and ARIA
The UK government's Innovate UK runs regular grant competitions for companies developing AI safety-relevant technologies. The Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) is a new agency modeled on DARPA that is actively funding early-stage AI safety and trustworthy AI research. Grants are non-dilutive and typically range from GBP 50k to GBP 3M for company projects.
US: NSF, DARPA, and SBIR/STTR
The US National Science Foundation has several programs relevant to AI safety including the Ethical and Responsible AI program and the Trustworthy AI initiative. DARPA funds high-risk technical research including AI interpretability and robustness. The SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) and STTR (Small Business Technology Transfer) programs provide non-dilutive grants of up to USD 2M in two phases to small companies conducting R&D in areas of national need.
EU: Horizon Europe
EU Horizon Europe runs specific calls for trustworthy AI, AI safety, and AI governance research. Grants range from EUR 500k to EUR 10M and are available to companies, universities, and nonprofits across EU member states and associated countries. Application cycles are typically once or twice per year per topic.
Venture capital
For commercial AI safety ventures, several VC funds are actively looking at this space:
- General AI-focused funds: most large AI-focused funds (Sequoia, a16z, Lightspeed, Plural) have funded AI safety adjacent companies in the compliance, auditing, and governance tool categories
- Impact-focused funds: Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Founders Pledge, and several dedicated impact-first VCs have AI safety mandates
- Corporate venture: Microsoft, Google, and several large enterprises have corporate venture arms investing in trustworthy AI infrastructure that supports their compliance obligations
How to position your application
Across every funding category, the most important positioning element is a clear causal theory of impact: how does your work, specifically, reduce the probability of AI harm? The more concrete and falsifiable your theory, the stronger your application. Avoid vague commitments to "beneficial AI" in favor of specific claims: "Our interpretability tool will let safety researchers identify X type of misalignment before deployment, which reduces the probability of Y outcome by making Z monitoring possible."
The Better Societies Accelerator connects founders with the AI safety funding ecosystem. Apply to the accelerator.