Episode Details
Back to Episodes“Coefficient Giving just gave GiveWell $1 billion. Where should other donors give now?” by Jack Lewars
Description
Linkpost for my Substack piece, lightly adapted. Disagreement very welcome.
What happened
Coefficient Giving (cG) announced a $1 billion gift to GiveWell on 23rd July. This increases a previous commitment of 175 million dollars for 2026. cG say this could be a one-off surge, but it has implications for other donors either way. Both organisations have lowered their funding thresholds this year (GiveWell from 8x their benchmark to 6x, Coefficient from 2,000x their benchmark to 1,000x). Even if GiveWell hit their aim of grantmaking that will "approach or even exceed $1 billion this year", cG's gift is roughly the size of everything GiveWell expects to grant this year.
They don't specifically mention AI wealth, but I think it's fairly clear what they mean when they say "much of the future funding we're anticipating depends on the valuations of some extremely volatile assets." They also say that a belief in the potential of AI to transform global health affects their decision. In essence, AI wealth and short AI timelines are now setting budgets for bednets, vitamin-A distribution and vaccination incentives. This is the first major example of how the Funding Anthropalypse will reshape EA.
What should donors do - my [...]
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First published:
July 24th, 2026
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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.