Schmidt Sciences is a philanthropic organization established in 2024 to fund unconventional research in science and technology. [1] [2] Founded by Eric Schmidt and Wendy Schmidt, the nonprofit is a spin-off of Schmidt Futures. [3] Schmidt Sciences awards the AI2050 academic fellowship which asks scholars to imagine a future in which AI has benefited society. [4] The Schmidts have committed $125 million to the AI2050 program over five years. [4] [5] The organization also partners with Schmidt Ocean Institute to support the Ocean Biogeochemistry Virtual Institute (OBVI). [6]
In 2025, Schmidt Sciences announced a new $10 million venture to fund scientific research into safety problems in AI. [2] [7] The AI science safety program includes 27 projects. [7] Awardees announced in February 2025 included computer scientist Yoshua Bengio, who is developing AI risk mitigation technology, and Zico Kolter, an OpenAI board member, exploring AI attacks. [7]