Lightspeed Grants

Lightspeed Grants is a grantmaking program operated by Lightcone Infrastructure, a Berkeley, California-based nonprofit that also runs LessWrong, the AI Alignment Forum, and the Lighthaven event campus. The program was publicly launched on June 7, 2023, with an application deadline of July 6, 2023 and a commitment to respond to all applicants by August 6, 2023, with an accelerated 14-day turnaround available for urgent requests. The core motivation for Lightspeed Grants is that funding speed is often a decisive variable for high-impact projects in the existential risk space. The founders observed that waiting on funding decisions and funding uncertainty frequently derail or delay promising work. Lightspeed Grants aims to address this by combining a streamlined application (designed to take 1-2 hours) with a fast evaluation timeline. The first round had a budget of $5 million, provided primarily by Jaan Tallinn, the Estonian internet entrepreneur and major EA funder. The program received approximately 600 applications requesting a total of roughly $150 million in default funding (and up to $350 million in maximum funding), meaning only around 3% of requested funds could be awarded. About 450 rejections were sent on August 6, 2023, with the remaining ~150 applications held pending funder decisions on total allocation. The program's primary focus areas are: reducing the probability of existential catastrophe from artificial intelligence; preventing the development or spread of novel biological pathogens; improving the reasoning capabilities of key global decision-makers; and uncovering crucial considerations that could shift understanding of humanity's future. Applications outside these areas are also considered. Lightspeed Grants uses the S-Process, a funding allocation mechanism developed by Lightcone Infrastructure that has been used to distribute over $100 million across the Survival and Flourishing Fund, the Future of Life Institute, and other grantmakers. The S-Process is designed to let multiple funders coordinate efficiently without double-funding or donor-chicken dynamics. Hack Club Bank serves as fiscal sponsor for successful applicants when needed. As of early 2026, only one round of Lightspeed Grants has been conducted. A Manifold prediction market on whether a second round would occur before end of 2024 resolved NO on January 1, 2025. The website remains live but shows applications as closed, with no announcement of a future round.