Macroscopic Ventures

Macroscopic Ventures is a Swiss nonprofit association (Verein) founded in 2019 under the name Center for Emerging Risk Research (CERR), subsequently renamed Polaris Ventures, and then rebranded as Macroscopic Ventures in February 2025. It is registered in the Commercial Register of Canton Basel-Stadt (CHE-455.562.321) and is tax-exempt under Swiss law due to its charitable purposes. The organization makes grants and investments aimed at improving the long-term quality of life for future generations. Its primary focus is on reducing suffering risks, with particular attention to catastrophic AI misuse by malevolent or fanatical actors, AI-related conflict, and concerns about potential AI sentience and welfare. It also funds work on animal welfare (including farmed fish, invertebrates, and wild animals) and efforts to counter fanatical ideologies such as fascism and totalitarianism. As a major funder in the AI safety space, Macroscopic Ventures has made significant grant commitments: a $15 million endowment to seed the Cooperative AI Foundation, a $3 million grant to Carnegie Mellon University to establish the Foundations of Cooperative AI Lab headed by Vincent Conitzer, and a $1 million contribution to the NYU Mind, Ethics, and Policy Program endowment as part of a $6 million endowment (alongside a $5 million gift from The Navigation Fund). Additional grantees include the Center on Long-Term Risk, Rethink Priorities, the Institute for AI Policy and Strategy, Eleos AI, ChinaTalk, and others. On the investment side, the organization has participated in Anthropic's Series A and Series B funding rounds and holds stakes in Apollo Research, FutureSearch, Gray Swan, Halcyon Ventures, Mythos Ventures, RunRL, San Francisco Compute Company, and Seldon Lab. As of mid-2022, the organization's assets were reported at approximately $200 million. It gave around $10 million in grants in 2024 and planned to scale to up to $100 million in 2025. The organization is led by President Ruairí Donnelly, CFO Jonas Vollmer, COO Daniel Kestenholz, Senior Strategist David Althaus, and Grants Director Jesse Clifton, with a total team of approximately 14 people.