Mox is San Francisco's largest AI safety coworking and community space, providing workspace, events, and fellowships for researchers and organizations working on high-impact problems.
Mox is San Francisco's largest AI safety coworking and community space, providing workspace, events, and fellowships for researchers and organizations working on high-impact problems.
People
Updated 05/18/26CEO
Director
Funding Details
Updated 05/18/26- Annual Budget
- $1,500,000
- Current Runway
- -
- Funding Goal
- $450,000
- Funding Raised to Date
- $800,000
Org Details
Updated 05/18/26Mox is San Francisco's largest AI safety coworking and community space, occupying four floors and approximately 40,000 square feet at 1680 Mission Street. It was founded in February 2025 by Austin Chen (CEO of Manifund) and Rachel Shu, who serves as Director. The founders observed that most AI safety community hubs were located in Berkeley while the important AI lab work was concentrated in San Francisco, and created Mox to close that gap. In its first year of operation, Mox grew to 183 active members with 50 to 80 people present on typical coworking days. The space offers 15 private offices, numerous hot desks, conference rooms, a gym, and a nap room. Mox operates a Guest Program with 19 partner organizations, giving their team members free drop-in access; public partners include MIRI, FAR.AI, Redwood Research, BlueDot Impact, Palisade, GovAI, EPOCH, AI Impacts, Timaeus, Elicit, Evitable, and MATS. Over its first year, Mox hosted 377 events including major conferences such as the Sentient Futures Summit (350+ attendees), fellowships (FLF Fellowship on AI for Human Reasoning with 30 fellows, PIBBSS Fellowship 2025 with 17 fellows, Seldon Lab Accelerator Batches 1 and 2 with 10 startups total, and the Frame Fellowship for video creators), and recurring community programs including EA SF meetups, Astral Codex Ten SF discussions, and machine learning reading groups. Mox operates as a project of Manifund. Its Year 1 annualized costs were approximately $1.2M, funded through a mix of grants (~$800K from Craig Falls/EAIF and Manifund) and earned revenue (~$600K from memberships, private offices, and fellowship fees). As of early 2026, Mox generates approximately $100K per month in revenue against roughly $130K in monthly expenses, resulting in a net monthly burn of approximately $30K. The organization is fundraising for 2026 with a primary goal of $450K and a stretch goal of $1.2M, supported by a 1:1 donation match up to $100K from an anonymous donor.
Theory of Change
Updated 05/18/26Mox's theory of change is that co-location and high-density social infrastructure accelerates high-impact work on AI safety and adjacent cause areas. By concentrating researchers, founders, and practitioners working on important problems in a well-resourced physical space in San Francisco, Mox aims to increase serendipitous collaboration, knowledge transfer, and the formation of new projects and organizations. Hosting fellowships, incubators, and events multiplies the number of people entering and advancing in the AI safety field. Rather than taking a specific thesis on AI safety approaches, Mox provides shared infrastructure that benefits a wide range of organizations and individuals across technical AI safety, policy, and EA cause areas.
Grants Received– no grants recorded
Updated 05/18/26Projects– no linked projects
Updated 05/18/26Discussion
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