The Eric and Wendy Schmidt Fund for Strategic Innovation
Invitation OnlyPalo Alto, California · EIN 46-3460261 · Private foundation
Grants paid (2024)$244.1M
Organizations funded283
Typical grant$250,000
Total assets$1.6B
Half of its grants to organizations were between $65,000 and $868,890.
From the return
How to apply
On its return for tax year 2024 the foundation checked the box saying it only makes contributions to preselected charitable organizations and does not accept unsolicited requests for funds.
What it funds
Share of grant lines on the latest return, classified from the purpose each grant states.
Where it gives
78% of grants went outside California.
Grants paid in tax year 2024
| Recipient | Location | Purpose | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Rhodes Trust | Oxford, UK | General operating support | $12,500,000 |
| Kyutai | Paris, FR | To provide general support | $10,442,000 |
| Barack Obama Foundation | Chicago, IL | To support the obama presidential center | $10,000,000 |
| Future House Inc | Sherborn, MA | To provide support for futurehouse ai scientist program | $10,000,000 |
| The Rhodes Trust | Oxford, UK | Support for rhodes trust science fellowship | $8,069,204 |
| Convergent Research Inc | Cambridge, MA | To provide support for scientific focused research | $8,000,000 |
| Convergent Research Inc | Cambridge, MA | To provide support for scientific focused research | $8,000,000 |
| The Rhodes Trust | Oxford, UK | Awards earmarked to 105 individuals in the schmidt science fellowship program | $7,038,587 |
| Digital Harbor Foundation Inc | Baltimore, MD | Support to implement the learning engineering virtual institute | $6,094,431 |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Cambridge, MA | To support mit's plasma science and fusion center | $6,000,000 |
| The Rhodes Trust | Oxford, UK | Awards earmarked to 305 individuals in the rise program | $5,937,909 |
| California Institute of Technology | Pasadena, CA | Support for dsa-2000: revolutionizing access to the radio sky | $4,826,269 |
| California Institute of Technology | Pasadena, CA | Support for clima: climate modeling alliance 2024 | $4,500,000 |
| Convergent Research Inc | Cambridge, MA | To provide support for focused research organization | $4,000,000 |
| The Regents of the University of California | Berkeley, CA | The schmidt center ds4e | $3,065,404 |
| Convergent Research Inc | Cambridge, MA | To provide support for scientific focused research | $3,000,000 |
| Ganna Walska Lotusland | Santa Barbara, CA | To provide support to establish an employee assistance endowment fund | $3,000,000 |
| Chancellor Masters & Scholars of the University of Oxford | Oxford, UK | Support for schmidt ai in science postdocs | $2,888,188 |
| Institute of International Education Inc | New York, NY | To provide support for the quad fellowship program | $2,864,440 |
| California Institute of Technology | Pasadena, CA | The dsa-2000 radio camera: revolutionizing access to the radio sky | $2,409,535 |
| New York University | New York, NY | Support for scientific research on m2lines - multiscale machine learning in coupled earth system modeling | $2,267,755 |
| Centre National de LA Recherche Scientifique | Paris, FR | Support for the scale-aware sea ice project | $2,259,408 |
| University of Western Ontario | London, CA | To provide support for scientific focused research | $2,200,000 |
| Science and Technology Futures Inc | Cambridge, MA | To provide support for open datasets initiative. | $2,130,000 |
| University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Arts and Sciences Foundation | Chapel Hill, NC | Support for the argus observatory low cost access to the deep, high cadence sky | $2,043,250 |
| Princeton University | Princeton, NJ | Support for scientific research on sargassum seaweed as a future renewable feedstock for sustainable biomanufacturing | $2,030,381 |
| Cambridge in America | New York, NY | Support for the university of cambridge scientific software center | $1,907,867 |
| The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System | Madison, WI | Support for scientific research on converting inconsistent and heterogeneous biomass and municipal solid wastes into de-mineralized and… | $1,905,498 |
| Battelle Memorial Institute | Columbus, OH | Support for separations technologies that enable production and use of high-value biomass streams from agricultural and food processing… | $1,888,490 |
| Cambridge in America | New York, NY | Support for advancing ai in scientific research | $1,840,000 |
| Regents of the University of Michigan | Ann Arbor, MI | Support for schmidt ai in science postdocs | $1,833,857 |
| University of Cape Town | Rondebosch, SF | Support for scientific research on oxygen and biogeochemical dynamics along the west african margin: processes and consequences | $1,809,233 |
| University of Reading | Reading, UK | Support for land ecosystem models based on new theory, observations, and experiments (lemontree) | $1,788,435 |
| University of Washington | Seattle, WA | Support for scientific research on animals as living bioreactors: the role of animal gut microbiomes in shaping oceanic carbon cycling and… | $1,650,503 |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Cambridge, MA | Support for scientific research on a collaborative approach to converting industry waste into food and feed ingredients | $1,547,252 |
| Convergent Research Inc | Cambridge, MA | General operating support | $1,547,218 |
| Swaniti Initiative | Houston, TX | To provide support for carbon negative rice cultivation in india. | $1,540,000 |
| Digital Harbor Foundation Inc | Baltimore, MD | To provide support for retrofitting coal plants for biomass carbon removal. | $1,500,000 |
| Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors Inc | New York, NY | Support for crisis response program | $1,482,511 |
| University of Washington Foundation | Seattle, WA | Support for the university of washington scientific software center | $1,451,186 |
| Johns Hopkins University | Baltimore, MD | Support for schmidt software engineering center (ssec) at the johns hopkins university | $1,450,000 |
| University of Arizona Foundation | Tucson, AZ | Support for large fiber array spectroscopic telescope (lfast) development | $1,448,254 |
| Carnegie Mellon University | Pittsburgh, PA | Support for the lincc analysis framework: an open, scalable system for science with the lsst | $1,425,602 |
| Convergent Research Inc | Cambridge, MA | General operating support | $1,416,264 |
| Elicsir Foundation Ets | Bologna, IT | Support for italian computer science innovation and research | $1,375,895 |
| University of Rochester | Rochester, NY | Support for fetch4: fate, emissions, and transport of ch4 in past and modern atmospheres | $1,355,202 |
| The Regents of the University of California | Berkeley, CA | Support for building the circular bioeconomy with future feedstocks in the north san joaquin valley | $1,315,764 |
| Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine | London, UK | Support for schmidt ai in science postdocs | $1,301,000 |
| University of Washington Foundation | Seattle, WA | Support for the lincc analysis framework: an open, scalable system for science with the lsst | $1,291,650 |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Cambridge, MA | To provide support for bricks vs bonds: minimum technological building blocks. | $1,200,000 |
| The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System | Madison, WI | Advancing the development of nuclear materials for fusion and fission applications | $1,200,000 |
| UC Santa Barbara | Santa Barbara, CA | Support for integration of models and observations across scales (inmos) | $1,190,228 |
| Homeworld Collective Inc | Somerville, MA | Building the climate biotech community through common targets and fast grants. | $1,150,000 |
| University of Western Ontario | London, CA | To provide support for scientific focused research | $1,147,413 |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Cambridge, MA | Support for M3 pilot for MIT office of research computing and data | $1,099,998 |
| Municipality of Bologna | Bologna, IT | To provide support for historic preservation and restoration of the public monuments of the garisenda and asinelli towers in bologna | $1,086,538 |
| The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University | Redwood City, CA | Support for research on a data-informed framework for the representation of sub-grid scale gravity waves to improve climate prediction | $1,046,664 |
| University of New Mexico | Albuquerque, NM | To provide support for education related to health and humanitarian emergency response | $1,020,000 |
| Universit de Versailles Saint-Quentin-En-Yvelines | Versailles, FR | Support for scientific research on carbon loss in plants, soils and oceans | $1,014,696 |
| Nanyang Technological University | Singapore, SN | Support for schmidt ai in science postdocs | $1,003,414 |
Showing the 60 largest of 283 grants to organizations.
The return also lists 96 grants to individuals ($2,965,532). We do not publish the names of individual recipients.
Grants approved for future payment
| Recipient | Location | Purpose | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barack Obama Foundation | Chicago, IL | To support the obama presidential center | $10,000,000 |
| Convergent Research Inc | Cambridge, MA | To provide support for scientific focused research organization | $6,000,000 |
| University of New Mexico | Albuquerque, NM | To provide support for education related to health and humanitarian emergency response. | $2,700,000 |
| University of Reading | Reading, | To support land ecosystem models based on new theory, observations, and experiments (lemontree) | $2,245,565 |
| Hospital for Special Surgery | New York, NY | Creation of the orthopedic data innovation lab (odil) at the hospital for special surgery | $2,029,500 |
| Museum of Contemporary Art | Los Angeles, CA | To provide support to establish the eric and wendy schmidt environment and art prize. | $2,000,000 |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Cambridge, MA | M3 pilot for MIT office of research computing and data | $1,900,002 |
| Prime Coalition Inc | Cambridge, MA | Early climate infrastructure demand flexibility program | $1,800,000 |
| University of Chicago | Chicago, IL | Schmidt ai in science postdocs | $1,763,919 |
| University of Arizona Foundation | Tucson, AZ | Large fiber array spectroscopic telescope (lfast) development | $1,448,253 |
| Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine | London, | Schmidt ai in science postdocs | $1,350,000 |
| California Institute of Technology | Pasadena, CA | Caltech academy for software engineering 2.0 | $1,000,000 |
| Convergent Research Inc | Cambridge, MA | To provide support for scientific focused research organization | $1,000,000 |
| Scripps Research Institute | LA Jolla, CA | To provide support for a clinical trial. | $950,000 |
| California Institute of Technology | Pasadena, CA | Dsa-2000: revolutionizing access to the radio sky | $941,866 |
| Governing Council of the University of Toronto | Toronto, | Schmidt ai in science postdocs | $927,140 |
| Regents of the University of Michigan | Ann Arbor, MI | Schmidt ai in science postdocs | $611,286 |
| Johns Hopkins University | Baltimore, MD | Schmidt software engineering center (ssec) at the johns hopkins university | $587,500 |
| University of Ghana | Legon, | Ocean margins initiative | $555,093 |
| Nanyang Technological University | Singapore, | Schmidt ai in science postdocs | $542,656 |
| National University of Singapore | Singapore, | Schmidt ai in science postdocs | $542,656 |
| The Board of Trustees of the Leland | Redwood City, CA | 2023 ai2050 senior fellow | $506,931 |
| Purdue University | West Lafayette, IN | Support for 2022 schmidt science polymath awardee | $500,000 |
| Nova Southeastern University | Fort Lauderdale, FL | To provide support for a clinical trial. | $400,000 |
| University of Kentucky | Lexington, KY | University of kentucky: artificial intelligence and heritage science research project | $336,000 |
| Universite de Montreal | Montreal, | Gravitational lensing and machine learning in the next generation of sky surveys | $249,000 |
| Carnegie Mellon University | Pittsburgh, PA | 2023 early career fellow | $174,641 |
| Governing Council of the University | Toronto, | 2023 early career fellow | $168,792 |
| The Regents of the University of Ca | Berkeley, CA | 2023 early career fellow | $152,941 |
| Regents of the University of Califo | Los Angeles, CA | 2023 early career fellow | $149,705 |
| Trustees of the University of Penns | Philadelphia, PA | 2023 early career fellow | $149,600 |
| Georgia Tech Research Corporation | Atlanta, GA | 2023 early career fellow | $149,598 |
| The Board of Trustees of the Leland | Redwood City, CA | 2023 early career fellow | $147,922 |
| Center for Artificial Intelligence | San Francisco, CA | 2023 early career fellow | $147,500 |
| The George Washington University | Ashburn, VA | 2023 early career fellow | $145,903 |
| Imperial College of Science Technol | London, | 2023 early career fellow | $143,748 |
| University of Chicago | Chicago, IL | 2023 early career fellow | $131,868 |
| The Board of Trustees of the Univer | Champaign, IL | 2022 early career fellow | $130,283 |
| The Regents of the University of Ca | Berkeley, CA | 2023 early career fellow | $105,799 |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technolo | Cambridge, MA | 2023 early career fellow | $98,696 |
| The Regents of the University of Ca | Berkeley, CA | 2024 ai2050 early career fellow | $97,687 |
| Data Nutrition Project Inc | Jersey City, NJ | Llm nutrition labels & a dataset nutrition label comparison tool | $89,000 |
| Indian Institute of Science | Bangalore, | 2023 early career fellow | $76,725 |
| Marist College | Poughkeepsie, NY | 2022 ai2050 early career fellow award | $66,328 |
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants paid | Grant lines |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | $244,068,458 | 429 |
| 2023 | $195,250,221 | 312 |
Sources
- IRS Form 990-PF, tax year 2024, filed Nov 18, 2025 - IRS e-file batch, object ID 202543219349108364
- IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search for EIN 46-3460261
- Profile updated Nov 4, 2026
Facts on this page come from the foundation's own IRS Form 990-PF filings as published by the IRS. Grantvello does not know whether a foundation is accepting proposals right now: a past grant is not an open opportunity. Always confirm current guidelines with the funder before applying.