Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Shifts Focus to A.I. and Science

<img decoding="async" class="lazyload size-full-width wp-image-1598306" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" data-src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/GettyImages-2243532165.jpg?quality=80&w=970" alt="Woman in black dress and man in suit pose on red carpet " width="970" height="654" data-caption='The billionaire couple are moving away from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s founding goals. <span class=”lazyload media-credit”>Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images</span>’>

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), the philanthropic vehicle of Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, was launched ten years ago with the goal of improving education, supporting communities and curing diseases. A decade later, however, the organization’s priorities have shifted. What began as a broad social mission has narrowed to focus almost entirely on A.I. and science.

The foundation’s next chapter will see it go “all in on A.I.-powered biology,” said Zuckerberg and Chan in a joint letter yesterday (Nov. 6). Going forward, its philanthropic efforts will center on a network of research centers dubbed Biohub, which will use A.I. to help cure, prevent and manage diseases.

The move is a marked departure from the initial mission of CZI. When Zuckerberg and Chan founded the initiative in 2015, they pledged to donate the majority of their wealth—now estimated at $207 billion—to charitable causes. Over the years, CZI’s $7 billion in committed grants have supported efforts ranging from immigration reform to criminal justice advocacy.

A reorientation toward science and A.I. has been underway for months. In February, CZI scaled back its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and began prioritizing A.I. and science over social advocacy. In April, it shut down a school for low-income families in East Palo Alto that CZI had helped create. And the following month, it ended funding for several California housing organizations.

“We tried a bunch of things,” said Chan, a pediatrician who attended medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, speaking on the Latent Space podcast yesterday. “Over the past ten years, I would say we’ve been getting a sense of what that thing is that really allows us to have the impact,” she added, “and it’s really been around A.I. and biology.”

CZI’s strategic pivot mirrors the broader evolution of Meta, which has also recently cut DEI initiatives and refocused its long-term goals of achieving superintelligence, or A.I. systems that exceed human capability.

What’s next for CZI?

CZI’s Biohub network will now concentrate on four major scientific challenges. In addition to developing an A.I. model that can predict and understand how human cells behave, the initiative aims to create imaging systems that visualize biological processes, improve inflammation monitoring, and apply new technologies to better detect and treat diseases.

To support these efforts, CZI is ramping up both more computing power and talent. Its compute capacity will expand to 10,000 graphic processing units (GPUs) by 2028, according to Zuckerberg and Chan. The foundation is also acquiring the team from EvolutionaryScale, an A.I. research lab specializing in life sciences. Alex Rives, EvolutionaryScale’s chief scientist, will join CZI to oversee research programs spanning A.I., data and experimental biology.

CZI’s push into A.I.-driven science aligns with a broader movement among technologists to accelerate research through A.I. Earlier this year, A.I. pioneer Yoshua Bengio launched LawZero, a nonprofit developing a “Scientist A.I.” system designed to generate hypotheses and assist with research. Jeff Bezos and Eric Schmidt have invested in Periodic Labs, a startup building A.I. models that can replicate traditional scientific methods like experimentation and simulation.

Zuckerberg said CZI’s ambitious goal of curing all diseases will hinge on how quickly A.I. technology advances. Speaking on Latent Space, he described the rise of A.I. as a key force behind CZI’s redesign. “There’s a lot of work that we’re really proud of that we’ve been a part of, including work in education and supporting communities,” said Zuckerberg. “But when we reflect on it, we feel like the work that we’ve done in science really had the biggest impact and, in a lot of ways, is accelerating.”